"'Item. Knowing my devoted scribe Marko to be very sensitive touching
the receipt of a favor; I willingly spare him that pain; and hereby
bequeath unto the aforesaid scribe, three milk-teeth, not as a
pecuniary legacy, but as a very slight token of my profound regard.

"'Item. I give to the poor of Vamba the total contents of my red-
labeled bags of bicuspids and canines (which I account three-fourths
of my whole estate); to my body servant Fidi, my staff, all my robes
and togas, and three hundred molars in cash; to that discerning and
sagacious philosopher my disciple Krako, one complete set of
denticles, to buy him a vertebral bone ring; and to that pious and
promising youth Vangi, two fathoms of my best kaiar rope, with the
privilege of any bough in my groves.

"'All the rest of my goods, chattels and household stuff whatsoever;
and all my loose denticles, remaining after my debts and legacies are
paid, and my body is out of sight, I hereby direct to be distributed
among the poor of Vamba.

"'Ultimo. I give and bequeath to all Mardi this my last advice and
counsel:--videlicet: live as long as you can; close your own eyes when
you die.

"'I have no previous wills to revoke; and publish this to be my first
and last.

"'In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my right hand; and hereunto
have caused a true copy of the tattooing on my right temple to be
affixed, during the year first above written.

"'By me, BARDIANNA.'"

"Babbalanja, that's an extraordinary document," said Media.

"Bardianna was an extraordinary man, my lord."

"Were there no codicils?"

"The will is all codicils; all after-thoughts; Ten thoughts for one
act, was Bardianna's motto."

"Left he nothing whatever to his kindred?"

"Not a stump."

"Prom his will, he seems to have lived single."

"Yes: Bardianna never sought to improve upon nature; a bachelor he
was born, and a bachelor he died."

"According to the best accounts, how did he depart, Babbalanja?" asked
Mohi.

"With a firm lip, and his hand on his heart, old man."

"His last words?"

"Calmer, and better!"

"Where think you, he is now?"

"In his Ponderings. And those, my lord, we all inherit; for like the
great chief of Romara, who made a whole empire his legatee; so, great
authors have all Mardi for an heir."

CHAPTER LXXIV
A Death-Cloud Sweeps By Them, As They Sail

Next day, a fearful sight!

As in Sooloo's seas, one vast water-spout will, sudden, form: