leaving certain fragments in its wake. These fragments the hunters
picked up, giving over the chase for a while. For in those days, as
now, a quarter-quintal of ambergris was more valuable than a whole ton
of spermaceti."

"Nor, my lord," said Babbalanja, "would it have been wise to kill the
fish that dropped such treasures: no more than to murder the noddy
that laid the golden eggs."

"Beshrew me! a noddy it must have been," gurgled Mohi through his
pipe-stem, "to lay golden eggs for others to hatch."

"Come, no more of that now," cried Media. "Mohi, how long think you,
may one of these pipe-bowls last?"

"My lord, like one's cranium, it will endure till broken. I have
smoked this one of mine more than half a century."

"But unlike our craniums, stocked full of concretions," said
Babbalanja, our pipe-bowls never need clearing out."

"True," said Mohi, "they absorb the oil of the smoke, instead of
allowing it offensively to incrust."

"Ay, the older the better," said Media, "and the more delicious the
flavor imparted to the fumes inhaled."

"Farnoos forever! my lord," cried Yoomy. "By much smoking, the bowl
waxes russet and mellow, like the berry-brown cheek of a sunburnt
brunette."