Chapter 73

At Last, The Last Mention Is Made Of Old Bardianna; And His Last Will
And Testament Is Recited At Length

The day was waning. And, as after many a tale of ghosts, around their
forest fire, Hungarian gipsies silent sit; watching the ruddy glow
kindling each other's faces;--so, now we solemn sat; the crimson West
our fire; all our faces flushed.

"Testators!" then cried Media, when your last wills are all round
settled, speak, and make it known!"

"Mine, my lord, has long been fixed," said Babbalanja.

"And how runs it?"

"Fugle-fogle--"

"Hark ye, intruding Azzageddi! rejoin thy merry mates below;--go
there, and wag thy saucy tail; or I will nail it to our bow, till ye
roar for liberation. Begone, I say."

"Down, devil! deeper down!" rumbled Babbalanja.

"My lord, I think he's gone. And now, by your good leave, I'll repeat
old Bardianna's Will. It's worth all Mardi's hearing; and I have so
studied it, by rote I know it."

"Proceed then; but I mistrust that Azzageddi is not yet many thousand
fathoms down."

"Attend my lord:---'Anno Mardis 50,000,000, o.s. I, Bardianna, of the
island of Vamba, and village of the same name, having just risen from
my yams, in high health, high spirits, and sound mind, do hereby
cheerfully make and ordain this my last will and testament.

"'Imprimis:

"'All my kith and kin being well to do in Mardi, I wholly leave them
out of this my will.

"'Item. Since, in divers ways, verbally and otherwise, my good friend
Pondo has evinced a strong love for me, Bardianna, as the owner and
proprietor of all that capital messuage with the appurtenances, in
Vamba aforesaid, called 'The Lair,' wherein I now dwell; also for all
my Bread-fruit orchards, Palm-groves, Banana-plantations, Taro-
patches, gardens, lawns, lanes, and hereditaments whatsoever,
adjoining the aforesaid messuage;--I do hereby give and bequeath the
same to Bomblum of the island of Adda; the aforesaid Bomblum having
never expressed any regard for me, as a holder of real estate.

"'Item. My esteemed neighbor Lakreemo having since the last lunar
eclipse called daily to inquire after the state of my health: and
having nightly made tearful inquiries of my herb-doctor, concerning
the state of my viscera;--I do hereby give and bequeath to the
aforesaid Lakreemo all and sundry those vegetable pills, potions,
powders, aperients, purgatives, expellatives, evacuatives, tonics,
emetics, cathartics, clysters, injections, scarifiers, cataplasms,
lenitives, lotions, decoctions, washes, gargles, and phlegmagogues;
together with all the jars, calabashes,