Chapter 17 - Page 2

mouthpiece, in token that his lord was
fairly under weigh.

But Babbalanja's was of a different sort; an immense, black,
serpentine stem of ebony, coiling this way and that, in endless
convolutions, like an anaconda round a traveler in Brazil. Smoking
this hydra, Babbalanja looked as if playing upon the trombone.

Next, gentle Yoomy's. Its stem, a slender golden reed, like musical
Pan's; its bowl very merry with tassels.

Lastly, old Mohi the chronicler's. Its Death's-head bowl forming its
latter end, continually reminding him of his own. Its shank was an
ostrich's leg, some feathers still waving nigh the mouth-piece.

"Here, Vee-Vee! fill me up again," cried Media, through the blue
vapors sweeping round his great gonfalon, like plumed Marshal Ney,
waving his baton in the smoke of Waterloo; or thrice gallant Anglesea,
crossing his wooden eg mid the reek and rack of the Apsley House
banquet.

Vee-Vee obeyed; and quickly, like a howitzer, the pipe-owl was
reloaded to the muzzle, and King Media smoked on.

"Ah! this is pleasant indeed," he cried. "Look, it's a calm on the
waters, and a calm in our hearts, as we inhale these sedative odors."

"So calm," said Babbalanja; "the very gods must be smoking now."

"And thus," said Media, "we demi-gods hereafter shall cross-legged
sit, and smoke out our eternities. Ah, what a glorious puff! Mortals,
methinks these pipe-bowls of ours must be petrifactions of roses, so
scented they seem. But, old Mohi, you have smoked this many a long
year; doubtless, you know something about their material--the Froth-
of-the-Sea they call it, I think--ere my handicraft subjects obtain
it, to work into bowls. Tell us the tale."

"Delighted to do so, my lord," replied Mohi, slowly disentangling his
mouth-piece from the braids of his beard. "I have devoted much time
and attention to the study of pipe-bowls, and groped among many
learned authorities, to reconcile the clashing opinions concerning the
origin of the so-called Farnoo, or Froth-of-the-Sea."

"Well, then, my old centenarian, give us the result of your
investigations. But smoke away: a word and a puff go on."

"May it please you, then, my right worshipful lord, this Farnoo is an
unctuous, argillaceous substance; in its natural state, soft,
malleable, and easily worked as the cornelian-red clay from the famous
pipe-quarries of the wild tribes to the North. But though mostly found
buried in terra-firma, especially in the isles toward the East, this
Farnoo, my lord, is sometimes thrown up by the ocean; in seasons of
high sea, being plentifully found on the reefs. But, my lord, like