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- CHAPTER LXXIX.
The Center Of Many Circumferences
Like Donjalolo himself, we hie to and fro; for back now must we pace to
the House of the Morning.
In its rear, there diverged three separate arbors, leading to less
public apartments.
Traversing the central arbor, and fancying it will soon lead you to
open ground, you suddenly come upon the most private retreat of the
prince: a square structure; plain as a pyramid; and without, as
inscrutable. Down to the very ground, its walls are thatched; but on
the farther side a passage-way opens, which you enter. But not yet are
you within. Scarce a yard distant, stands an inner thatched wall, blank
as the first. Passing along the intervening corridor, lighted by narrow
apertures, you reach the opposite side, and a second opening is
revealed. This entering, another corridor; lighted as the first, but
more dim, and a third blank wall. And thus, three times three, you worm
round and round, the twilight lessening as you proceed; until at last,
you enter the citadel itself: the innermost arbor of a nest; whereof,
each has its roof, distinct from the rest.
The heart of the place is but small; illuminated by a range of open
sky-lights, downward contracting.
Innumerable as the leaves of an endless folio, multitudinous mats cover
the floor; whereon reclining by night, like Pharaoh on the top of his
patrimonial pile, the inmate looks heavenward, and heavenward only;
gazing at the torchlight processions in the skies, when, in state, the
suns march to be crowned.
And here, in this impenetrable retreat, centrally slumbered the
universe-rounded, zodiac-belted, horizon-zoned, sea-girt, reef- sashed,
mountain-locked, arbor-nested, royalty-girdled, arm-clasped,
self-hugged, indivisible Donjalolo, absolute monarch of Juam:—the
husk-inhusked meat in a nut; the innermost spark in a ruby; the
juice-nested seed in a goldenrinded orange; the red royal stone in an
effeminate peach; the insphered sphere of spheres.
CHAPTER LXXX.
Donjalolo In The Bosom Of His Family
To pretend to relate the manner in which Juam’s ruler passed his
captive days, without making suitable mention of his harem, would be to
paint one’s full-length likeness and omit the face. For it was his
harem that did much to stamp the character of Donjalolo.
And had he possessed but a single spouse, most discourteous, surely, to
have overlooked the princess; much more, then, as it is; and by
how-much the more, a plurality exceeds a unit.
Exclusive of the female attendants, by day waiting upon the person of
the king, he had wives thirty in number, corresponding in name to the
nights of the moon. For, in Juam, time is not reckoned by days, but by
nights; each night of the lunar month having its own designation;
which, relatively only, is extended to the day.
In uniform succession, the thirty wives ruled queen of the king’s
heart. An arrangement most wise and judicious; precluding much of that
jealousy and confusion prevalent in ill-regulated seraglios. For as
thirty spouses must be either more desirable, or less desirable than
one; so is a harem thirty times more difficult to manage than an
establishment with one solitary mistress. But Donjalolo’s wives were so
nicely drilled, that for the most part, things went on very smoothly.
Nor were his brows much furrowed with wrinkles referable to domestic
cares and tribulations. Although, as in due time will be seen, from
these he was not altogether exempt.
Now, according to Braid-Beard, who, among other abstruse political
researches, had accurately informed himself concerning the internal
administration of Donjalolo’s harem, the following was the method
pursued therein.
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