{"id":"01KG8AKY4V1SSEQ94RRY7JYBWM","cid":"bafkreicb34o6scvpdnuc2hod3e2uwbrnjkdxnotamhickblqi53cwvi5aa","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":9025,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.539Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":8946,"text":"CHAPTER LXXXIV.\r\nTaji Sits Down To Dinner With Five-And-Twenty Kings, And A Royal Time\r\nThey Have\r\n\r\n\r\nIt was afternoon when we emerged from the defile. And informed that our\r\nhost was receiving his guests in the House of the Afternoon, thither we\r\ndirected our steps.\r\n\r\nSoft in our face, blew the blessed breezes of Omi, stirring the leaves\r\noverhead; while, here and there, through the trees, showed the\r\nidol-bearers of the royal retreat, hand in hand, linked with festoons\r\nof flowers. Still beyond, on a level, sparkled the nodding crowns of\r\nthe kings, like the constellation Corona-Borealis, the horizon just\r\ngained.\r\n\r\nClose by his noon-tide friend, the cascade at the mouth of the grotto,\r\nreposed on his crimson mat, Donjalolo:—arrayed in a vestment of the\r\nfinest white tappa of Mardi, figured all over with bright yellow\r\nlizards, so curiously stained in the gauze, that he seemed overrun, as\r\nwith golden mice.\r\n\r\nMarjora’s girdle girdled his loins, tasseled with the congregated teeth\r\nof his sires. A jeweled turban-tiara, milk-white, surmounted his brow,\r\nover which waved a copse of Pintado plumes.\r\n\r\nBut what sways in his hand? A scepter, similar to those likenesses of\r\nscepters, imbedded among the corals at his feet. A polished thigh-\r\nbone; by Braid-Beard declared once Teei’s the Murdered. For to\r\nemphasize his intention utterly to rule, Marjora himself had selected\r\nthis emblem of dominion over mankind.\r\n\r\nBut even this last despite done to dead Teei had once been transcended.\r\nIn the usurper’s time, prevailed the belief, that the saliva of kings\r\nmust never touch ground; and Mohi’s Chronicles made mention, that\r\nduring the life time of Marjora, Teei’s skull had been devoted to the\r\nbasest of purposes: Marjora’s, the hate no turf could bury.\r\n\r\nYet, traditions like these ever seem dubious. There be many who deny\r\nthe hump, moral and physical, of Gloster Richard.\r\n\r\nStill advancing unperceived, in social hilarity we descried their\r\nHighnesses, chatting together like the most plebeian of mortals; full\r\nas merry as the monks of old. But marking our approach, all changed. A\r\npair of potentates, who had been playfully trifling, hurriedly adjusted\r\ntheir diadems, threw themselves into attitudes, looking stately as\r\nstatues. Phidias turned not out his Jupiter so soon.\r\n\r\nIn various-dyed robes the five-and-twenty kings were arrayed; and\r\nvarious their features, as the rows of lips, eyes and ears in John\r\nCaspar Lavater’s physiognomical charts. Nevertheless, to a king, all\r\ntheir noses were aquiline.\r\n\r\nThere were long fox-tail beards of silver gray, and enameled chins,\r\nlike those of girls; bald pates and Merovingian locks; smooth brows and\r\nwrinkles: forms erect and stooping; an eye that squinted; one king was\r\ndeaf; by his side, another that was halt; and not far off, a dotard.\r\nThey were old and young, tall and short, handsome and ugly, fat and\r\nlean, cunning and simple.\r\n\r\nWith animated courtesy our host received us; assigning a neighboring\r\nbower for Babbalanja and the rest; and among so many right-royal,\r\ndemi-divine guests, how could the demi-gods Media and Taji be otherwise\r\nthan at home?\r\n\r\nThe unwonted sprightliness of Donjalolo surprised us. But he was in one\r\nof those relapses of desperate gayety in-variably following his\r\nfailures in efforts to amend his life. And the bootless issue of his\r\nlate mission to outer Mardi had thrown him into a mood for revelry. Nor\r\nhad he lately shunned a wild wine, called Morando.\r\n\r\nA slave now appearing with a bowl of this beverage, it circulated\r\nfreely.\r\n\r\nNot to gainsay the truth, we fancied the Morando much. A nutty, pungent\r\nflavor it had; like some kinds of arrack distilled in the Philippine\r\nisles. And a marvelous effect did it have, in dissolving the\r\ncrystalization of the brain; leaving nothing but precious little drops\r\nof good humor, beading round the bowl of the cranium.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJW7Y6WFAG3FMN40GAWWT","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKY4VZXAJESDM5JMZ59CY","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:20.635Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:32.640Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}