{"id":"01KG8AKW8VBZKGKFYVZXQNJNPE","cid":"bafkreihs5snlqq6omxoit6yrsc53a5tv6rlynodvsfck57oa6xeuqsrevu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7256,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.539Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":7186,"text":"The first compliments over, the company were invited inland to a shady\r\nretreat.\r\n\r\nAs we pursued the path, walking between old Mohi the keeper of\r\nchronicles and Samoa the Upoluan, Babbalanja besought the former to\r\nenlighten a stranger concerning the history of this curious Peepi.\r\nWhereupon the chronicler gave us the following account; for all of\r\nwhich he alone is responsible.\r\n\r\nPeepi, it seems, had been proclaimed king before he was born; his sire\r\ndying some few weeks previous to that event; and vacating his divan,\r\ndeclared that he left a monarch behind.\r\n\r\nMarvels were told of Peepi. Along with the royal dignity, and\r\nsuperadded to the soul possessed in his own proper person, the infant\r\nmonarch was supposed to have inherited the valiant spirits of some\r\ntwenty heroes, sages, simpletons, and demi-gods, previously lodged in\r\nhis sire.\r\n\r\nMost opulent in spiritual gifts was this lord of Valapee; the legatee,\r\nmoreover, of numerous anonymous souls, bequeathed to him by their late\r\nloyal proprietors. By a slavish act of his convocation of chiefs, he\r\nalso possessed the reversion of all and singular the immortal spirits,\r\nwhose first grantees might die intestate in Valapee. Servile, yet\r\naudacious senators! thus prospectively to administrate away the\r\ninalienable rights of posterity. But while yet unborn, the people of\r\nValapee had been deprived of more than they now sought to wrest from\r\ntheir descendants. And former Peepies, infant and adult, had received\r\nhomage more profound, than Peepi the Present. Witness the demeanor of\r\nthe chieftains of old, upon every new investiture of the royal serpent.\r\nIn a fever of loyalty, they were wont to present themselves before the\r\nheir to the isle, to go through with the court ceremony of the Pupera;\r\na curious proceeding, so called: inverted endeavors to assume an erect\r\nposture: the nasal organ the base.\r\n\r\nIt was to the frequent practice of this ceremony, that most intelligent\r\nobservers imputed the flattened noses of the elderly chiefs of the\r\nisland; who, nevertheless, much gloried therein.\r\n\r\nIt was these chiefs, also, who still observed the old-fashioned custom\r\nof retiring from the presence of royalty with their heads between their\r\nthighs; so that while advancing in the contrary direction, their faces\r\nmight be still deferentially turned toward their lord and master. A\r\nfine view of him did they obtain. All objects look well through an\r\narch.\r\n\r\nBut to return to Peepi, the inheritor of souls and subjects. It was an\r\narticle of faith with the people of Valapee, that Peepi not only\r\nactually possessed the souls bequeathed to him; but that his own was\r\nenriched by their peculiar qualities: The headlong valor of the late\r\nTongatona; the pusillanimous discretion of Blandoo; the cunning of\r\nVoyo; the simplicity of Raymonda; the prodigality of Zonoree; the\r\nthrift of Titonti.\r\n\r\nBut had all these, and similar opposite qualities, simultaneously acted\r\nas motives upon Peepi, certes, he would have been a most pitiable\r\nmortal, in a ceaseless eddy of resolves, incapable of a solitary act.\r\n\r\nBut blessed be the gods, it was otherwise. Though it fared little\r\nbetter for his subjects as it was. His assorted souls were uppermost\r\nand active in him, one by one. Today, valiant Tongatona ruled the isle,\r\nmeditating wars and invasions; tomorrow, thrice discreet Blandoo, who,\r\ndisbanding the levies, turned his attention to the terraces of yams.\r\nAnd so on in rotation to the end.\r\n\r\nWhence, though capable of action, Peepi, by reason of these revolving\r\nsouls in him, was one of the most unreliable of beings. What the\r\nopen-handed Zonoree promised freely to-day, the parsimonious Titonti\r\nwithheld to-morrow; and forever Raymonda was annulling the doings of\r\nVoyo; and Voyo the doings of Raymonda.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJTRHA8V1GX4JW08V2MXR","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKW9TF2FS62VN73322AEW","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.715Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:31.276Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}