Dominora,--a helmet of the sea-porcupine's hide, bristling all over
with spikes, in front displaying a river-horse's horn, leveled to the
charge; thrust through his ears were barbed arrows; and from his dyed
shark-skin girdle, depended a kilt of strung javelins.

The broad chest of Bello was the chart of Mardi. Tattooed in sea-blue
were all the groups and clusters of the Archipelago; and every time he
breathed, rose and fell the isles, as by a tide: Dominora full upon
his heart.

His sturdy thighs were his triumphal arch; whereon in numerous
medallions, crests, and shields, were blazoned all his victories by
sea and land.

His strong right arm was Dominora's scroll of Fame, where all her
heroes saw their names recorded.--An endless roll!

Our chronicler avouched, that on the sole of Bello's dexter foot was
stamped the crest of Franko's king, his hereditary foe. "Thus, thus,"
cried Bello, stamping, "thus I hourly crush him."

In stature, Bello was a mountaineer; but, as over some tall tower
impends the hill-side cliff, so Bello's Athos hump hung over him.
Could it be, as many of his nobles held, that the old monarch's hump
was his sensorium and source of strength; full of nerves, muscles,
ganglions and tendons? Yet, year by year it grew, ringed like the bole
of his palms. The toils of war increased it. But another skirmish with
the isles, said the wiseacres of Porpheero, and Bello's mount will
crush him.