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- 10762
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:18.539Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 10670
- text
- CHAPTER XCIX.
“Marnee Ora, Ora Marnee”
During the afternoon of the day of the diver’s decease, preparations
were making for paying the last rites to his remains, and carrying them
by torch-light to their sepulcher, the sea; for, as in Odo, so was the
custom here.
Meanwhile, all over the isle, to and fro went heralds, dismally
arrayed, beating shark-skin drums; and, at intervals, crying—“A man is
dead; let no fires be kindled; have mercy, oh Oro!—Let no canoes put to
sea till the burial. This night, oh Oro!—Let no food be cooked.”
And ever and anon, passed and repassed these, others in brave attire;
with castanets of pearl shells, making gay music; and these sang—
Be merry, oh men of Mondoldo,
A maiden this night is to wed:
Be merry, oh damsels of Mardi,—
Flowers, flowers for the bridal bed.
Informed that the preliminary rites were about being rendered, we
repaired to the arbor, whither the body had been removed.
Arrayed in white, it was laid out on a mat; its arms mutely crossed,
between its lips an asphodel; at the feet, a withered hawthorn bough.
The relatives were wailing, and cutting themselves with shells, so that
blood flowed, and spotted their vesture.
Upon remonstrating with the most abandoned of these mourners, the wife
of the diver, she exclaimed, “Yes; great is the pain, but greater my
affliction.”
Another, the deaf sire of the dead, went staggering about, and groping;
saying, that he was now quite blind; for some months previous he had
lost one eye in the death of his eldest son and now the other was gone.
“I am childless,” he cried; “henceforth call me Roi Mori,” that is,
Twice-Blind.
While the relatives were thus violently lamenting, the rest of the
company occasionally scratched themselves with their shells; but very
slightly, and mostly on the soles of their feet; from long exposure,
quite callous. This was interrupted, however, when the real mourners
averted their eyes; though at no time was there any deviation in the
length of their faces.
But on all sides, lamentations afresh broke forth, upon the appearance
of a person who had been called in to assist in solemnizing the
obsequies, and also to console the afflicted.
In rotundity, he was another Borabolla. He puffed and panted.
As he approached the corpse, a sobbing silence ensued; when holding the
hand of the dead, between his, the stranger thus spoke:—
“Mourn not, oh friends of Karhownoo, that this your brother lives not.
His wounded head pains him no more; he would not feel it, did a javelin
pierce him. Yea; Karhownoo is exempt from all the ills and evils of
this miserable Mardi!”
Hereupon, the Twice-Blind, who being deaf, heard not what was said,
tore his gray hair, and cried, “Alas! alas! my boy; thou wert the
merriest man in Mardi, and now thy pranks are over!”
But the other proceeded—“Mourn not, I say, oh friends of Karhownoo; the
dead whom ye deplore is happier than the living; is not his spirit in
the aerial isles?”
“True! true!” responded the raving wife, mingling her blood with her
tears, “my own poor hapless Karhownoo is thrice happy in Paradise!” And
anew she wailed, and lacerated her cheeks.
“Rave not, I say.”
But she only raved the more.
And now the good stranger departed; saying, he must hie to a wedding,
waiting his presence in an arbor adjoining.
Understanding that the removal of the body would not take place till
midnight, we thought to behold the mode of marrying in Mondoldo.
Drawing near the place, we were greeted by merry voices, and much
singing, which greatly increased when the good stranger was perceived.
Gayly arrayed in fine robes, with plumes on their heads, the bride and
groom stood in the middle of a joyous throng, in readiness for the
nuptial bond to be tied.
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