lar, Babbalanja had often expressed the most ardent desire to
visit every one of the isles, in quest of some object, mysteriously
hinted. He murmured deep concern for my loss, the sincerest sympathy;
and pressing my hand more than once, said lowly, "Your pursuit is
mine, noble Taji. Where'er you search, I follow."

So, too, Yoomy addressed me; but with still more feeling. And
something like this, also, Braid-Beard repeated.

But to my sorrow, I marked that both Mohi and Babbalanja, especially
the last, seemed not so buoyant of hope, concerning lost Yillah, as
the youthful Yoomy, and his high-spirited lord, King Media.

As our voyage would embrace no small period of time, it behoved King
Media to appoint some trustworthy regent, to rule during his absence.
This regent was found in Almanni, a stem-eyed, resolute warrior, a
kinsman of the king.

All things at last in readiness, and the ensuing morning appointed
for a start, Media, on the beach, at eventide, when both light and
water waned, drew a rude map of the lagoon, to compensate for the
obstructions in the way of a comprehensive glance at it from Odo.

And thus was sketched the plan of our voyage; which islands first to
visit; and which to touch at, when we should be homeward bound.

CHAPTER LXVI
With A Fair Wind, At Sunrise They Sail

True each to his word, up came the sun, and round to my isle came
Media.

How glorious a morning! The new-born clouds all dappled with gold,
and streaked with violet; the sun in high spirits; and the pleasant
air cooled overnight by the blending circumambient fountains, forever
playing all round the reef; the lagoon within, the coral-rimmed
basin, into which they poured, subsiding, hereabouts, into green
tranquillity.

But what monsters of canoes! Would they devour an innocent voyager?
their great black prows curling aloft, and thrown back like trunks of
elephants; a dark, snaky length behind, like the sea-serpent's train.

The prow of the foremost terminated in a large, open, shark's mouth,
garnished with ten rows of pearly human teeth, curiously inserted
into the sculptured wood. The gunwale was ornamented with rows of
rich spotted Leopard and Tiger-shells; here and there, varied by
others, flat and round, and spirally traced; gay serpents petrified
in coils. These were imbedded in a grooved margin, by means of a
resinous compound, exhaling such spices, that the canoes were
odoriferous as the Indian chests of the