Chapter 76

A Pleasant Place For A Lounge

Whether the hard condition of their kingly state, very naturally
demanding some luxurious requital, prevailed upon the monarchs of
Juam to house themselves so delightfully as they did; whether buried
alive in their glen, they sought to center therein a secret world of
enjoyment; however it may have been, throughout the Archipelago this
saying was a proverb--"You are lodged like the king in Willamilla."
Hereby was expressed the utmost sumptuousness of a palace.

A well warranted saying; for of all the bright places, where my soul
loves to linger, the haunts of Donjalolo are most delicious.

In the eastern quarter of the glen was the House of the Morning. This
fanciful palace was raised upon a natural mound, many rods square,
almost completely filling up a deep recess between deep-green and
projecting cliffs, overlooking many abodes distributed in the shadows
of the groves beyond.

Now, if it indeed be, that from the time employed in its
construction, any just notion may be formed of the stateliness of an
edifice, it must needs be determined, that this retreat of Donjalolo
could not be otherwise than imposing.

Full five hundred moons was the palace in completing; for by some
architectural arborist, its quadrangular foundations had been laid in
seed-cocoanuts, requiring that period to sprout up into pillars. In
front, these were horizontally connected, by elaborately carved
beams, of a scarlet hue, inserted into the vital wood; which,
swelling out, and over lapping, firmly secured them. The beams
supported the rafters, inclining from the rear; while over the
aromatic grasses covering the roof, waved the tufted tops of the
Palms, green capitals to their dusky shafts.

Through and through this vibrating verdure, bright birds flitted and
sang; the scented and variegated thatch seemed a hanging-garden; and
between it and the Palm tops, was leaf-hung an arbor in the air.

Without these columns, stood a second and third colonnade, forming
the most beautiful bowers; advancing through which, you fancied that
the palace beyond must be chambered in a fountain, or frozen in a
crystal. Three sparkling rivulets flowing from the heights were led
across its summit, through great trunks half buried in the thatch;
and emptying into a sculptured channel, running along the eaves,
poured over in one wide sheet, plaited and transparent. Received into
a basin beneath, they were thence conducted down the vale.

The sides of the palace were hedged by Diomi bushes bearing a flower,
from its perfume, called Lenora, or Sweet Breath; and within these
odorous hedges, were heavy piles of mats, richly dyed and embroidered.

Here lounging of a glowing