But smoke away: a word and a puff go on." "May it please you, then, my right worshipful lord, this Farnoo is an unctuous, argillaceous substance; in its natural state, soft, malleable, and easily worked as the cornelian-red clay from the famous pipe-quarries of the wild tribes to the North.

But though mostly found buried in terra-firma, especially in the isles toward the East, this Farnoo, my lord, is sometimes thrown up by the ocean; in seasons of high sea, being plentifully found on the reefs.

But, my lord, like amber, the precise nature and origin of this Farnoo are points widely mooted." "Stop there!" cried Media; "our mouth-pieces are of amber; so, not a word more of the Froth-of-the-Sea, until something be said to clear up the mystery of amber.

What is amber, old man ?" "A still more obscure thing to trace than the other, my worshipful lord.

Ancient Plinnee maintained, that originally it must be a juice, exuding from balsam firs and pines; Borhavo, that, like camphor, it is the crystalized oil of aromatic ferns; Berzilli, that it is the concreted scum of the lake Cephioris; and Vondendo, against scores of antagonists, stoutly held it a sort of bituminous gold, trickling from antediluvian smugglers' caves, nigh the sea." "Why, old Braid-Beard," cried Media, placing his pipe in rest, "you are almost as erudite as our philosopher here." "Much more so, my lord," said Babbalanja; "for Mohi has somehow picked up all my worthless forgettings, which are more than my valuable rememberings." "What say you, wise one ?" cried Mohi, shaking his braids, like an enraged elephant with many trunks.
Said Yoomy: "My lord, I have heard that amber is nothing less than the congealed tears of broken-hearted mermaids." "Absurd, minstrel," cried Mohi.