Mardi Volume 1 Chapter 94 - Of that jolly old Lord, Borabolla

In which the jovial King Borabolla of Mondoldo extends an extravagant and somewhat inconvenient hospitality to our company, welcoming them aboard his floating dais and into his roofless palace, where the open gate symbolizes an open heart. We are then conducted to his renowned fish-ponds, ingeniously maintained and stocked through artful means, prompting a meditative discourse on the nature and possible hereafter of fish, creatures deemed cold and unfeeling yet not exempt from the mysteries of life beyond.