in Juam.

It was likewise an invariable custom, for the heir to receive the
regal investiture immediately upon the decease of his sire. No delay
was permitted. And instantly upon being girdled, he proceeded to take
part in the ceremony of closing the cave; his predecessor yet
remaining uninterred on the purple mat where he died.

In the history of the island, three instances were recorded; wherein,
upon the vacation of the sovereignty, the immediate heir had
voluntarily renounced all claim to the succession, rather than
surrender the privilege of roving, to which he had been entitled, as
a prince of the blood.

Said Rani, one of these young princes, in reply to the remonstrances
of his friends, "What! shall I be a king, only to be a slave? Teei's
girdle would clasp my waist less tightly, than my soul would be
banded by the mountains of Willamilla. A subject, I am free. No slave
in Juam but its king; for all the tassels round his loins."

To guard against a similar resolution in the mind of his only son,
the wise sire of Donjalolo, ardently desirous of perpetuating his
dignities in a child so well beloved, had from his earliest infancy,
restrained the boy from passing out of the glen, to contract in the
free air of the Archipelago, tastes and predilections fatal to
the inheritance of the girdle.

But as he grew in years, so impatient became young Donjalolo of the
king his father's watchfulness over him, though hitherto a most
dutiful son, that at last he was prevailed upon by his youthful
companions to appoint a day, on which to go abroad, and visit Mardi.
Hearing this determination, the old king sought to vanquish it. But
in vain. And early on the morning of the day, that Donjalolo was to
set out, he swallowed poison, and died; in order to force his son
into the instant assumption of the honors thus suddenly inherited.

The event, but not its dreadful circumstances, was communicated to
the prince; as with a gay party of young chiefs, he was about to
enter the mouth of the defile.

"My sire dead!" cried Donjalolo. "So sudden, it seems a bolt from
Heaven." And bursting into exclamations of grief, he wept upon the
bosom of Talara his friend.

But starting from his side:--"My fate converges to a point. If I but
cross that shadow, my kingdom is lost. One lifting of my foot, and
the girdle goes to my proud uncle Darfi, who would so joy to be my
master. Haughty Dwarf! Oh Oro! would that I had ere this passed thee,