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- 2026-01-30T20:48:18.539Z
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- CHAPTER LXXII.
A Book From The Chronicles Of Mohi
Many ages ago, there reigned in Juam a king called Teei. This Teei’s
succession to the sovereignty was long disputed by his brother Marjora;
who at last rallying round him an army, after many vicissitudes,
defeated the unfortunate monarch in a stout fight of clubs on the
beach.
In those days, Willamilla during a certain period of the year was a
place set apart for royal games and diversions; and was furnished with
suitable accommodations for king and court. From its peculiar position,
moreover, it was regarded as the last stronghold of the Juam monarchy:
in remote times having twice withstood the most desperate assaults from
without. And when Roonoonoo, a famous upstart, sought to subdue all the
isles in this part of the Archipelago, it was to Willamilla that the
banded kings had repaired to take counsel together; and while there
conferring, were surprised at the sudden onslaught of Roonoonoo in
person. But in the end, the rebel was captured, he and all his army,
and impaled on the tops of the hills.
Now, defeated and fleeing for his life, Teei with his surviving
followers was driven across the plain toward the mountains. But to cut
him off from all escape to inland Willamilla, Marjora dispatched a
fleet band of warriors to occupy the entrance of the defile.
Nevertheless, Teei the pursued ran faster than his pursuers; first
gained the spot; and with his chiefs, fled swiftly down the gorge,
closely hunted by Marjora’s men. But arriving at the further end, they
in vain sought to defend it. And after much desperate fighting, the
main body of the foe corning up with great slaughter the fugitives were
driven into the glen.
They ran to the opposite wall of cliff; where turning, they fought at
bay, blood for blood, and life for life, till at last, overwhelmed by
numbers, they were all put to the point of the spear.
With fratricidal hate, singled out by the ferocious Marjora, Teei fell
by that brother’s hand. When stripping from the body the regal girdle,
the victor wound it round his own loins; thus proclaiming himself king
over Juam.
Long torn by this intestine war, the island acquiesced in the new
sovereignty. But at length a sacred oracle declared, that since the
conqueror had slain his brother in deep Willamilla, so that Teei never
more issued from that refuge of death; therefore, the same fate should
be Marjora’s; for never, thenceforth, from that glen, should he go
forth; neither Marjora; nor any son of his girdled loins; nor his son’s
sons; nor the uttermost scion of his race.
But except this denunciation, naught was denounced against the usurper;
who, mindful of the tenure by which he reigned, ruled over the island
for many moons; at his death bequeathing the girdle to his son.
In those days, the wildest superstitions concerning the interference of
the gods in things temporal, prevailed to a much greater extent than at
present. Hence Marjora himself, called sometimes in the traditions of
the island, The-Heart-of-Black-Coral, even unscrupulous Marjora had
quailed before the oracle. “He bowed his head,” say the legends. Nor
was it then questioned, by his most devoted adherents, that had he
dared to act counter to that edict, he had dropped dead, the very
instant he went under the shadow of the defile. This persuasion also
guided the conduct of the son of Marjora, and that of his grandson.
But there at last came to pass a change in the popular fancies
concerning this ancient anathema. The penalty denounced against the
posterity of the usurper should they issue from the glen, came to be
regarded as only applicable to an invested monarch, not to his
relatives, or heirs.
A most favorable construction of the ban; for all those related to the
king, freely passed in and out of Willamilla.
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