Nay, they swore, that if the northern tribes persisted in intermeddlings, they would dissolve the common alliance, and establish a distinct confederacy among themselves.
Our coasting voyage at an end, our keels grated the beach among many prostrate palms, decaying, and washed by the billows.

Though part and parcel of the shore we had left, this region seemed another land.
Fewer thriving thingswere seen; fewer cheerful sounds were heard.
"Here labor has lost his laugh!" cried Yoomy.
It was a great plain where we landed; and there, under a burning sun, hundreds of collared men were toiling in trenches, filled with the taro plant; a root most flourishing in that soil.

Standing grimly over these, were men unlike them; armed with long thongs, which descended upon the toilers, and made wounds.

Blood and sweat mixed; and in great drops, fell.
"Who eat these plants thus nourished ?" cried Yoomy.

"Are these men ?" asked Babbalanja.
"Which mean you ?" said Mohi.
Heeding him not, Babbalanja advanced toward the fore-most of those with the thongs,--one Nulli: a cadaverous, ghost-like man; with a low ridge of forehead; hair, steel-gray; and wondrous eyes;--bright, nimble, as the twin Corposant balls, playing about the ends of ships' royal-yards in gales.
The sun passed under a cloud; and Nulli, darting at Babbalanja those wondrous eyes, there fell upon him a baleful glare.
"Have they souls ?" he asked, pointing to the serfs.
"No," said Nulli, "their ancestors may have had; but their souls have been bred out of their descendants; as the instinct of scent is killed in pointers." Approaching one of the serfs, Media took him by the hand, and felt of it long; and looked into his eyes; and placed his ear to his side; and exclaimed, "Surely this being has flesh that is warm; he has Oro in his eye; and a heart in him that beats.