m the rest.

The heart of the place is but small; illuminated by a range of open
sky-lights, downward contracting.

Innumerable as the leaves of an endless folio, multitudinous mats
cover the floor; whereon reclining by night, like Pharaoh on the top
of his patrimonial pile, the inmate looks heavenward, and heavenward
only; gazing at the torchlight processions in the skies, when, in
state, the suns march to be crowned.

And here, in this impenetrable retreat, centrally slumbered the
universe-rounded, zodiac-belted, horizon-zoned, sea-girt, reef-
sashed, mountain-locked, arbor-nested, royalty-girdled, arm-clasped,
self-hugged, indivisible Donjalolo, absolute monarch of Juam:--the
husk-inhusked meat in a nut; the innermost spark in a ruby; the
juice-nested seed in a goldenrinded orange; the red royal stone in an
effeminate peach; the insphered sphere of spheres.

CHAPTER LXXX
Donjalolo In The Bosom Of His Family

To pretend to relate the manner in which Juam's ruler passed his
captive days, without making suitable mention of his harem, would be
to paint one's full-length likeness and omit the face. For it was his
harem that did much to stamp the character of Donjalolo.

And had he possessed but a single spouse, most discourteous, surely,
to have overlooked the princess; much more, then, as it is; and by
how-much the more, a plurality exceeds a unit.

Exclusive of the female attendants, by day waiting upon the person of
the king, he had wives thirty in number, corresponding in name to the
nights of the moon. For, in Juam, time is not reckoned by days, but
by nights; each night of the lunar month having its own designation;
which, relatively only, is extended to the day.

In uniform succession, the thirty wives ruled queen of the king's
heart. An arrangement most wise and judicious; precluding much of
that jealousy and confusion prevalent in ill-regulated seraglios. For
as thirty spouses must be either more desirable, or less desirable
than one; so is a harem thirty times more difficult to manage than an
establishment with one solitary mistress. But Donjalolo's wives were
so nicely drilled, that for the most part, things went on very
smoothly. Nor were his brows much furrowed with wrinkles referable to
domestic cares and tribulations. Although, as in due time will be
seen, from these he was not altogether exempt.

Now, according to Braid-Beard, who, among other abstruse political
researches, had accurately