- end_line
- 9089
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:18.539Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 9017
- text
- A slave now appearing with a bowl of this beverage, it circulated
freely.
Not to gainsay the truth, we fancied the Morando much. A nutty, pungent
flavor it had; like some kinds of arrack distilled in the Philippine
isles. And a marvelous effect did it have, in dissolving the
crystalization of the brain; leaving nothing but precious little drops
of good humor, beading round the bowl of the cranium.
Meanwhile, garlanded boys, climbing the limbs of the idol-pillars, and
stirruping their feet in their most holy mouths, suspended hangings of
crimson tappa all round the hall; so that sweeping the pavement they
rustled in the breeze from the grot.
Presently, stalwart slaves advanced; bearing a mighty basin of a
porphyry hue, deep-hollowed out of a tree. Outside, were innumerable
grotesque conceits; conspicuous among which, for a border, was an
endless string of the royal lizards circumnavigating the basin in
inverted chase of their tails.
Peculiar to the groves of Willamilla, the yellow lizard formed part of
the arms of Juam. And when Donjalolo’s messenger went abroad, they
carried its effigy, as the emblem of their royal master; themselves
being known, as the Gentlemen of the Golden Lizard.
The porphyry-hued basin planted full in our midst, the attendants
forthwith filled the same with the living waters from the cascade; a
proceeding, for which some of the company were at a loss to account,
unless his highness, our host, with all the coolness of royalty,
purposed cooling himself still further, by taking a bath in presence of
his guests. A conjecture, most premature; for directly, the basin being
filled to within a few inches of the lizards, the attendants fell to
launching therein divers goodly sized trenchers, all laden with choice
viands:—wild boar meat; humps of grampuses; embrowned bread-fruit,
roasted in odoriferous fires of sandal wood, but suffered to cool; gold
fish, dressed with the fragrant juices of berries; citron sauce; rolls
of the baked paste of yams; juicy bananas, steeped in a saccharine oil;
marmalade of plantains; jellies of guava; confections of the treacle of
palm sap; and many other dainties; besides numerous stained calabashes
of Morando, and other beverages, fixed in carved floats to make them
buoyant.
The guests assigned seats, by the woven handles attached to his purple
mat, the prince, our host, was now gently moved by his servitors to the
head of the porphyry-hued basin. Where, flanked by lofty crowned-heads,
white-tiaraed, and radiant with royalty, he sat; like snow-turbaned
Mont Blanc, at sunrise presiding over the head waters of the Rhone; to
right and left, looming the gilded summits of the Simplon, the Gothard,
the Jungfrau, the Great St. Bernard, and the Grand Glockner.
Yet turbid from the launching of its freight, Lake Como tossed to and
fro its navies of good cheer, the shadows of the king-peaks wildly
flitting thereupon.
But no frigid wine and fruit cooler, Lake Como; as at first it did
seem; but a tropical dining table, its surface a slab of light blue St.
Pons marble in a state of fluidity.
Now, many a crown was doffed; scepters laid aside; girdles slackened;
and among those verdant viands the bearded kings like goats did browse;
or tusking their wild boar’s meat, like mastiffs ate.
And like unto some well-fought fight, beginning calmly, but pressing
forward to a fiery rush, this well-fought feast did now wax warm.
A few royal epicures, however, there were: epicures intent upon
concoctions, admixtures, and masterly compoundings; who comported
themselves with all due deliberation and dignity; hurrying themselves
into no reckless deglutition of the dainties. Ah! admirable conceit,
Lake Como: superseding attendants. For, from hand to hand the trenchers
sailed; no sooner gaining one port, than dispatched over sea to
another.
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- Chunk 2