No precaution was taken to prevent over-indulgence in the use of the liquids, because it was considered a crime punishable with death if any one came to harm through excess of this kind.
The high-priest, Imos, first proposed and drank the health of the bride and groom. Then came Hanabusa, who did the same for the navy; Setos performed a similar office for the civil authorities; Ben Hu Barabe, for the lost and loved ones; Cezardis, for the stranger within the gates; after which friends of each saluted and offered a libation to their future.
Abstemious by nature, Orondo did little more than touch the various liquors with his lips, but Ildiko quenched thirst freely, and soon the heat and excitement began to tell on her.
Nothing escaped the eagle eye of Alcamayn.
Ildiko had sought to appease him by a show of preference in selecting him to dance, but he resented it as a mean attempt on her part to parade his humiliation. Before coming into the ballroom, he had taken a copious drink of hemp and opium, and had purposely selected the wine of maguey (mescal) for his toast.
Now this fiery liquid mounted to his infuriated brain, and he was positive that every one in the room was thinking how badly he had been treated, and secretly deriding him for not seeking revenge.—Revenge! That was it! But he had come prepared.
Red and white lines mingled with the pockmarks, and his misshapen body seemed to writhe like a snake under the goad of his malicious thoughts.
He was growing noisy and boisterous; so much so that his companions tried to prevent him from approaching the bride, but he angrily refused to heed them.
“Come on!” he loudly proclaimed. “She is a discarded love of mine, who still adores me. Come on, and I will prove her! She shall give me her wedding ring—the one Orondo made with his own hands!”