Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II (of 2) by Herman Melville
page 220 of 437 (50%)
page 220 of 437 (50%)
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in all things domestic:--running over a long catalogue of heroes,
meta-physicians, bards, and good men. But as all virtues are convertible into vices, so in some cases did the best traits of these people degenerate. Their frugality too often became parsimony; their devotion grim bigotry; and all this in a greater degree perhaps than could be predicated of the more immediate subjects of King Bello. In Kaleedoni was much to awaken the fervor of its bards. Upland and lowland were full of the picturesque; and many unsung lyrics yet lurked in her glens. Among her blue, heathy hills, lingered many tribes, who in their wild and tattooed attire, still preserved the garb of the mightiest nation of old times. They bared the knee, in token that it was honorable as the face, since it had never been bent. While Braid-Beard was recounting these things, the currents were sweeping us over a strait, toward a deep green island, bewitching to behold. Not greener that midmost terrace of the Andes, which under a torrid meridian steeps fair Quito in the dews of a perpetual spring;--not greener the nine thousand feet of Pirohitee's tall peak, which, rising from out the warm bosom of Tahiti, carries all summer with it into the clouds;--nay, not greener the famed gardens of Cyrus,--than the vernal lawn, the knoll, the dale of beautiful Verdanna. "Alas, sweet isle! Thy desolation is overrun with vines," sighed Yoomy, gazing. |
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