The scene in the temple, however, had done much toward explaining this demeanor of his.  A demi-god in his own proper person, my claims to a similar dignity neither struck him with wonder, nor lessened his good opinion of himself.

As for any thing foreign in my aspect, and my ignorance of Mardian customs—–­all this, instead of begetting a doubt unfavorable to my pretensions, but strengthened the conviction of them as verities.  Thus has it been in similar instances; but to a much greater extent.  The celebrated navigator referred to in a preceding chapter, was hailed by the Hawaiians as one of their demi-gods, returned to earth, after a wide tour of the universe.  And they worshiped him as such, though incessantly he was interrogating them, as to who under the sun his worshipers were; how their ancestors came on the island; and whether they would have the kindness to provide his followers with plenty of pork during his stay.

But a word or two concerning the idols in the shrine at Odo.  Superadded to the homage rendered him as a temporal prince, Media was there worshiped as a spiritual being.  In his corporeal absence, his effigy receiving all oblations intended for him.  And in the days of his boyhood, listening to the old legends of the Mardian mythology, Media had conceived a strong liking for the fabulous Taji; a deity whom he had often declared was worthy a niche in any temple extant.  Hence he had honored my image with a place in his own special shrine; placing it side by side with his worshipful likeness.

I appreciated the compliment.  But of the close companionship of the other image there, I was heartily ashamed.  And with reason.  The nuisance in question being the image of a deified maker of plantain-pudding, lately deceased; who had been famed far and wide as the most notable fellow of his profession in the whole Archipelago.  During his sublunary career, having been attached to the household of Media, his grateful master had afterward seen fit to crown his celebrity by this posthumous distinction:  a circumstance sadly subtracting from the dignity of an apotheosis.  Nor must it here be omitted, that in this part of Mardi culinary artists are accounted worthy of high consideration.  For among these people of Odo, the matter of eating and drinking is held a matter of life and of death.  “Drag away my queen from my arms,” said old Tyty when overcome of Adommo, “but leave me my cook.”

Now, among the Mardians there were plenty of incarnated deities to keep me in countenance.  Most of the kings of the Archipelago, besides Media, claiming homage as demi-gods; and that, too, by virtue of hereditary descent, the divine spark being transmissable from father to son.  In illustration of this, was the fact, that in several instances the people of the land addressed the supreme god Oro, in the very same terms employed in the political adoration of their sublunary rulers.