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But to my horror, there suddenly dashed through the crowd, the three specter sons of Aleema, escaped from their prison. With clenched hands, they stood in the water, and cursed me anew. And with that curse in our sails, we swept off.
CHAPTER CIII
As They Sail
As the canoes now glided across the lagoon, I gave myself up to reverie; and revolving over all that the men of Amma had rehearsed of the history of Yillah, I one by one unriddled the mysteries, before so baffling. Now, all was made plain: no secret remaining, but the subsequent event of her disappearance. Yes, Hautia! enlightened I had been but where was Yillah?
Then I recalled that last interview with Hautia's messengers, so full of enigmas; and wondered, whether Yoomy had interpreted aright.
Unseen, and unsolicited; still pursuing me with omens, with taunts, and with wooings, mysterious Hautia appalled me. Vaguely I began to fear her. And the thought, that perhaps again and again, her heralds would haunt me, filled me with a nameless dread, which I almost shrank from acknowledging. Inwardly I prayed, that never more they might appear.
While full of these thoughts, Media interrupted them by saying, that the minstrel was about to begin one of his chants, a thing of his own composing; and therefore, as he himself said, all critics must be lenient; for Yoomy, at times, not always, was a timid youth, distrustful of his own sweet genius for poesy.
The words were about a curious hereafter, believed in by some people in Mardi: a sort of nocturnal Paradise, where the sun and its heat are excluded: one long, lunar day, with twinkling stars to keep company.
"Yoomy," said old Mohi with a yawn, "you composed that song, then, did you?"
"I did," said Yoomy, placing his turban a little to one side.
"Then, minstrel, you shall sing me to sleep every night, especially with that song of Marlena; it is soporific as the airs of Nora-Bamma."
"Mean you, old man, that my lines, setting forth the luxurious repose to be enjoyed hereafter, are composed with such skill, that the description begets the reality; or would you ironically suggest, that the song is a sleepy thing itself?"
"An important discrimination," said Media; "which mean you, Mohi?"
"Now, are you not a silly boy," said Babbalanja, "when from the ambiguity of his speech, you could so easily have derived something flattering, thus to seek to extract unpleasantness from it?
Be wise, Yoomy; and hereafter, whenever a remark like that seems equivocal, be sure to wrest commendation from it, though you torture it to the quick."
"And most sure am I, that I would ever do so; but often I so incline to a distrust of my powers, that I am far more keenly alive to censure, than to praise; and always deem it the more sincere of the two; and no praise so much elates me, as censure depresses."
CHAPTER CIV
Wherein Babbalanja Broaches A Diabolical Theory, And, In His Own Person, Proves It
"A truce!" cried Media, "here comes a gallant before the wind.-Look, Taji!"
Turning, we descried a sharp-prowed canoe, dashing on, under the pressure of an immense triangular sail, whose outer edges were streaming with long, crimson pe
"Out of his way there, ye laggards," cried Media, "or that mad prince, Tribo
"And who is Tribo
"A harum-scarum young chief," replied Media, "heir to three islands; he likes nothing better than the sport you now see see him at."
"He must be possessed by a devil," said Mohi.
Said Babbalanja, "Then he is only like all of us." "What say you?" cried Media.
"I say, as old Bardia
"As I live, my lord, he has swamped three canoes," cried Mohi, pointing off the beam.
But just then a fiery fin-back whale, having broken into the paddock of the lagoon, threw up a high fountain of foam, almost under Tribo
Comments over; "Babbalanja, you were going to quote," said Media.
"Proceed."
"Thank you, my lord. Says old Bardia
"Faith!" cried Media, "though sometimes a bore, your old Bardia
"I have long been of that mind, my lord. But let me go on. Says Bardia
"And in the devil's name, what sort of a devil is yours?" cried Mohi.
"Of him anon; interrupt me not, old man. Thus, then, my lord, as devils are divers, divers are the devils in men. Whence, the wide difference we see. But after all, the main difference is this:-that one man's devil is only more of a devil than another's; and be bedeviled as much as you will; yet, may you perform the most bedeviled of actions with impunity, so long as you only bedevil yourself. For it is only when your deviltry injures another, that the other devils conspire to confine yours for a mad one. That is to say, if you be easily handled. For there are many bedeviled Bedlamites in Mardi, doing an infinity of mischief, who are too brawny in the arms to be tied."
"A very devilish doctrine that," cried Mohi. "I don't believe it."
"My lord," said Babbalanja, "here's collateral proof;-the sage lawgiver Yamjamma, who flourished long before Bardia
"If the sage Yamjamma said that," said old Mohi, "the sage Yamjamma might have bettered the saying; it's not quite so plain as it might be."