“Little or nothing more, my masters, is extant of the legend; only it must be mentioned, that these little people were very tasteful in their personal adornings; the manikins wearing girdles of fragrant leaves, and necklaces of aromatic seeds; and the little damsels, not content with their vines, and their verdure, sporting pearls in their ears; bracelets of wee little porpoise teeth; and oftentimes dancing with their mates in the moonlit glades, coquettishly fanned themselves with the transparent wings of the flying fish.”

“Now, I appeal to you, royal Media; to you, noble Taji; to you, Babbalanja;” said the chronicler, with an impressive gesture, “whether this seems a credible history:  Yoomy has invented.”

“But perhaps he has entertained, old Mohi,” said Babbalanja.

“He has not spoken the truth,” persisted the chronicler.

“Mohi,” said Babbalanja, “truth is in things, and not in words:  truth is voiceless; so at least saith old Bardianna.  And I, Babbalanja, assert, that what are vulgarly called fictions are as much realities as the gross mattock of Dididi, the digger of trenches; for things visible are but conceits of the eye:  things imaginative, conceits of the fancy.  If duped by one, we are equally duped by the other.”

“Clear as this water,” said Yoomy.

“Opaque as this paddle,” said Mohi, “But, come now, thou oracle, if all things are deceptive, tell us what is truth?”

“The old interrogatory; did they not ask it when the world began?  But ask it no more.  As old Bardianna hath it, that question is more final than any answer.”

CHAPTER XCIV
Of That Jolly Old Lord, Borabolla; And That Jolly Island Of His,
Mondoldo; And Of The Fish-Ponds, And The Hereafters Of Fish

Drawing near Mondoldo, our next place of destination, we were greeted by six fine canoes, gayly tricked out with streamers, and all alive with the gestures of their occupants.  King Borabolla and court were hastening to welcome our approach; Media, unbeknown to all, having notified him at the Banquet of the Five-and-Twenty Kings, of our intention to visit his dominions.

Soon, side by side, these canoes floated with ours; each barge of Odo courteously flanked by those of Mondoldo.

Not long were we in identifying Borabolla:  the portly, pleasant old monarch, seated cross-legged upon a dais, projecting over the bow of the largest canoe of the six, close-grappling to the side of the Sea Elephant.

Was he not a goodly round sight to behold?  Round all over; round of eye and of head; and like the jolly round Earth, roundest and biggest about the Equator.  A girdle of red was his Equinoctial Line, giving a compactness to his plumpness.

This old Borabolla permitted naught to come between his head and the sun; not even gray hairs.  Bald as a gourd, right down on his brazen skull, the rays of the luminary converged.

He was all hilarity; full of allusions to the feast at Willamilla, where he had done royal execution.  Rare old Borabolla! thou wert made for dining out; thy ample mouth an inlet for good cheer, and a sally-port for good humor.