{"id":"01KG8AM1QY0R4JVE2P5B7SBY1Z","cid":"bafkreifmeejr4ptq3zonmoqlhpjwqwbb6qq3rfdywhmgnqaunpa6ygfu6q","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6252,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.535Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":6181,"text":"CHAPTER LVII.\r\nTaji Takes Counsel With Himself\r\n\r\n\r\nMy brief intercourse with our host, had by this time enabled me to form\r\na pretty good notion of the light, in which I was held by him and his\r\nmore intelligent subjects.\r\n\r\nHis free and easy carriage evinced, that though acknowledging my\r\nassumptions, he was no way overawed by them; treating me as familiarly,\r\nindeed, as if I were a mere mortal, one of the abject generation of\r\nmushrooms.\r\n\r\nThe scene in the temple, however, had done much toward explaining this\r\ndemeanor of his. A demi-god in his own proper person, my claims to a\r\nsimilar dignity neither struck him with wonder, nor lessened his good\r\nopinion of himself.\r\n\r\nAs for any thing foreign in my aspect, and my ignorance of Mardian\r\ncustoms—-all this, instead of begetting a doubt unfavorable to my\r\npretensions, but strengthened the conviction of them as verities. Thus\r\nhas it been in similar instances; but to a much greater extent. The\r\ncelebrated navigator referred to in a preceding chapter, was hailed by\r\nthe Hawaiians as one of their demi-gods, returned to earth, after a\r\nwide tour of the universe. And they worshiped him as such, though\r\nincessantly he was interrogating them, as to who under the sun his\r\nworshipers were; how their ancestors came on the island; and whether\r\nthey would have the kindness to provide his followers with plenty of\r\npork during his stay.\r\n\r\nBut a word or two concerning the idols in the shrine at Odo. Superadded\r\nto the homage rendered him as a temporal prince, Media was there\r\nworshiped as a spiritual being. In his corporeal absence, his effigy\r\nreceiving all oblations intended for him. And in the days of his\r\nboyhood, listening to the old legends of the Mardian mythology, Media\r\nhad conceived a strong liking for the fabulous Taji; a deity whom he\r\nhad often declared was worthy a niche in any temple extant. Hence he\r\nhad honored my image with a place in his own special shrine; placing it\r\nside by side with his worshipful likeness.\r\n\r\nI appreciated the compliment. But of the close companionship of the\r\nother image there, I was heartily ashamed. And with reason. The\r\nnuisance in question being the image of a deified maker of plantain-\r\npudding, lately deceased; who had been famed far and wide as the most\r\nnotable fellow of his profession in the whole Archipelago. During his\r\nsublunary career, having been attached to the household of Media, his\r\ngrateful master had afterward seen fit to crown his celebrity by this\r\nposthumous distinction: a circumstance sadly subtracting from the\r\ndignity of an apotheosis. Nor must it here be omitted, that in this\r\npart of Mardi culinary artists are accounted worthy of high\r\nconsideration. For among these people of Odo, the matter of eating and\r\ndrinking is held a matter of life and of death. “Drag away my queen\r\nfrom my arms,” said old Tyty when overcome of Adommo, “but leave me my\r\ncook.”\r\n\r\nNow, among the Mardians there were plenty of incarnated deities to keep\r\nme in countenance. Most of the kings of the Archipelago, besides Media,\r\nclaiming homage as demi-gods; and that, too, by virtue of hereditary\r\ndescent, the divine spark being transmissable from father to son. In\r\nillustration of this, was the fact, that in several instances the\r\npeople of the land addressed the supreme god Oro, in the very same\r\nterms employed in the political adoration of their sublunary rulers.\r\n\r\nAy: there were deities in Mardi far greater and taller than I: right\r\nroyal monarchs to boot, living in jolly round tabernacles of jolly\r\nbrown clay; and feasting, and roystering, and lording it in yellow\r\ntabernacles of bamboo. These demi-gods had wherewithal to sustain their\r\nlofty pretensions. If need were, could crush out of him the infidelity\r\nof a non-conformist. And by this immaculate union of church and state,\r\ngod and king, in their own proper persons reigned supreme Caesars over\r\nthe souls and bodies of their subjects.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJT0EAFYRPBGF78JHK0AH","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM1QXKVC9BNZ2S6GV7SYD","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:24.318Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:30.629Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}