Explore "Mardi, Volume II" by Herman Melville on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The old Begum went by the euphonious appellation of Ohiro-Moldona-Fivona; a name, from its length, deemed highly genteel; though scandal averred, that it was nothing more than her real name transposed; the appellation by which she had been formerly known, signifying a "Getterup-of-Fine-Tappa. " But as this would have let out an ancient secret, it was thought wise to disguise it.
Her daughters respectively reveled in the pretty diminutives of A, I, and O; which, from their brevity, comical to tell, were considered equally genteel with the dame's.