happy:  yet not as men.  Unmanned, they know not what they are.  And though, of all the south, Nulli must stand almost alone in his insensate creed; yet, to all wrong-doers, custom backs the sense of wrong.  And if to every Mardian, conscience be the awarder of its own doom; then, of these tribes, many shall be found exempted from the least penalty of this sin.  But sin it is, no less;—­a blot, foul as the crater-pool of hell; it puts out the sun at noon; it parches all fertility; and, conscience or no conscience—­ere he die—­let every master who wrenches bond-babe from mother, that the nipple tear; unwreathes the arms of sisters; or cuts the holy unity in twain; till apart fall man and wife, like one bleeding body cleft:—­let that master thrice shrive his soul; take every sacrament; on his bended knees give up the ghost;—­yet shall he die despairing; and live again, to die forever damned.  The future is all hieroglyphics.  Who may read?  But, methinks the great laggard Time must now march up apace, and somehow befriend these thralls.  It can not be, that misery is perpetually entailed; though, in a land proscribing primogeniture, the first-born and last of Hamo’s tribe must still succeed to all their sires’ wrongs.  Yes.  Time—­all-healing Time—­Time, great Philanthropist!—­Time must befriend these thralls!”

“Oro grant it!” cried Yoomy “and let Mardi say, amen!”

“Amen! amen! amen!” cried echoes echoing echoes.

We traversed many of these southern vales; but as in Dominora,—­so, throughout Vivenza, North and South,—­Yillah harbored not.

CHAPTER LIX They Converse Of The Mollusca, Kings, Toad-Stools And Other Matters

Once more embarking, we gained Vivenza’s southwestern side and there, beheld vast swarms of laborers discharging from canoes, great loads of earth; which they tossed upon the beach.

“It is true, then,” said Media “that these freemen are engaged in digging down other lands, and adding them to their own, piece-meal.  And this, they call extending their dominions agriculturally, and peaceably.”

“My lord, they pay a price for every canoe-load,” said Mohi.

“Ay, old man, holding the spear in one hand, and striking the bargain with the other.”

“Yet charge it not upon all Vivenza,” said Babbalanja.  “Some of her tribes are hostile to these things:  and when their countryman fight for land, are only warlike in opposing war.”

“And therein, Babbalanja, is involved one of those anomalies in the condition of Vivenza,” said Media, “which I can hardly comprehend.  How comes it, that with so Many things to divide them, the valley-tribes still keep their mystic league intact?”

“All plain, it is because the model, whence they derive their union, is one of nature’s planning.  My lord, have you ever observed the mysterious federation subsisting among the molluscs of the Tunicata order,—­in other words, a species of cuttle-fish, abounding at the bottom of the lagoon?”