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,
gulls, ogres, finned-lions, winged walruses; all manner of sea-
cavalry, crusading centaurs, crocodiles, and sharks; and mermen, and
mermaids, and Neptune only knows all.

And in this craft, Doge-like, yearly did King Bello stand up and wed
with the Lagoon. But the custom originated not in the manner of the
Doge's, which was as follows; so, at least, saith Ghibelli, who tells
all about it:--

When, in a stout sea-fight, Ziani defeated Barbarossa's son Otho,
sending his feluccas all flying, like frightened water-fowl from a
lake, then did his Holiness, the Pope, present unto him a ring;
saying, "Take this, oh Ziani, and with it, the sea for thy bride; and
every year wed her again."