{"id":"01KG8AKXG41WP7ANSG5RZWQ805","cid":"bafkreihhmdyhrcc2mt6exx5uegezlz6algxvb7irdjxgcgf2ee42xdcz6m","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8566,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.539Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":8488,"text":"CHAPTER LXXIX.\r\nThe Center Of Many Circumferences\r\n\r\n\r\nLike Donjalolo himself, we hie to and fro; for back now must we pace to\r\nthe House of the Morning.\r\n\r\nIn its rear, there diverged three separate arbors, leading to less\r\npublic apartments.\r\n\r\nTraversing the central arbor, and fancying it will soon lead you to\r\nopen ground, you suddenly come upon the most private retreat of the\r\nprince: a square structure; plain as a pyramid; and without, as\r\ninscrutable. Down to the very ground, its walls are thatched; but on\r\nthe farther side a passage-way opens, which you enter. But not yet are\r\nyou within. Scarce a yard distant, stands an inner thatched wall, blank\r\nas the first. Passing along the intervening corridor, lighted by narrow\r\napertures, you reach the opposite side, and a second opening is\r\nrevealed. This entering, another corridor; lighted as the first, but\r\nmore dim, and a third blank wall. And thus, three times three, you worm\r\nround and round, the twilight lessening as you proceed; until at last,\r\nyou enter the citadel itself: the innermost arbor of a nest; whereof,\r\neach has its roof, distinct from the rest.\r\n\r\nThe heart of the place is but small; illuminated by a range of open\r\nsky-lights, downward contracting.\r\n\r\nInnumerable as the leaves of an endless folio, multitudinous mats cover\r\nthe floor; whereon reclining by night, like Pharaoh on the top of his\r\npatrimonial pile, the inmate looks heavenward, and heavenward only;\r\ngazing at the torchlight processions in the skies, when, in state, the\r\nsuns march to be crowned.\r\n\r\nAnd here, in this impenetrable retreat, centrally slumbered the\r\nuniverse-rounded, zodiac-belted, horizon-zoned, sea-girt, reef- sashed,\r\nmountain-locked, arbor-nested, royalty-girdled, arm-clasped,\r\nself-hugged, indivisible Donjalolo, absolute monarch of Juam:—the\r\nhusk-inhusked meat in a nut; the innermost spark in a ruby; the\r\njuice-nested seed in a goldenrinded orange; the red royal stone in an\r\neffeminate peach; the insphered sphere of spheres.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER LXXX.\r\nDonjalolo In The Bosom Of His Family\r\n\r\n\r\nTo pretend to relate the manner in which Juam’s ruler passed his\r\ncaptive days, without making suitable mention of his harem, would be to\r\npaint one’s full-length likeness and omit the face. For it was his\r\nharem that did much to stamp the character of Donjalolo.\r\n\r\nAnd had he possessed but a single spouse, most discourteous, surely, to\r\nhave overlooked the princess; much more, then, as it is; and by\r\nhow-much the more, a plurality exceeds a unit.\r\n\r\nExclusive of the female attendants, by day waiting upon the person of\r\nthe king, he had wives thirty in number, corresponding in name to the\r\nnights of the moon. For, in Juam, time is not reckoned by days, but by\r\nnights; each night of the lunar month having its own designation;\r\nwhich, relatively only, is extended to the day.\r\n\r\nIn uniform succession, the thirty wives ruled queen of the king’s\r\nheart. An arrangement most wise and judicious; precluding much of that\r\njealousy and confusion prevalent in ill-regulated seraglios. For as\r\nthirty spouses must be either more desirable, or less desirable than\r\none; so is a harem thirty times more difficult to manage than an\r\nestablishment with one solitary mistress. But Donjalolo’s wives were so\r\nnicely drilled, that for the most part, things went on very smoothly.\r\nNor were his brows much furrowed with wrinkles referable to domestic\r\ncares and tribulations. Although, as in due time will be seen, from\r\nthese he was not altogether exempt.\r\n\r\nNow, according to Braid-Beard, who, among other abstruse political\r\nresearches, had accurately informed himself concerning the internal\r\nadministration of Donjalolo’s harem, the following was the method\r\npursued therein.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJW7YM6JJB16A28S97ZE6","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKXG4C95CCGF9Z24S39Q4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.972Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:32.188Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}