Chapter 45

They Behold King Bello's State Canoe

At last, bidding adieu to King Bello; and in the midst of the lowing
of oxen, breaking away from his many hospitalities, we departed for
the beach. But ere embarking, we paused to gaze at an object, which
long fixed our attention.

Now, as all bold cavaliers have ever delighted in special chargers,
gayly caparisoned, whereon upon grand occasions to sally forth upon
the plains: even so have maritime potentates ever prided themselves
upon some holiday galley, splendidly equipped, wherein to sail over
the sea.

When of old, glory-seeking Jason, attended by his promising young
lieutenants, Castor and Pollux, embarked on that hardy adventure to
Colchis, the brave planks of the good ship Argos he trod, its model a
swan to behold.

And when Trojan Aeneas wandered West, and discovered the pleasant land
of Latium, it was in the fine craft Bis Taurus that he sailed: its
stern gloriously emblazoned, its prow a leveled spear.

And to the sound of sackbut and psaltery, gliding down the Nile, in
the pleasant shade of its pyramids to welcome mad Mark, Cleopatra was
throned on the cedar quarter-deck of a glorious gondola, silk and
satin hung; its silver plated oars, musical as flutes. So, too, Queen
Bess was wont to disport on old Thames.

And tough Torf-Egill, the Danish Sea-king, reckoned in his stud, a
slender yacht; its masts young Zetland firs; its prow a seal, dog-like
holding a sword-fish blade. He called it the Grayhound, so swift was
its keel; the Sea-hawk, so blood-stained its beak.

And groping down his palace stairs, the blind old Doge Dandolo, oft
embarked in his gilded barge, like the lord mayor setting forth in
civic state from Guildhall in his chariot. But from another sort of
prow leaped Dandolo, when at Constantinople, he foremost sprang
ashore, and with a right arm ninety years old, planted the standard of
St. Mark full among the long chin-pennons of the long-bearded Turks.

And Kumbo Sama, Emperor of Japan, had a dragon-beaked junk, a floating
Juggernaut, wherein he burnt incense to the sea-gods.

And Kannakoko, King of New Zealand; and the first Tahitian Pomaree;
and the Pelew potentate, each possessed long state canoes; sea-snakes,
all; carved over like Chinese card-cases, and manned with such scores
of warriors, that dipping their paddles in the sea, they made a
commotion like shoals of herring.

What wonder then, that Bello of the Hump, the old sea-king of Mardi,
should sport a brave ocean-chariot?

In a broad arbor by the water-side, it was housed like Alp Arsian's
war-horse, or the charger Caligula deified; upon its stern a
wilderness of sculpture:--shell-work, medal-lions, masques, griffins,