67. CHAPTER LXVII.
Valapee, or the Isle of Yams, being within plain sight
of Media's dominions, we were not very long in drawing
nigh to its shores.
Two long parallel elevations, rising some three arrow-flights
into the air, double-ridge the island's entire length,
lapping between, a widening vale, so level withal, that at
either extremity, the green of its groves blends with the
green of the lagoon; and the isle seems divided by a strait.
Within several paces of the beach, our canoes keeled the
bottom, and camel-like mutely hinted that we voyagers must
dismount.
Hereupon, the assembled islanders ran into the water,
and with bent shoulders obsequiously desired the honor of
transporting us to land. The beach gained, all present
wearing robes instantly stripped them to the waist; a naked
chest being their salute to kings. Very convenient for the
common people, this; their half-clad forms presenting a perpetual
and profound salutation.
Presently, Peepi, the ruler of Valapee drew near: a boy,
hardly ten years old, striding the neck of a burly mute,
bearing a long spear erect before him, to which was attached
a canopy of five broad banana leaves, new plucked.
Thus shaded, little Peepi advanced, steadying himself by
the forelock of his bearer.
Besides his bright red robe, the young prince wore nothing
but the symbol of Valapeean royalty; a string of small,
close-fitting, concave shells, coiled and ambushed in his profuse,
curly hair; one end falling over his ear, revealing a
serpent's head, curiously carved from a nutmeg.
Quite proverbial, the unembarrassed air of young slips of
royalty. But there was something so surprisingly precocious
in this young Peepi, that at first one hardly knew
what to conclude.
The first compliments over, the company were invited inland
to a shady retreat.
As we pursued the path, walking between old Mohi the
keeper of chronicles and Samoa the Upoluan, Babbalanja
besought the former to enlighten a stranger concerning the
history of this curious Peepi. Whereupon the chronicler
gave us the following account; for all of which he alone is
responsible.
Peepi, it seems, had been proclaimed king before he was
born; his sire dying some few weeks previous to that
event; and vacating his divan, declared that he left a monarch
behind.
Marvels were told of Peepi. Along with the royal dignity,
and superadded to the soul possessed in his own proper
person, the infant monarch was supposed to have inherited
the valiant spirits of some twenty heroes, sages, simpletons,
and demi-gods, previously lodged in his sire.
Most opulent in spiritual gifts was this lord of Valapee;
the legatee, moreover, of numerous anonymous souls, bequeathed
to him by their late loyal proprietors. By a
slavish act of his convocation of chiefs, he also possessed
the reversion of all and singular the immortal spirits, whose
first grantees might die intestate in Valapee. Servile, yet
audacious senators! thus prospectively to administrate away
the inalienable rights of posterity. But while yet unborn,
the people of Valapee had been deprived of more than they
now sought to wrest from their descendants. And former
Peepies, infant and adult, had received homage more profound,
than Peepi the Present. Witness the demeanor of
the chieftains of old, upon every new investiture of the royal
serpent. In a fever of loyalty, they were wont to present
themselves before the heir to the isle, to go through with
the court ceremony of the Pupera; a curious proceeding, so
called: inverted endeavors to assume an erect posture: the
nasal organ the base.
It was to the frequent practice of this ceremony, that
most intelligent observers imputed the flattened noses of the
elderly chiefs of the island; who, nevertheless, much gloried
therein.
It was these chiefs, also, who still observed the old-fashioned
custom of retiring from the presence of royalty with
their heads between their thighs; so that while advancing
in the contrary direction, their faces might be still deferentially
turned toward their lord and master. A fine view
of him did they obtain. All objects look well through an
arch.
But to return to Peepi, the inheritor of souls and subjects.
It was an article of faith with the people of Valapee, that
Peepi not only actually possessed the souls bequeathed to
him; but that his own was enriched by their peculiar qualities:
The headlong valor of the late Tongatona; the
pusillanimous discretion of Blandoo; the cunning of Voyo;
the simplicity of Raymonda; the prodigality of Zonoree;
the thrift of Titonti.
But had all these, and similar opposite qualities, simultaneously
acted as motives upon Peepi, certes, he would
have been a most pitiable mortal, in a ceaseless eddy of resolves,
incapable of a solitary act.
But blessed be the gods, it was otherwise. Though it
fared little better for his subjects as it was. His assorted
souls were uppermost and active in him, one by one. To-day,
valiant Tongatona ruled the isle, meditating wars and
invasions; to-morrow, thrice discreet Blandoo, who, disbanding
the levies, turned his attention to the terraces of
yams. And so on in rotation to the end.
Whence, though capable of action, Peepi, by reason of
these revolving souls in him, was one of the most unreliable
of beings. What the open-handed Zonoree promised freely
to-day, the parsimonious Titonti withheld to-morrow; and
forever Raymonda was annulling the doings of Voyo; and
Voyo the doings of Raymonda.
What marvel then, that in Valapee all was legislative
uproar and confusion; advance and retreat; abrogations
and revivals; foundations without superstructures; nothing
permanent but the island itself,
Nor were there those in the neighboring countries, who
failed to reap profit from this everlasting transition state of
the affairs of the kingdom. All boons from Peepi were entreated
when the prodigal Zonoree was lord of the ascendant.
And audacious claims were urged upon the state
when the pusillanimous Blandoo shrank from the thought
of resisting them.
Thus subject to contrary impulses, over which he had
not the faintest control, Peepi was plainly denuded of all
moral obligation to virtue. He was no more a free agent,
than the heart which beat in his bosom. Wherefore, his
complaisant parliament had passed a law, recognizing that
curious, but alarming fact; solemnly proclaiming, that
King Peepi was minus a conscience. Agreeable to truth.
But when they went further, and vowed by statute, that
Peepi could do no wrong, they assuredly did violence to the
truth; besides, making a sad blunder in their logic. For
far from possessing an absolute aversion to evil, by his very
nature it was the hardest thing in the world for Peepi to
do right.
Taking all these things into consideration, then, no
wonder that this wholly irresponsible young prince should
be a lad of considerable assurance, and the easiest manners
imaginable.
