Chapter 40

Of The Sorcerers In The Isle Of Minda

"Tiffin! tiffin!" cried Media; "time for tiffin! Up, comrades! and
while the mat is being spread, walk we to the bow, and inhale the
breeze for an appetite. Hark ye, Vee-Vee! forget not that calabash
with the sea-blue seal, and a round ring for a brand. Rare old stuff,
that, Mohi; older than you: the circumnavigator, I call it. My sire
had a canoe launched for the express purpose of carrying it thrice
round Mardi for a flavor. It was many moons on the voyage; the
mariners never sailed faster than three knots. Ten would spoil the
best wine ever floated."

Tiffin over, and the blue-sealed calabash all but hid in the great
cloud raised by our pipes, Media proposed to board it in the smoke.
So, goblet in hand, we all gallantly charged, and came off victorious
from the fray.

Then seated again, and serenely puffing in a circle, the
circumnavigator meanwhile pleasantly going the rounds, Media called
upon Mohi for something entertaining.

Now, of all the old gossips in Mardi, surely our delightful old
Diodorus was furnished with the greatest possible variety of
histories, chronicles, anecdotes, memoirs, legends, traditions, and
biographies. There was no end to the library he carried. In himself,
he was the whole history of Mardi, amplified, not abridged, in one
volume.

In obedience, then, to King Media's command, Mohi regaled the company
with a narrative, in substance as follows:--

In a certain quarter of the Archipelago was an island called Minda;
and in Minda were many sorcerers, employed in the social differences
and animosities of the people of that unfortunate land. If a Mindarian
deemed himself aggrieved or insulted by a countryman, he forthwith
repaired to one of these sorcerers; who, for an adequate
consideration, set to work with his spells, keeping himself in the
dark, and directing them against the obnoxious individual. And full
soon, by certain peculiar sensations, this individual, discovering
what was going on, would straightway hie to his own professor of the
sable art, who, being well feed, in due time brought about certain
counter-charms, so that in the end it sometimes fell out that neither
party was gainer or loser, save by the sum of his fees.

But the worst of it was, that in some cases all knowledge of these
spells were at the outset hidden from the victim; who, hearing too
late of the mischief brewing, almost always fell a prey to his foe;
which calamity was held the height of the art. But as the great body
of sorcerers were about matched in point of skill, it followed that
the parties employing them were so likewise. Hence arose those
interminable contests, in which many moons were spent,