{"id":"01KG8AKW8YGSJQ4PKNVFH4QPHH","cid":"bafkreibtkjhpi5sqzagxjthecjhhdzgqvrhalc42tamxavklqxipo3uteu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7134,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.539Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":7065,"text":"CHAPTER LXVI.\r\nWith A Fair Wind, At Sunrise They Sail\r\n\r\n\r\nTrue each to his word, up came the sun, and round to my isle came\r\nMedia.\r\n\r\nHow glorious a morning! The new-born clouds all dappled with gold, and\r\nstreaked with violet; the sun in high spirits; and the pleasant air\r\ncooled overnight by the blending circumambient fountains, forever\r\nplaying all round the reef; the lagoon within, the coral-rimmed basin,\r\ninto which they poured, subsiding, hereabouts, into green tranquillity.\r\n\r\nBut what monsters of canoes! Would they devour an innocent voyager?\r\ntheir great black prows curling aloft, and thrown back like trunks of\r\nelephants; a dark, snaky length behind, like the sea-serpent’s train.\r\n\r\nThe prow of the foremost terminated in a large, open, shark’s mouth,\r\ngarnished with ten rows of pearly human teeth, curiously inserted into\r\nthe sculptured wood. The gunwale was ornamented with rows of rich\r\nspotted Leopard and Tiger-shells; here and there, varied by others,\r\nflat and round, and spirally traced; gay serpents petrified in coils.\r\nThese were imbedded in a grooved margin, by means of a resinous\r\ncompound, exhaling such spices, that the canoes were odoriferous as the\r\nIndian chests of the Maldives.\r\n\r\nThe likeness of the foremost canoe to an elephant, was helped by a sort\r\nof canopied Howdah in its stern, of heavy, russet-dyed tappa, tasselled\r\nat the corners with long bunches of cocoanut fibres, stained red. These\r\nswayed to and fro, like the fox-tails on a Tuscarora robe.\r\n\r\nBut what is this, in the head of the canoe, just under the shark’s\r\nmouth? A grinning little imp of an image; a ring in its nose; cowrie\r\nshells jingling at its ears; with an abominable leer, like that of\r\nSilenus reeling on his ass. It was taking its ease; cosily smoking a\r\npipe; its bowl, a duodecimo edition of the face of the smoker. This\r\nimage looked sternward; everlastingly mocking us.\r\n\r\nOf these canoes, it may be well to state, that although during our stay\r\nin Odo, so many barges and shallops had touched there, nothing similar\r\nto Media’s had been seen. But inquiring whence his sea- equipage came,\r\nwe were thereupon taught to reverence the same as antiquities and\r\nheir-looms; claw-keeled, dragon-prowed crafts of a bygone generation;\r\nat present, superseded in general use by the more swan-like canoes,\r\nsignificant of the advanced stage of marine architecture in Mardi. No\r\nsooner was this known, than what had seemed almost hideous in my eyes,\r\nbecame merely grotesque. Nor could I help being greatly delighted with\r\nthe good old family pride of our host.\r\n\r\nThe upper corners of our sails displayed the family crest of Media;\r\nthree upright boars’ tusks, in an heraldic field argent. A fierce\r\ndevice: Whom rends he?\r\n\r\nAll things in readiness, we glided away: the multitude waving adieu;\r\nand our flotilla disposed in the following order.\r\n\r\nFirst went the royal Elephant, carrying Media, myself, Jarl, and Samoa;\r\nMohi the Teller of Legends, Babbalanja, and Yoomy, and six vivacious\r\npaddlers; their broad paddle-blades carved with the royal boars’ tusks,\r\nthe same tattooed on their chests for a livery.\r\n\r\nAnd thus, as Media had promised, we voyaged in state. To crown all,\r\nseated sideways in the high, open shark’s-mouth of our prow was a\r\nlittle dwarf of a boy, one of Media’s pages, a red conch-shell,\r\nbugle-wise suspended at his side. Among various other offices, it was\r\nthe duty of little Vee-Vee to announce the advent of his master, upon\r\ndrawing near to the islands in our route. Two short bars, projecting\r\nfrom one side of the prow, furnished him the means of ascent to his\r\nperch.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJTRHM53HNVK4DFB58KWN","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKW9TQRN5WB7NPJD0SK3F","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.718Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:31.423Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}