Mardi: And A Voyage Thither VOL. I

Herman Melville

Born in New York City, the son of New England merchant. He worked at odd jobs (clerk, garmhand, teacher) before sailing to the South Seas on the whaler Acushnet. He deserted his ship, lived among cannibals, mutinied on an Australian boat, then spent two years on an American boat returning to the U.S. He successfully romanticized these adventures, publishing seven novels in six years, including Moby Dick (1851), one of the masterworks of American fiction. His popularity waned, and by the time he died he was virtually forgotten. Billy Budd was his last great novel. As his writing declined, Melville sailed again, around Cape Horn to San Francisco on a clipper ship commanded by his brother.

PREFACE
Not long ago, having published two narratives of voyages in the Pacific, which, in many quarters, were received with incredulity, the thought occurred to me, of indeed writing a romance of Polynesian adventure, and publishing it as such; to see whether, the fiction might not, possibly, be received for a verity: in some degree the reverse of my previous experience.
This thought was the germ of others, which have resulted in Mardi.
New York, January, 1849.

MARDI.
CONTENTS VOL. I
CHAPTER

1. Foot in Stirrup
2. A Calm
3. A King for a Comrade
4. A Chat in the Clouds
5. Seats secured and Portmanteaus packed
6. Eight Bells
7. A Pause
8. They push off, Velis et Bemis
9. The Watery World is all before Them
10. They arrange their Canopies and Lounges, and try to make Things comfortable
11. Jarl afflicted with the Lockjaw
12. More about being in an open Boat
13. Of the Chondropterygii, and other uncouth Hordes infesting the South Seas
14. Jarl's Misgivings
15. A Stitch in time saves Nine
16. They are Becalmed
17. In high Spirits they push on for the Terra Incognita
18. My Lord Shark and his Pages
19. Who goes there?
20. Noises and Portents
21. Man ho!
22. What befel the Brigantine at the Pearl Shell Islands
23. Sailing from the Island they pillage the Cabin
24. Dedicated to the College of Physicians and Surgeons
25. Peril a Peace-maker
26. Containing a Pennyweight of Philosophy
27. In which the past History of the Parki is concluded
28. Suspicions laid, and something about the Calmuc
29. What they lighted upon in further searching the Craft, and the Resolution they came to
30. Hints for a full length of Samoa
31. Rovings Alow and Aloft
32. Xiphius Platypterus
33. Otard
34. How they steered on their Way
35. Ah, Annatoo!
36. The Parki gives up the Ghost
37. Once more they take to the Chamois
38. The Sea on Fire
39. They fall in with Strangers
40. Sire and Sons
41. A Fray
42. Remorse
43. The Tent entered
44. Away!
45. Reminiscences
46. The Chamois with a roving Commission
47. Yillah, Jarl, and Samoa
48. Something under the Surface
49. Yillah
50. Yillah in Ardair
51. The Dream begins to fade
52. World ho!
53. The Chamois Ashore
54. A Gentleman from the Sun
55. Tiffin in a Temple
56. King Media a Host
57. Taji takes Counsel with himself
58. Mardi by Night and Yillah by Day
59. Their Morning Meal
60. Belshazzar on the Bench
61. An Incognito
62. Taji retires from the World
63. Odo and its Lord
64. Yillah a Phantom
65. Taji makes three Acquaintances
66. With a fair Wind at Sunrise they sail
67. Little King Peepi
68. How Teeth were regarded in Valapee
69. The Company discourse, and Braid-Beard rehearses a Legend 70. The Minstrel leads of with a Paddle-Song; and a Message is received from Abroad
70. They land upon the Island of Juam
71. A Book from the Chronicles of Mohi
72. Something more of the Prince
73. Advancing deeper into the Vale, they encounter Donjalolo
74. Time and Temples
75. A pleasant Place for a Lounge
76. The House of the Afternoon
77. Babbalanja solus
78. The Center of many Circumferences
79. Donjalolo in the Bosom of his Family
80. Wherein Babbalanja relates the Adventure of one Karkeke in the Land of Shades
81. How Donjalolo, sent Agents to the surrounding Isles; with the Result
82. They visit the Tributary Islets
83. Taji sits down to Dinner with five-and-twenty Kings, and a royal Time they have
84. After Dinner
85. Of those Scamps the Plujii
86. Nora-Bamma
87. In a Calm, Hautia's Heralds approach
88. Braid-Beard rehearses the Origin of the Isle of Rogues
89. Rare Sport at Ohonoo
90. Of King Uhia and his Subjects
91. The God Keevi and the Precipice of Mondo
92. Babbalanja steps in between Mohi and Yoomy; and Yoomy relates a Legend
93. Of that jolly old Lord, Borabolla; and that jolly Island of his, Mondoldo; and of the Fish-ponds, and the Hereafters of Fish
94. That jolly old Lord Borabolla laughs on both Sides of his Face 96. Samoa a Surgeon
95. Faith and Knowledge
96. The Tale of a Traveler
97. "Marnee Ora, Ora Marnee."
98. The Pursuer himself is pursued
99. The Iris
100. They depart from Mondoldo
101. As they sail
102. Wherein Babbalanja broaches a diabolical Theory, and in his own Person proves it