76. CHAPTER LXXVI.
A PLEASANT PLACE FOR A LOUNGE.
Whether the hard condition of their kingly state, very
naturally demanding some luxurious requital, prevailed upon
the monarchs of Juam to house themselves so delightfully as
they did; whether buried alive in their glen, they sought to
center therein a secret world of enjoyment; however it may
have been, throughout the Archipelago this saying was a
proverb—“You are lodged like the king in Willamilla.”
Hereby was expressed the utmost sumptuousness of a palace.
A well warranted saying; for of all the bright places,
where my soul loves to linger, the haunts of Donjalolo are
most delicious.
In the eastern quarter of the glen was the House of the
Morning. This fanciful palace was raised upon a natural
mound, many rods square, almost completely filling up a
deep recess between deep-green and projecting cliffs, overlooking
many abodes distributed in the shadows of the groves
beyond.
Now, if it indeed be, that from the time employed in its
construction, any just notion may be formed of the stateliness
of an edifice, it must needs be determined, that this retreat
of Donjalolo could not be otherwise than imposing.
Full five hundred moons was the palace in completing;
for by some architectural arborist, its quadrangular foundations
had been laid in seed-cocoanuts, requiring that period
to sprout up into pillars. In front, these were horizontally
connected, by elaborately carved beams, of a scarlet hue,
inserted into the vital wood; which, swelling out, and over-lapping,
firmly secured them. The beams supported the
rafters, inclining from the rear; while over the aromatic
grasses covering the roof, waved the tufted tops of the Palms,
green capitals to their dusky shafts.
Through and through this vibrating verdure, bright birds
flitted and sang; the scented and variegated thatch seemed
a hanging-garden; and between it and the Palm tops, was
leaf-hung an arbor in the air.
Without these columns, stood a second and third colonnade,
forming the most beautiful bowers; advancing through
which, you fancied that the palace beyond must be chambered
in a fountain, or frozen in a crystal. Three sparkling
rivulets flowing from the heights were led across its summit,
through great trunks half buried in the thatch; and emptying
into a sculptured channel, running along the eaves,
poured over in one wide sheet, plaited and transparent.
Received into a basin beneath, they were thence conducted
down the vale.
The sides of the palace were hedged by Diomi bushes
bearing a flower, from its perfume, called Lenora, or Sweet
Breath; and within these odorous hedges, were heavy piles
of mats, richly dyed and embroidered.
Here lounging of a glowing noon, the plaited cascade
playing, the verdure waving, and the birds melodious, it
was hard to say, whether you were an inmate of a garden
in the glen, or a grotto in the sea.
But enough for the nonce, of the House of the Morning.
Cross we the hollow, to the House of the Afternoon.
