- description
- # Yoomy Relates A Legend
## Overview
This subsection, titled "Yoomy Relates A Legend," is an excerpt from Chapter XCIII of Herman Melville's novel *Mardi: And a Voyage Thither*. It is part of the larger [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection and was extracted from the file [mardi_vol1.txt](arke:01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK). This section details the beginning of a legend told by the character Yoomy.
## Context
This subsection is found within [CHAPTER XCIII. Babbalanja Steps In Between Mohi And Yoomy; And Yoomy Relates A Legend](arke:01KG8AJWVTKMC0EZ4WMWPFQ2BB). It follows the subsection "Babbalanja Steps In Between Mohi And Yoomy" and precedes "Yoomy Relates A Legend (continued)". The narrative takes place as the characters sail by the shores of Tupia.
## Contents
In this section, Yoomy begins to recount a legend about a race of diminutive people, only a few inches high, who once inhabited the shores of Tupia. These beings are described as being covered in soft down, with green, vine-like hair that they cultivated. The legend details their unique customs, including their nocturnal habits, their affinity for the sea, and their eventual demise, which is linked to the blossoming of their vines. The narrative is interspersed with brief, skeptical interjections from the character Mohi.
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- Yoomy Relates A Legend
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- And Yoomy began.
“It is now about ten hundred thousand moons—”
“Great Oro! How long since, say you?” cried Mohi, making Gothic arches
of his brows.
Looking at him disdainfully, but vouchsafing no reply, Yoomy began over
again.
“It is now above ten hundred thousand moons, since there died the last
of a marvelous race, once inhabiting the very shores by which we are
sailing. They were a very diminutive people, only a few inches high—”
“Stop, minstrel,” cried Mohi; “how many pennyweights did they weigh?”
Continued Yoomy, unheedingly, “They were covered all over with a soft,
silky down, like that on the rind of the Avee; and there grew upon
their heads a green, lance-leaved vine, of a most delicate texture. For
convenience, the manikins reduced their tendrils, sporting, nothing but
coronals. Whereas, priding themselves upon the redundancy of their
tresses, the little maidens assiduously watered them with the early dew
of the morning; so that all wreathed and festooned with verdure, they
moved about in arbors, trailing after them trains.”
“I can hear no more,” exclaimed Mohi, stopping his ears.
Continued Yoomy, “The damsels lured to their bowers, certain red-
plumaged insect-birds, and taught them to nestle therein, and warble;
which, with the pleasant vibrating of the leaves, when the little
maidens moved, produced a strange blending of sweet, singing sounds.
The little maidens embraced not with their arms, but with their viny
locks; whose tendrils instinctively twined about their lovers, till
both were lost in the bower.”
“And what then?” asked Mohi, who, notwithstanding the fingers in his
ears, somehow contrived to listen; “What then?”
Vouchsafing no reply, Yoomy went on.
“At a certain age, but while yet the maidens were very young, their
vines bore blossoms. Ah! fatal symptoms. For soon as they burst, the
maidens died in their arbors; and were buried in the valleys; and their
vines spread forth; and the flowers bloomed; but the maidens themselves
were no more. And now disdaining the earth, the vines shot upward:
climbing to the topmost boughs of the trees; and flowering in the
sunshine forever and aye.”
Yoomy here paused for a space; but presently continued:
“The little eyes of the people of Tupia were very strange to behold:
full of stars, that shone from within, like the Pleiades, deep- bosomed
in blue. And like the stars, they were intolerant of sunlight; and
slumbering through the day, the people of Tupia only went abroad by
night. But it was chiefly when the moon was at full, that they were
mostly in spirits.
- title
- Yoomy Relates A Legend