Gracing us, two buried in the ground, but from Taji’s arm, the third drew blood.

On all sides round we turned; but none were seen.  “Still the avengers follow,” said Babbalanja.

“Lo! the damsels three!” cried Yoomy.  “Look where they come!”

We joined them by the sumach-wood’s red skirts; and there, they waved their cherry stalks, and heavy bloated cactus leaves, their crimson blossoms armed with nettles; and before us flung shining, yellow, tiger-flowers spotted red.

“Blood!” cried Yoomy, starting, “and leopards on your track!”

And now the syrens blew through long reeds, tasseled with their panicles, and waving verdant scarfs of vines, came dancing toward us, proffering clustering grapes.

“For all now yours, Taji; and all that yet may come,” cried Yoomy, “fly to me!  I will dance away your gloom, and drown it in inebriation.”

“Away! woe is its own wine.  What may be mine, that will I endure, in its own essence to the quick.  Let me feel the poniard if it stabs.”

They vanished in the wood; and hurrying on, we soon gained sun-light, and the open glade.

CHAPTER XXXVIII They Embark From Diranda

Arrived at the Sign of the Skulls, we found the illustrious lord seigniors at rest from their flight, and once more, quaffing their claret, all thoughts of the specter departed.  Instead of rattling their own ivory iii the heads on their shoulders, they were rattling their dice in the skulls in their hands.  And still “Heads,” was the cry, and “Heads,” was the throw.

That evening they made known to my lord Media that an interval of two days must elapse ere the games were renewed, in order to reward the victors, bury their dead, and provide for the execution of an Islander, who under the pro-vocation of a blow, had killed a stranger.

As this suspension of the festivities had been wholly unforeseen, our hosts were induced to withdraw the embargo laid upon our canoes.  Nevertheless, they pressed us to remain; saying, that what was to come would far exceed in interest, what had already taken place.  The games in prospect being of a naval description, embracing certain hand-to-hand contests in the water between shoals of web-footed warriors.

However, we decided to embark on the morrow.

It was in the cool of the early morning, at that hour when a man’s face can be known, that we set sail from Diranda; and in the ghostly twilight, our thoughts reverted to the phantom that so suddenly had cleared the plain.  With interest we hearkened to the recitals of Mohi; who discoursing of the sad end of many brave chieftains in Mardi, made allusion to the youthful Adondo, one of the most famous of the chiefs of the chronicles.  In a canoe-fight, after performing prodigies of valor; he was wounded in the head, and sunk to the bottom of the lagoon.

“There is a noble monody upon the death of Adondo,” said Yoomy.  “Shall I sing it, my lord?  It. is very beautiful; nor could I ever repeat it without a tear.”