t them."

"My lord Media," impetuously resumed Yoomy, "I am sensible of a
thousand sweet, merry fancies, limpid with innocence; yet my enemies
account them all lewd conceits."

"There be those in Mardi," said Babbalanja, "who would never ascribe
evil to others, did they not find it in their own hearts; believing
none can be different from themselves."

"My lord, my lord!" cried Yoomy. "The air that breathes my music from
me is a mountain air! Purer than others am I; for though not a woman,
I feel in me a woman's soul."

"Ah, have done, silly Yoomy," said Media. "Thou art becoming flighty,
even as Babbalanja, when Azzageddi is uppermost."

"Thus ever: ever thus!" sighed Yoomy. "They comprehend us not."

"Nor me," said Babbalanja. "Yoomy: poets both, we differ but in
seeming; thy airiest conceits are as the shadows of my deepest
ponderings; though Yoomy soars, and Babbalanja dives, both meet at
last. Not a song you sing, but I have thought its thought; and where
dull Mardi sees but your rose, I unfold its petals, and disclose a
pearl. Poets are we, Yoomy, in that we dwell without us; we live in
grottoes, palms, and brooks; we ride the sea, we ride the sky; poets
are omnipresent."

CHAPTER XXXIV
Of The Isle Of Diranda

In good time the shores of Diranda were in sight. And, introductory to
landing, Braid-Beard proceeded to give us some little account of the
island, and its rulers.

As previously hinted, those very magnificent and illustrious lord
seigniors, the lord seigniors Hello and Piko, who between them divided
Diranda, delighted in all manner of public games, especially warlike
ones; which last were celebrated so frequently, and were so fatal in
their results, that, not-withstanding the multiplicity of nuptials
taking place in the isle, its population remained in equilibrio. But,
strange to relate, this was the very object which the lord seigniors
had in view; the very object they sought to compass, by instituting
their games. Though, for the most part, they wisely kept the secret
locked up.

But to tell how the lord seigniors Hello and Piko came to join hands
in this matter.

Diranda had been amicably divided between them ever since the day they
were crowned; one reigning king in the East, the other in the West.
But King Piko had been long harassed with the thought, that the
unobstructed and indefinite increase of his browsing subjects might
eventually denude of herbage his portion of the island