ABRAZZA (_with a sigh_)—Alas, the poor devil! But methinks ’twas wondrous arrogant in him to talk to all Mardi at that lofty rate.—Did he think himself a god? BABBALANJA—He himself best knew what he thought; but, like all others, he was created by Oro to some special end; doubtless, partly answered in his Koztanza. MEDIA—And now that Lombardo is long dead and gone—and his work, hooted during life, lives after him—what think the present company of it? Speak, my lord Abrazza! Babbalanja! Mohi! Yoomy! ABRAZZA (_tapping his sandal with his scepter__)—I never read it. BABBALANJA (_looking upward_)—It was written with a divine intent. Mohi (_stroking his beard_)—I never hugged it in a corner, and ignored it before Mardi. Yoomy (_musing_)—It has bettered my heart. MEDIA (_rising_)—And I have read it through nine times. BABBALANJA (_starting up_)—Ah, Lombardo! this must make thy ghost glad! CHAPTER LXXVII. They Sup There seemed something sinister, hollow, heartless, about Abrazza, and that green-and-yellow, evil-starred crown that he wore. But why think of that? Though we like not something in the curve of one’s brow, or distrust the tone of his voice; yet, let us away with suspicions if we may, and make a jolly comrade of him, in the name of the gods. Miserable! thrice miserable he, who is forever turning over and over one’s character in his mind, and weighing by nice avoirdupois, the pros and the cons of his goodness and badness. For we are all good and bad. Give me the heart that’s huge as all Asia; and unless a man, be a villain outright, account him one of the best tempered blades in the world. That night, in his right regal hall, King Abrazza received us. And in merry good time a fine supper was spread. Now, in thus nocturnally regaling us, our host was warranted by many ancient and illustrious examples. For old Jove gave suppers; the god Woden gave suppers; the Hindoo deity Brahma gave suppers; the Red Man’s Great Spirit gave suppers:— chiefly venison and game. And many distinguished mortals besides. Ahasuerus gave suppers; Xerxes gave suppers; Montezuma gave suppers; Powhattan gave suppers; the Jews’ Passovers were suppers; the Pharaohs gave suppers; Julius Caesar gave suppers:—and rare ones they were; Great Pompey gave suppers; Nabob Crassus gave suppers; and Heliogabalus, surnamed the Gobbler, gave suppers.