- description
- # CHAPTER III. They Pass Through The Woods
## Overview
This is a chapter titled "CHAPTER III. They Pass Through The Woods" (type: chapter) extracted on January 30, 2026. It is part of the novel [Mardi: And a Voyage Thither](arke:01KG8AJ8ZNB03D0FWFP362WQEN).
## Context
The chapter is extracted from the file [mardi_vol2.txt](arke:01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9) and is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. It follows [CHAPTER II. They Land](arke:01KG8AJNJRMHPGA05ZAGHDSVPY) and precedes [CHAPTER IV. Hivohitee MDCCCXLVIII](arke:01KG8AJNJQG7DNZHZCMC33X85F) in the novel.
## Contents
The chapter describes a journey through a dangerous and foreboding forest. The passage details the travelers' movement through jungles and a deep hollow, encountering poisonous trees like manchineels and upas. The text evokes a sense of decay and danger, with descriptions of falling temples, hanging sloths, nocturnal birds, and lurking reptiles, all thriving in a poisoned atmosphere.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:56.397Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- CHAPTER III. They Pass Through The Woods
- end_line
- 441
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:38.723Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 405
- text
- CHAPTER III.
They Pass Through The Woods
Refreshed by our stay in the grove, we rose, and placed ourselves under
the guidance of Mohi; who went on in advance.
Winding our way among jungles, we came to a deep hollow, planted with
one gigantic palm-shaft, belted round by saplings, springing from its
roots. But, Laocoon-like, sire and sons stood locked in the serpent
folds of gnarled, distorted banians; and the banian-bark, eating into
their vital wood, corrupted their veins of sap, till all those
palm-nuts were poisoned chalices.
Near by stood clean-limbed, comely manchineels, with lustrous leaves
and golden fruit. You would have deemed them Trees of Life; but
underneath their branches grew no blade of grass, no herb, nor moss;
the bare earth was scorched by heaven’s own dews, filtrated through
that fatal foliage.
Farther on, there frowned a grove of blended banian boughs,
thick-ranked manchineels, and many a upas; their summits gilded by the
sun; but below, deep shadows, darkening night-shade ferns, and
mandrakes. Buried in their midst, and dimly seen among large leaves,
all halberd-shaped, were piles of stone, supporting falling temples of
bamboo. Thereon frogs leaped in dampness, trailing round their slime.
Thick hung the rafters with lines of pendant sloths; the upas trees
dropped darkness round; so dense the shade, nocturnal birds found there
perpetual night; and, throve on poisoned air. Owls hooted from dead
boughs; or, one by one, sailed by on silent pinions; cranes stalked
abroad, or brooded, in the marshes; adders hissed; bats smote the
darkness; ravens croaked; and vampires, fixed on slumbering lizards,
fanned the sultry air.
- title
- CHAPTER III. They Pass Through The Woods