45. CHAPTER XLV.
THEY BEHOLD KING BELLO'S STATE CANOE.
At last, bidding adieu to King Bello; and in the midst
of the lowing of oxen, breaking away from his many hospitalities,
we departed for the beach. But ere embarking, we
paused to gaze at an object, which long fixed our attention.
Now, as all bold cavaliers have ever delighted in special
chargers, gayly caparisoned, whereon upon grand occasions
to sally forth upon the plains: even so have maritime potentates
ever prided themselves upon some holiday galley,
splendidly equipped, wherein to sail over the sea.
When of old, glory-seeking Jason, attended by his promising
young lieutenants, Castor and Pollux, embarked on
that hardy adventure to Colchis, the brave planks of the
good ship Argos he trod, its model a swan to behold.
And when Trojan æneas wandered West, and discovered
the pleasant land of Latium, it was in the fine craft Bis
Taurus that he sailed: its stern gloriously emblazoned, its
prow a leveled spear.
And to the sound of sackbut and psaltery, gliding down
the Nile, in the pleasant shade of its pyramids to welcome
mad Mark, Cleopatra was throned on the cedar quarter-deck
of a glorious gondola, silk and satin hung; its silver plated
oars, musical as flutes. So, too, Queen Bess was wont to
disport on old Thames.
And tough Torf-Egill, the Danish Sea-king, reckoned in
his stud, a slender yacht; its masts young Zetland firs; its
prow a seal, dog-like holding a sword-fish blade. He called
it the Grayhound, so swift was its keel; the Sea-hawk, so
blood-stained its beak.
And groping down his palace stairs, the blind old Doge
Dandolo, oft embarked in his gilded barge, like the lord-mayor
setting forth in civic state from Guildhall in his chariot.
But from another sort of prow leaped Dandolo, when
at Constantinople, he foremost sprang ashore, and with a
right arm ninety years old, planted the standard of St. Mark
full among the long chin-pennons of the long-bearded Turks.
And Kumbo Sama, Emperor of Japan, had a dragon-beaked
junk, a floating Juggernaut, wherein he burnt incense
to the sea-gods.
And Kannakoko, King of New Zealand; and the first Tahitian
Pomaree; and the Pelew potentate, each possessed
long state canoes; sea-snakes, all; carved over like Chinese
card-cases, and manned with such scores of warriors, that
dipping their paddles in the sea, they made a commotion
like shoals of herring.
What wonder then, that Bello of the Hump, the old sea-king
of Mardi, should sport a brave ocean-chariot?
In a broad arbor by the water-side, it was housed like
Alp Arslan's war-horse, or the charger Caligula deified;
upon its stern a wilderness of sculpture:—shell-work, medallions,
masques, griffins, gulls, ogres, finned-lions, winged
walruses; all manner of sea-cavalry, crusading centaurs,
crocodiles, and sharks; and mermen, and mermaids, and
Neptune only knows all.
And in this craft, Doge-like, yearly did King Bello stand
up and wed with the Lagoon. But the custom originated
not in the manner of the Doge's, which was as follows; so,
at least, saith Ghibelli, who tells all about it:—
When, in a stout sea-fight, Ziani defeated Barbarossa's
son Otho, sending his feluccas all flying, like frightened
water-fowl from a lake, then did his Holiness, the Pope, present
unto him a ring; saying, “Take this, oh Ziani, and
with it, the sea for thy bride; and every year wed her
again.”
So the Doge's tradition; thus Bello's:—
Ages ago, Dominora was circled by a reef, which expanding
in proportion to the extension of the isle's naval dominion, in
due time embraced the entire lagoon; and this marriage ring
zoned all the world.
But if the sea was King Bello's bride, an Adriatic Tartar
he wedded; who, in her mad gales of passions, often
boxed about his canoes, and led his navies a very boisterous
life indeed.
And hostile prognosticators opined, that ere long she would
desert her old lord, and marry again. Already, they held,
she had made advances in the direction of Vivenza.
But truly, should she abandon old Bello, he would straightway
after her with all his fleets; and never rest till his
queen was regained.
Now, old sea-king! look well to thy barge of state: for,
peradventure, the dry-rot may be eating into its keel; and
the wood-worms exploring into its spars.
Without heedful tending, any craft will decay; yet, forever
may its first, fine model be preserved, though its prow
be renewed every spring, like the horns of the deer, if, in
repairing, plank be put for plank, rib for rib, in exactest
similitude. Even so, then, oh Bello! do thou with thy
barge.
