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- # CHAPTER LXXXVII. They Draw Nigh To Flozella
## Overview - What this is (type, form, dates, scope)
This is a chapter from the novel [Mardi: And a Voyage Thither](arke:01KG8AJ8ZNB03D0FWFP362WQEN), extracted from the text file [mardi_vol2.txt](arke:01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9). The chapter, labeled "CHAPTER LXXXVII. They Draw Nigh To Flozella," spans lines 12595 to 12651. It was extracted on January 30, 2026, as part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection.
## Context - Background and provenance from related entities
This chapter follows "CHAPTER LXXXVI. They Meet The Phantoms" (arke:01KG8AJWKBBN5T4V8YG43Z13W2) and precedes "CHAPTER LXXXVIII. They Land" (arke:01KG8AJWKGS16QXQ9JFA9DQSK9). The novel and its chapters were extracted from the source file as part of a larger collection of Melville's works.
## Contents - What it contains, key subjects and details
The chapter describes the approach to the island of Flozella, also known as "The-Last-Verse-of-the-Song." It recounts a legend about winged beings driven from Mardi and the subsequent celebrations. The narrator is torn by conflicting emotions as he nears Flozella, where he hopes to find Yillah, but fears Hautia. The chapter ends with the narrator's anticipation of the island's significance.
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- CHAPTER LXXXVII. They Draw Nigh To Flozella
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- 2026-01-30T20:47:38.723Z
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- CHAPTER LXXXVII.
They Draw Nigh To Flozella
As if Mardi were a poem, and every island a canto, the shore now in
sight was called Flozella-a-Nina, or The-Last-Verse-of-the-Song.
According to Mohi, the origin of this term was traceable to the
remotest antiquity.
In the beginning, there were other beings in Mardi besides Mardians;
winged beings, of purer minds, and cast in gentler molds, who would
fain have dwelt forever with mankind. But the hearts of the Mardians
were bitter against them, because of their superior goodness. Yet those
beings returned love for malice, and long entreated to virtue and
charity. But in the end, all Mardi rose up against them, and hunted
them from isle to isle; till, at last, they rose from the woodlands
like a flight of birds, and disappeared in the skies. Thereafter,
abandoned of such sweet influences, the Mardians fell into all manner
of sins and sufferings, becoming the erring things their descendants
were now. Yet they knew not, that their calamities were of their own
bringing down. For deemed a victory, the expulsion of the winged beings
was celebrated in choruses, throughout Mardi. And among other
jubilations, so ran the legend, a pean was composed, corresponding in
the number of its stanzas, to the number of islands. And a band of
youths, gayly appareled, voyaged in gala canoes all round the lagoon,
singing upon each isle, one verse of their song. And Flozella being the
last isle in their circuit, its queen commemorated the circumstance, by
new naming her realm.
That queen had first incited Mardi to wage war against the beings with
wings. She it was, who had been foremost in every assault. And that
queen was ancestor of Hautia, now ruling the isle.
Approaching the dominions of one who so long had haunted me,
conflicting emotions tore up my soul in tornadoes. Yet Hautia had held
out some prospect of crowning my yearnings. But how connected were
Hautia and Yillah? Something I hoped; yet more I feared. Dire
presentiments, like poisoned arrows, shot through me. Had they pierced
me before, straight to Flozella would I have voyaged; not waiting for
Hautia to woo me by that last and victorious temptation. But unchanged
remained my feelings of hatred for Hautia; yet vague those feelings, as
the language of her flowers. Nevertheless, in some mysterious way
seemed Hautia and Yillah connected. But Yillah was all beauty, and
innocence; my crown of felicity; my heaven below;—and Hautia, my whole
heart abhorred. Yillah I sought; Hautia sought me. One, openly beckoned
me here; the other dimly allured me there. Yet now was I wildly
dreaming to find them together. But so distracted my soul, I knew not
what it was, that I thought.
Slowly we neared the land. Flozella-a-Nina!—An omen? Was this isle,
then, to prove the last place of my search, even as it was the Last-
Verse-of-the-Song?
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- CHAPTER LXXXVII. They Draw Nigh To Flozella