“And how runs it?”
“Fugle-fogle—”
“Hark ye, intruding Azzageddi! rejoin thy merry mates below;—go there, and wag thy saucy tail; or I will nail it to our bow, till ye roar for liberation. Begone, I say.”
“Down, devil! deeper down!” rumbled Babbalanja.
“My lord, I think he’s gone. And now, by your good leave, I’ll repeat old Bardianna’s Will. It’s worth all Mardi’s hearing; and I have so studied it, by rote I know it.”
“Proceed then; but I mistrust that Azzageddi is not yet many thousand fathoms down.”
“Attend my lord:—‘Anno Mardis 50,000,000, o.s. I, Bardianna, of the island of Vamba, and village of the same name, having just risen from my yams, in high health, high spirits, and sound mind, do hereby cheerfully make and ordain this my last will and testament.
“‘Imprimis:
“‘All my kith and kin being well to do in Mardi, I wholly leave them out of this my will.
“‘Item. Since, in divers ways, verbally and otherwise, my good friend Pondo has evinced a strong love for me, Bardianna, as the owner and proprietor of all that capital messuage with the appurtenances, in Vamba aforesaid, called ‘The Lair,’ wherein I now dwell; also for all my Bread-fruit orchards, Palm-groves, Banana-plantations, Taro-patches, gardens, lawns, lanes, and hereditaments whatsoever, adjoining the aforesaid messuage;—I do hereby give and bequeath the same to Bomblum of the island of Adda; the aforesaid Bomblum having never expressed any regard for me, as a holder of real estate.