ooked as if playing upon the trombone.

Next, gentle Yoomy's. Its stem, a slender golden reed, like musical
Pan's; its bowl very merry with tassels.

Lastly, old Mohi the chronicler's. Its Death's-head bowl forming its
latter end, continually reminding him of his own. Its shank was an
ostrich's leg, some feathers still waving nigh the mouth-piece.

"Here, Vee-Vee! fill me up again," cried Media, through the blue
vapors sweeping round his great gonfalon, like plumed Marshal Ney,
waving his baton in the smoke of Waterloo; or thrice gallant Anglesea,
crossing his wooden eg mid the reek and rack of the Apsley House
banquet.

Vee-Vee obeyed; and quickly, like a howitzer, the pipe-owl was
reloaded to the muzzle, and King Media smoked on.

"Ah! this is pleasant indeed," he cried. "Look, it's a calm on the
waters, and a calm in our hearts, as we inhale these sedative odors."

"So calm," said Babbalanja; "the very gods must be smoking now."

"And thus," said Media, "we demi-gods hereafter shall cross-legged
sit, and smoke out our eternities. Ah, what a glorious puff! Mortals,
methinks these pipe-bowls of ours must be petrifactions of roses, so
scented they seem. But, old Mohi, you have smoked this many a long
year; doubtless, you know something about their material--the Froth-
of-the-Sea they call it, I think--ere my handicraft subjects obtain
it, to work into bowls. Tell us the tale."

"Delighted to do so, my lord," replied Mohi, slowly disentangling his
mouth-piece from the braids of his beard. "I have devoted much time
and attention to the study of pipe-bowls, and groped among many
learned authorities, to reconcile the clashing opinions concerning the
origin of the so-called Farnoo, or Froth-of-the-Sea."

"Well, then, my old centenarian, give us the result of your
investigations. But smoke away: a word and a puff go on."

"May it please you, then, my right worshipful lord, this Farnoo is an
unctuous, argillaceous substance; in its natural state, soft,
malleable, and easily worked as the cornelian-red clay from the famous
pipe-quarries of the wild tribes to the North. But though mostly found
buried in terra-firma, especially in the isles toward the East, this
Farnoo, my lord, is sometimes thrown up by the ocean; in seasons of
high sea, being plentifully found on the reefs. But, my lord, like
amber, the precise nature and origin of this Farnoo are points widely
mooted."

"Stop there!" cried Media; "our mouth-pieces