sume now, Babbalanja,--assume, my dear prince--assume
it, assume it, I say!--Why don't you?"

"I am willing to assume any thing you please, my lord: what is it?"

"Ah! yes!--Assume that--that upon returning home, you should find your
wife had newly wedded, under the--the--the metaphysical presumption,
that being no longer visible, you--_you_ Azzageddi, had departed this
life; in other words, out of sight, out of mind; what then, my dear
prince?"

"Why then, my lord, I would demolish my rival in a trice."

"Would you?--then--then so much for your metaphysics, Bab--Babbalanja."

Babbalanja rose to his feet, muttering to himself--"Is this assumed,
or real?--Can a demi-god be mastered by wine? Yet, the old mythologies
make bacchanals of the gods. But he was wondrous keen! He
felled me, ere he fell himself."

"Yoomy, my lord Media is in a very merry mood to-day," whispered Mohi,
"but his counterfeit was not well done. No, no, a bacchanal is not
used to be so logical in his cups."

CHAPTER XLVIII
They Sail Round An Island Without Landing; And Talk Round A Subject
Without Getting At It

Purposing a visit to Kaleedoni, a country integrally united to
Dominora, our course now lay northward along the western white cliffs
of the isle. But finding the wind ahead, and the current too strong
for our paddlers, we were fain to forego our destination; Babbalanja
observing, that since in Dominora we had not found Yillah, then in
Kaleedoni the maiden could not be lurking.

And now, some conversation ensued concerning the country we were
prevented from visiting. Our chronicler narrated many fine things of
its people; extolling their bravery in war, their amiability in peace,
their devotion in religion, their penetration in philosophy, their
simplicity and sweetness in song, their loving-kindness and frugality
in all things domestic:--running over a long catalogue of heroes,
meta-physicians, bards, and good men.

But as all virtues are convertible into vices, so in some cases did
the best traits of these people degenerate. Their frugality too often
became parsimony; their devotion grim bigotry; and all this in a
greater degree perhaps than could be predicated of the more immediate
subjects of King Bello.

In Kaleedoni was much to awaken the fervor of its bards. Upland and
lowland were full of the picturesque; and many unsung lyrics yet
lurked in her glens. Among her blue, heathy hills, lingered many
tribes, who in their