Mardi: Chapter 67

Chapter 67

Little King Peepi

Valapee, or the Isle of Yams, being within plain sight of Media's
dominions, we were not very long in drawing nigh to its shores.

Two long parallel elevations, rising some three arrow-flights into
the air, double-ridge the island's entire length, lapping between, a
widening vale, so level withal, that at either extremity, the green
of its groves blends with the green of the lagoon; and the isle seems
divided by a strait.

Within several paces of the beach, our canoes keeled the bottom, and
camel-like mutely hinted that we voyagers must dismount.

Hereupon, the assembled islanders ran into the water, and with bent
shoulders obsequiously desired the honor of transporting us to land.
The beach gained, all present wearing robes instantly stripped them
to the waist; a naked chest being their salute to kings. Very
convenient for the common people, this; their half-clad forms
presenting a perpetual and profound salutation.

Presently, Peepi, the ruler of Valapee drew near: a boy, hardly ten
years old, striding the neck of a burly mute, bearing a long spear
erect before him, to which was attached a canopy of five broad banana
leaves, new plucked. Thus shaded, little Peepi advanced, steadying
himself by the forelock of his bearer.

Besides his bright red robe, the young prince wore nothing but the
symbol of Valapeean royalty; a string of small, close-fitting,
concave shells, coiled and ambushed in his profuse, curly
hair; one end falling over his ear, revealing a serpent's head,
curiously carved from a nutmeg.

Quite proverbial, the unembarrassed air of young slips of royalty.
But there was something so surprisingly precocious in this young
Peepi, that at first one hardly knew what to conclude.

The first compliments over, the company were invited inland to a
shady retreat.

As we pursued the path, walking between old Mohi the keeper of
chronicles and Samoa the Upoluan, Babbalanja besought the former to
enlighten a stranger concerning the history of this curious Peepi.
Whereupon the chronicler gave us the following account; for all of
which he alone is responsible.

Peepi, it seems, had been proclaimed king before he was born; his
sire dying some few weeks previous to that event; and vacating his
divan, declared that he left a monarch behind.

Marvels were told of Peepi. Along with the royal dignity, and
superadded to the soul possessed in his own proper person, the infant
monarch was supposed to have inherited the valiant spirits of some
twenty heroes, sages, simpletons, and demi-gods, previously lodged in
his sire.

Most opulent in spiritual gifts was this lord of Valapee; the
legatee, moreover, of numerous anonymous souls, bequeathed to him by
their late loyal proprietors. By a slavish act of his convocation of
chiefs, he also possessed the reversion of all and singular the
immortal spirits, whose first grantees might die intestate in
Valapee. Servile, yet audacious senators! thus prospectively to
administrate away the inalienable rights of posterity. But while yet
unborn, the people of Valapee had been deprived of more than they now
sought to wrest from their descendants. And former Peepies, infant
and adult, had received homage more profound, than Peepi the Present.
Witness the demeanor of the chieftains of old, upon every new
investiture of the royal serpent. In a fever of loyalty, they
were wont to present themselves before the heir to the isle, to go
through with the court ceremony of the Pupera; a curious proceeding,
so called: inverted endeavors to assume an erect posture: the nasal
organ the base.

It was to the frequent practice of this ceremony, that most
intelligent observers imputed the flattened noses of the elderly
chiefs of the island; who, nevertheless, much gloried therein.

It was these chiefs, also, who still observed the old-fashioned
custom of retiring from the presence of royalty with their heads
between their thighs; so that while advancing in the contrary
direction, their faces might be still deferentially turned toward
their lord and master. A fine view of him did they obtain. All
objects look well through an arch.

But to return to Peepi, the inheritor of souls and subjects. It was
an article of faith with the people of Valapee, that Peepi not only
actually possessed the souls bequeathed to him; but that his own was
enriched by their peculiar qualities: The headlong valor of the late
Tongatona; the pusillanimous discretion of Blandoo; the cunning of
Voyo; the simplicity of Raymonda; the prodigality of Zonoree; the
thrift of Titonti.

But had all these, and similar opposite qualities, simultaneously
acted as motives upon Peepi, certes, he would have been a most
pitiable mortal, in a ceaseless eddy of resolves, incapable of a
solitary act.

But blessed be the gods, it was otherwise. Though it fared little
better for his subjects as it was. His assorted souls were uppermost
and active in him, one by one. Today, valiant Tongatona ruled the
isle, meditating wars and invasions; tomorrow, thrice discreet
Blandoo, who, disbanding the levies, turned his attention to the
terraces of yams. And so on in rotation to the end.

Whence, though capable of action, Peepi, by reason of these
revolving souls in him, was one of the most unreliable of beings.
What the open-handed Zonoree promised freely to-day, the parsimonious
Titonti withheld to-morrow; and forever Raymonda was annulling the
doings of Voyo; and Voyo the doings of Raymonda.

What marvel then, that in Valapee all was legislative uproar and
confusion; advance and retreat; abrogations and revivals; foundations
without superstructures; nothing permanent but the island itself.

Nor were there those in the neighboring countries, who failed to reap
profit from this everlasting transition state of the affairs of the
kingdom. All boons from Peepi were entreated when the prodigal
Zonoree was lord of the ascendant. And audacious claims were urged
upon the state when the pusillanimous Blandoo shrank from the thought
of resisting them.

Thus subject to contrary impulses, over which he had not the faintest
control, Peepi was plainly denuded of all moral obligation to virtue.
He was no more a free agent, than the heart which beat in his bosom.
Wherefore, his complaisant parliament had passed a law, recognizing
that curious, but alarming fact; solemnly proclaiming, that King
Peepi was minus a conscience. Agreeable to truth. But when they went
further, and vowed by statute, that Peepi could do no wrong, they
assuredly did violence to the truth; besides, making a sad blunder in
their logic. For far from possessing an absolute aversion to evil, by
his very nature it was the hardest thing in the world for Peepi to do
right.

Taking all these things into consideration, then, no wonder that this
wholly irresponsible young prince should be a lad of considerable
assurance, and the easiest manners imaginable.

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