I’ll give you a nicer bit of Mardian satire to show that Melville wasn’t only caught up in the minutiae of current affairs circa 1848. Perhaps my favorite is the story of the Mindarian sorcerers.
If a Mindarian deemed himself aggrieved or insulted by a countryman, he forthwith repaired to one of these sorcerers; who, for an adequate consideration, set to work with his spells, keeping himself in the dark, and directing them against the obnoxious individual.
Get it yet? Maybe not. How about now:
And full soon, by certain peculiar sensations, this individual, discovering what was going on, would straightway hie to his own professor of the sable art, who, being well feed, in due time brought about certain counter-charms, so that in the end it sometimes fell out that neither party was gainer or loser, save by the sum of his fees.
It continues pretty extensively, because when Melville decides to satirize you he goes into a lot of detail. He hits all the bases: neverending cases, the perseverance of lawyers right up to the moment their clients go broke, inciting quarrels they alone can solve, too entrenched in everyday affairs to be avoided, friendly with each other though their respective clients were in conflict—but in the end it’s mostly the fault of the clients.
And because he has to dig into every angle, Melville also has to admit the good with the bad. He can’t just satirize lawyers; he has to confess that in some respects their practice is beneficial.
The nature of their pursuits leading them deep into the arcana of mind, they often lighted upon important discoveries; along with much that was cumbersome, accumulated valuable examples concerning the inner working o the hearts of the Mindarians’ and often waxed eloquent in elucidating the mysteries of iniquity.
And that’s what makes the sorcery satire so apt. It actually fits all these angles. Oh, and, the sorcery thing is sort of real, in the sense that it came from part of Melville’s Polynesian research.
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