E52PeGpL

1ETYMOLOGY.
2
3(Supplied by a Late Consumptive Usher to a Grammar School)
4
5The pale Usher--threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him
6now. He was ever dusting his old lexicons and grammars, with a queer
7handkerchief, mockingly embellished with all the gay flags of all
8the known nations of the world. He loved to dust his old grammars; it
9somehow mildly reminded him of his mortality.
10
11"While you take in hand to school others, and to teach them by what
12name a whale-fish is to be called in our tongue leaving out, through
13ignorance, the letter H, which almost alone maketh the signification of
14the word, you deliver that which is not true." --HACKLUYT
15
16"WHALE.... Sw. and Dan. HVAL. This animal is named from roundness or
17rolling; for in Dan. HVALT is arched or vaulted." --WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY
18
19"WHALE.... It is more immediately from the Dut. and Ger. WALLEN; A.S.
20WALW-IAN, to roll, to wallow." --RICHARDSON'S DICTIONARY
21
22     KETOS,               GREEK.
23     CETUS,               LATIN.
24     WHOEL,               ANGLO-SAXON.
25     HVALT,               DANISH.
26     WAL,                 DUTCH.
27     HWAL,                SWEDISH.
28     WHALE,               ICELANDIC.
29     WHALE,               ENGLISH.
30     BALEINE,             FRENCH.
31     BALLENA,             SPANISH.
32     PEKEE-NUEE-NUEE,     FEGEE.
33     PEHEE-NUEE-NUEE,     ERROMANGOAN.
34
35
36
37
38EXTRACTS (Supplied by a Sub-Sub-Librarian).
39
40It will be seen that this mere painstaking burrower and grub-worm of a
41poor devil of a Sub-Sub appears to have gone through the long Vaticans
42and street-stalls of the earth, picking up whatever random allusions to
43whales he could anyways find in any book whatsoever, sacred or
44profane. Therefore you must not, in every case at least, take the
45higgledy-piggledy whale statements, however authentic, in these
46extracts, for veritable gospel cetology. Far from it. As touching the
47ancient authors generally, as well as the poets here appearing, these
48extracts are solely valuable or entertaining, as affording a glancing
49bird's eye view of what has been promiscuously said, thought, fancied,
50and sung of Leviathan, by many nations and generations, including our
51own.
52
53So fare thee well, poor devil of a Sub-Sub, whose commentator I am. Thou
54belongest to that hopeless, sallow tribe which no wine of this world
55will ever warm; and for whom even Pale Sherry would be too rosy-strong;
56but with whom one sometimes loves to sit, and feel poor-devilish, too;
57and grow convivial upon tears; and say to them bluntly, with full eyes
58and empty glasses, and in not altogether unpleasant sadness--Give it up,
59Sub-Subs! For by how much the more pains ye take to please the world,
60by so much the more shall ye for ever go thankless! Would that I could
61clear out Hampton Court and the Tuileries for ye! But gulp down your
62tears and hie aloft to the royal-mast with your hearts; for your friends
63who have gone before are clearing out the seven-storied heavens, and
64making refugees of long-pampered Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, against
65your coming. Here ye strike but splintered hearts together--there, ye
66shall strike unsplinterable glasses!
67
68
69EXTRACTS.
70
71"And God created great whales." --GENESIS.
72
73"Leviathan maketh a path to shine after him; One would think the deep to
74be hoary." --JOB.
75
76"Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah." --JONAH.
77
78"There go the ships; there is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play
79therein." --PSALMS.
80
81"In that day, the Lord with his sore, and great, and strong sword,
82shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked
83serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." --ISAIAH
84
85"And what thing soever besides cometh within the chaos of this monster's
86mouth, be it beast, boat, or stone, down it goes all incontinently that
87foul great swallow of his, and perisheth in the bottomless gulf of his
88paunch." --HOLLAND'S PLUTARCH'S MORALS.
89
90"The Indian Sea breedeth the most and the biggest fishes that are: among
91which the Whales and Whirlpooles called Balaene, take up as much in
92length as four acres or arpens of land." --HOLLAND'S PLINY.
93
94"Scarcely had we proceeded two days on the sea, when about sunrise a
95great many Whales and other monsters of the sea, appeared. Among the
96former, one was of a most monstrous size.... This came towards us,
97open-mouthed, raising the waves on all sides, and beating the sea before
98him into a foam." --TOOKE'S LUCIAN. "THE TRUE HISTORY."
99
100"He visited this country also with a view of catching horse-whales,
101which had bones of very great value for their teeth, of which he brought
102some to the king.... The best whales were catched in his own country, of
103which some were forty-eight, some fifty yards long. He said that he was
104one of six who had killed sixty in two days." --OTHER OR OTHER'S VERBAL
105NARRATIVE TAKEN DOWN FROM HIS MOUTH BY KING ALFRED, A.D. 890.
106
107"And whereas all the other things, whether beast or vessel, that
108enter into the dreadful gulf of this monster's (whale's) mouth, are
109immediately lost and swallowed up, the sea-gudgeon retires into it in
110great security, and there sleeps." --MONTAIGNE. --APOLOGY FOR RAIMOND
111SEBOND.
112
113"Let us fly, let us fly! Old Nick take me if is not Leviathan described
114by the noble prophet Moses in the life of patient Job." --RABELAIS.
115
116"This whale's liver was two cartloads." --STOWE'S ANNALS.
117
118"The great Leviathan that maketh the seas to seethe like boiling pan."
119--LORD BACON'S VERSION OF THE PSALMS.
120
121"Touching that monstrous bulk of the whale or ork we have received
122nothing certain. They grow exceeding fat, insomuch that an incredible
123quantity of oil will be extracted out of one whale." --IBID. "HISTORY OF
124LIFE AND DEATH."
125
126"The sovereignest thing on earth is parmacetti for an inward bruise."
127--KING HENRY.
128
129"Very like a whale." --HAMLET.
130
131     "Which to secure, no skill of leach's art
132     Mote him availle, but to returne againe
133     To his wound's worker, that with lowly dart,
134     Dinting his breast, had bred his restless paine,
135     Like as the wounded whale to shore flies thro' the maine."
136     --THE FAERIE QUEEN.
137
138"Immense as whales, the motion of whose vast bodies can in a peaceful
139calm trouble the ocean till it boil." --SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT. PREFACE TO
140GONDIBERT.
141
142"What spermacetti is, men might justly doubt, since the learned
143Hosmannus in his work of thirty years, saith plainly, Nescio quid sit."
144--SIR T. BROWNE. OF SPERMA CETI AND THE SPERMA CETI WHALE. VIDE HIS V.
145E.
146
147     "Like Spencer's Talus with his modern flail
148     He threatens ruin with his ponderous tail.
149   ...
150     Their fixed jav'lins in his side he wears,
151     And on his back a grove of pikes appears."
152     --WALLER'S BATTLE OF THE SUMMER ISLANDS.
153
154"By art is created that great Leviathan, called a Commonwealth or
155State--(in Latin, Civitas) which is but an artificial man." --OPENING
156SENTENCE OF HOBBES'S LEVIATHAN.
157
158"Silly Mansoul swallowed it without chewing, as if it had been a sprat
159in the mouth of a whale." --PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.
160
161     "That sea beast
162     Leviathan, which God of all his works
163     Created hugest that swim the ocean stream." --PARADISE LOST.
164
165     ---"There Leviathan,
166     Hugest of living creatures, in the deep
167     Stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims,
168     And seems a moving land; and at his gills
169     Draws in, and at his breath spouts out a sea." --IBID.
170
171"The mighty whales which swim in a sea of water, and have a sea of oil
172swimming in them." --FULLLER'S PROFANE AND HOLY STATE.
173
174     "So close behind some promontory lie
175     The huge Leviathan to attend their prey,
176     And give no chance, but swallow in the fry,
177     Which through their gaping jaws mistake the way."
178     --DRYDEN'S ANNUS MIRABILIS.
179
180"While the whale is floating at the stern of the ship, they cut off his
181head, and tow it with a boat as near the shore as it will come; but it
182will be aground in twelve or thirteen feet water." --THOMAS EDGE'S TEN
183VOYAGES TO SPITZBERGEN, IN PURCHAS.
184
185"In their way they saw many whales sporting in the ocean, and in
186wantonness fuzzing up the water through their pipes and vents, which
187nature has placed on their shoulders." --SIR T. HERBERT'S VOYAGES INTO
188ASIA AND AFRICA. HARRIS COLL.
189
190"Here they saw such huge troops of whales, that they were forced to
191proceed with a great deal of caution for fear they should run their ship
192upon them." --SCHOUTEN'S SIXTH CIRCUMNAVIGATION.
193
194"We set sail from the Elbe, wind N.E. in the ship called The
195Jonas-in-the-Whale.... Some say the whale can't open his mouth, but that
196is a fable.... They frequently climb up the masts to see whether they
197can see a whale, for the first discoverer has a ducat for his pains....
198I was told of a whale taken near Shetland, that had above a barrel of
199herrings in his belly.... One of our harpooneers told me that he caught
200once a whale in Spitzbergen that was white all over." --A VOYAGE TO
201GREENLAND, A.D. 1671 HARRIS COLL.
202
203"Several whales have come in upon this coast (Fife) Anno 1652, one
204eighty feet in length of the whale-bone kind came in, which (as I was
205informed), besides a vast quantity of oil, did afford 500 weight of
206baleen. The jaws of it stand for a gate in the garden of Pitferren."
207--SIBBALD'S FIFE AND KINROSS.
208
209"Myself have agreed to try whether I can master and kill this
210Sperma-ceti whale, for I could never hear of any of that sort that was
211killed by any man, such is his fierceness and swiftness." --RICHARD
212STRAFFORD'S LETTER FROM THE BERMUDAS. PHIL. TRANS. A.D. 1668.
213
214"Whales in the sea God's voice obey." --N. E. PRIMER.
215
216"We saw also abundance of large whales, there being more in those
217southern seas, as I may say, by a hundred to one; than we have to the
218northward of us." --CAPTAIN COWLEY'S VOYAGE ROUND THE GLOBE, A.D. 1729.
219
220"... and the breath of the whale is frequently attended with such an
221insupportable smell, as to bring on a disorder of the brain." --ULLOA'S
222SOUTH AMERICA.
223
224     "To fifty chosen sylphs of special note,
225     We trust the important charge, the petticoat.
226     Oft have we known that seven-fold fence to fail,
227     Tho' stuffed with hoops and armed with ribs of whale."
228     --RAPE OF THE LOCK.
229
230"If we compare land animals in respect to magnitude, with those
231that take up their abode in the deep, we shall find they will appear
232contemptible in the comparison. The whale is doubtless the largest
233animal in creation." --GOLDSMITH, NAT. HIST.
234
235"If you should write a fable for little fishes, you would make them
236speak like great wales." --GOLDSMITH TO JOHNSON.
237
238"In the afternoon we saw what was supposed to be a rock, but it was
239found to be a dead whale, which some Asiatics had killed, and were then
240towing ashore. They seemed to endeavor to conceal themselves behind the
241whale, in order to avoid being seen by us." --COOK'S VOYAGES.
242
243"The larger whales, they seldom venture to attack. They stand in so
244great dread of some of them, that when out at sea they are afraid to
245mention even their names, and carry dung, lime-stone, juniper-wood,
246and some other articles of the same nature in their boats, in order to
247terrify and prevent their too near approach." --UNO VON TROIL'S LETTERS
248ON BANKS'S AND SOLANDER'S VOYAGE TO ICELAND IN 1772.
249
250"The Spermacetti Whale found by the Nantuckois, is an active, fierce
251animal, and requires vast address and boldness in the fishermen."
252--THOMAS JEFFERSON'S WHALE MEMORIAL TO THE FRENCH MINISTER IN 1778.
253
254"And pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it?" --EDMUND BURKE'S
255REFERENCE IN PARLIAMENT TO THE NANTUCKET WHALE-FISHERY.
256
257"Spain--a great whale stranded on the shores of Europe." --EDMUND BURKE.
258(SOMEWHERE.)
259
260"A tenth branch of the king's ordinary revenue, said to be grounded on
261the consideration of his guarding and protecting the seas from pirates
262and robbers, is the right to royal fish, which are whale and sturgeon.
263And these, when either thrown ashore or caught near the coast, are the
264property of the king." --BLACKSTONE.
265
266     "Soon to the sport of death the crews repair:
267     Rodmond unerring o'er his head suspends
268     The barbed steel, and every turn attends."
269     --FALCONER'S SHIPWRECK.
270
271     "Bright shone the roofs, the domes, the spires,
272     And rockets blew self driven,
273     To hang their momentary fire
274     Around the vault of heaven.
275
276     "So fire with water to compare,
277     The ocean serves on high,
278     Up-spouted by a whale in air,
279     To express unwieldy joy." --COWPER, ON THE QUEEN'S
280     VISIT TO LONDON.
281
282"Ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart at
283a stroke, with immense velocity." --JOHN HUNTER'S ACCOUNT OF THE
284DISSECTION OF A WHALE. (A SMALL SIZED ONE.)
285
286"The aorta of a whale is larger in the bore than the main pipe of the
287water-works at London Bridge, and the water roaring in its passage
288through that pipe is inferior in impetus and velocity to the blood
289gushing from the whale's heart." --PALEY'S THEOLOGY.
290
291"The whale is a mammiferous animal without hind feet." --BARON CUVIER.
292
293"In 40 degrees south, we saw Spermacetti Whales, but did not take
294any till the first of May, the sea being then covered with them."
295--COLNETT'S VOYAGE FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXTENDING THE SPERMACETI WHALE
296FISHERY.
297
298     "In the free element beneath me swam,
299     Floundered and dived, in play, in chace, in battle,
300     Fishes of every colour, form, and kind;
301     Which language cannot paint, and mariner
302     Had never seen; from dread Leviathan
303     To insect millions peopling every wave:
304     Gather'd in shoals immense, like floating islands,
305     Led by mysterious instincts through that waste
306     And trackless region, though on every side
307     Assaulted by voracious enemies,
308     Whales, sharks, and monsters, arm'd in front or jaw,
309     With swords, saws, spiral horns, or hooked fangs."
310     --MONTGOMERY'S WORLD BEFORE THE FLOOD.
311
312     "Io!  Paean!  Io! sing.
313     To the finny people's king.
314     Not a mightier whale than this
315     In the vast Atlantic is;
316     Not a fatter fish than he,
317     Flounders round the Polar Sea."
318     --CHARLES LAMB'S TRIUMPH OF THE WHALE.
319
320"In the year 1690 some persons were on a high hill observing the
321whales spouting and sporting with each other, when one observed:
322there--pointing to the sea--is a green pasture where our children's
323grand-children will go for bread." --OBED MACY'S HISTORY OF NANTUCKET.
324
325"I built a cottage for Susan and myself and made a gateway in the form
326of a Gothic Arch, by setting up a whale's jaw bones." --HAWTHORNE'S
327TWICE TOLD TALES.
328
329"She came to bespeak a monument for her first love, who had been killed
330by a whale in the Pacific ocean, no less than forty years ago." --IBID.
331
332"No, Sir, 'tis a Right Whale," answered Tom; "I saw his sprout; he threw
333up a pair of as pretty rainbows as a Christian would wish to look at.
334He's a raal oil-butt, that fellow!" --COOPER'S PILOT.
335
336"The papers were brought in, and we saw in the Berlin Gazette
337that whales had been introduced on the stage there." --ECKERMANN'S
338CONVERSATIONS WITH GOETHE.
339
340"My God! Mr. Chace, what is the matter?" I answered, "we have been stove
341by a whale." --"NARRATIVE OF THE SHIPWRECK OF THE WHALE SHIP ESSEX OF
342NANTUCKET, WHICH WAS ATTACKED AND FINALLY DESTROYED BY A LARGE SPERM
343WHALE IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN." BY OWEN CHACE OF NANTUCKET, FIRST MATE OF
344SAID VESSEL. NEW YORK, 1821.
345
346     "A mariner sat in the shrouds one night,
347     The wind was piping free;
348     Now bright, now dimmed, was the moonlight pale,
349     And the phospher gleamed in the wake of the whale,
350     As it floundered in the sea."
351     --ELIZABETH OAKES SMITH.
352
353"The quantity of line withdrawn from the boats engaged in the capture
354of this one whale, amounted altogether to 10,440 yards or nearly six
355English miles....
356
357"Sometimes the whale shakes its tremendous tail in the air, which,
358cracking like a whip, resounds to the distance of three or four miles."
359--SCORESBY.
360
361"Mad with the agonies he endures from these fresh attacks, the
362infuriated Sperm Whale rolls over and over; he rears his enormous head,
363and with wide expanded jaws snaps at everything around him; he rushes
364at the boats with his head; they are propelled before him with vast
365swiftness, and sometimes utterly destroyed.... It is a matter of great
366astonishment that the consideration of the habits of so interesting,
367and, in a commercial point of view, so important an animal (as the Sperm
368Whale) should have been so entirely neglected, or should have excited
369so little curiosity among the numerous, and many of them competent
370observers, that of late years, must have possessed the most abundant
371and the most convenient opportunities of witnessing their habitudes."
372--THOMAS BEALE'S HISTORY OF THE SPERM WHALE, 1839.
373
374"The Cachalot" (Sperm Whale) "is not only better armed than the True
375Whale" (Greenland or Right Whale) "in possessing a formidable weapon
376at either extremity of its body, but also more frequently displays a
377disposition to employ these weapons offensively and in manner at once so
378artful, bold, and mischievous, as to lead to its being regarded as the
379most dangerous to attack of all the known species of the whale tribe."
380--FREDERICK DEBELL BENNETT'S WHALING VOYAGE ROUND THE GLOBE, 1840.
381
382     October 13.  "There she blows," was sung out from the mast-head.
383     "Where away?" demanded the captain.
384     "Three points off the lee bow, sir."
385     "Raise up your wheel.  Steady!"  "Steady, sir."
386     "Mast-head ahoy!  Do you see that whale now?"
387     "Ay ay, sir!  A shoal of Sperm Whales!  There she blows!  There she
388     breaches!"
389     "Sing out! sing out every time!"
390     "Ay Ay, sir!  There she blows! there--there--THAR she
391     blows--bowes--bo-o-os!"
392     "How far off?"
393     "Two miles and a half."
394     "Thunder and lightning! so near!  Call all hands."
395     --J. ROSS BROWNE'S ETCHINGS OF A WHALING CRUIZE.  1846.
396
397"The Whale-ship Globe, on board of which vessel occurred the horrid
398transactions we are about to relate, belonged to the island of
399Nantucket." --"NARRATIVE OF THE GLOBE," BY LAY AND HUSSEY SURVIVORS.
400A.D. 1828.
401
402Being once pursued by a whale which he had wounded, he parried the
403assault for some time with a lance; but the furious monster at length
404rushed on the boat; himself and comrades only being preserved by leaping
405into the water when they saw the onset was inevitable." --MISSIONARY
406JOURNAL OF TYERMAN AND BENNETT.
407
408"Nantucket itself," said Mr. Webster, "is a very striking and peculiar
409portion of the National interest. There is a population of eight or nine
410thousand persons living here in the sea, adding largely every year
411to the National wealth by the boldest and most persevering industry."
412--REPORT OF DANIEL WEBSTER'S SPEECH IN THE U. S. SENATE, ON THE
413APPLICATION FOR THE ERECTION OF A BREAKWATER AT NANTUCKET. 1828.
414
415"The whale fell directly over him, and probably killed him in a moment."
416--"THE WHALE AND HIS CAPTORS, OR THE WHALEMAN'S ADVENTURES AND THE
417WHALE'S BIOGRAPHY, GATHERED ON THE HOMEWARD CRUISE OF THE COMMODORE
418PREBLE." BY REV. HENRY T. CHEEVER.
419
420"If you make the least damn bit of noise," replied Samuel, "I will send
421you to hell." --LIFE OF SAMUEL COMSTOCK (THE MUTINEER), BY HIS BROTHER,
422WILLIAM COMSTOCK. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE WHALE-SHIP GLOBE NARRATIVE.
423
424"The voyages of the Dutch and English to the Northern Ocean, in order,
425if possible, to discover a passage through it to India, though they
426failed of their main object, laid-open the haunts of the whale."
427--MCCULLOCH'S COMMERCIAL DICTIONARY.
428
429"These things are reciprocal; the ball rebounds, only to bound forward
430again; for now in laying open the haunts of the whale, the whalemen seem
431to have indirectly hit upon new clews to that same mystic North-West
432Passage." --FROM "SOMETHING" UNPUBLISHED.
433
434"It is impossible to meet a whale-ship on the ocean without being struck
435by her near appearance. The vessel under short sail, with look-outs at
436the mast-heads, eagerly scanning the wide expanse around them, has a
437totally different air from those engaged in regular voyage." --CURRENTS
438AND WHALING. U.S. EX. EX.
439
440"Pedestrians in the vicinity of London and elsewhere may recollect
441having seen large curved bones set upright in the earth, either to form
442arches over gateways, or entrances to alcoves, and they may perhaps
443have been told that these were the ribs of whales." --TALES OF A WHALE
444VOYAGER TO THE ARCTIC OCEAN.
445
446"It was not till the boats returned from the pursuit of these whales,
447that the whites saw their ship in bloody possession of the savages
448enrolled among the crew." --NEWSPAPER ACCOUNT OF THE TAKING AND RETAKING
449OF THE WHALE-SHIP HOBOMACK.
450
451"It is generally well known that out of the crews of Whaling vessels
452(American) few ever return in the ships on board of which they
453departed." --CRUISE IN A WHALE BOAT.
454
455"Suddenly a mighty mass emerged from the water, and shot up
456perpendicularly into the air. It was the whale." --MIRIAM COFFIN OR THE
457WHALE FISHERMAN.
458
459"The Whale is harpooned to be sure; but bethink you, how you would
460manage a powerful unbroken colt, with the mere appliance of a rope tied
461to the root of his tail." --A CHAPTER ON WHALING IN RIBS AND TRUCKS.
462
463"On one occasion I saw two of these monsters (whales) probably male and
464female, slowly swimming, one after the other, within less than a stone's
465throw of the shore" (Terra Del Fuego), "over which the beech tree
466extended its branches." --DARWIN'S VOYAGE OF A NATURALIST.
467
468"'Stern all!' exclaimed the mate, as upon turning his head, he saw the
469distended jaws of a large Sperm Whale close to the head of the boat,
470threatening it with instant destruction;--'Stern all, for your lives!'"
471--WHARTON THE WHALE KILLER.
472
473"So be cheery, my lads, let your hearts never fail, While the bold
474harpooneer is striking the whale!" --NANTUCKET SONG.
475
476     "Oh, the rare old Whale, mid storm and gale
477     In his ocean home will be
478     A giant in might, where might is right,
479     And King of the boundless sea."
480     --WHALE SONG.
481
482
483
484
485CHAPTER 1. Loomings.
486
487
488Call me Ishmael. Some years ago--never mind how long precisely--having
489little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on
490shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of
491the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating
492the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth;
493whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find
494myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up
495the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get
496such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to
497prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically
498knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea
499as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a
500philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly
501take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew
502it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very
503nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.
504
505There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by
506wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs--commerce surrounds it with
507her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its extreme
508downtown is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and
509cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land.
510Look at the crowds of water-gazers there.
511
512Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. Go from Corlears
513Hook to Coenties Slip, and from thence, by Whitehall, northward. What
514do you see?--Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand
515thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. Some
516leaning against the spiles; some seated upon the pier-heads; some
517looking over the bulwarks of ships from China; some high aloft in the
518rigging, as if striving to get a still better seaward peep. But these
519are all landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plaster--tied to
520counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks. How then is this? Are
521the green fields gone? What do they here?
522
523But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and
524seemingly bound for a dive. Strange! Nothing will content them but the
525extremest limit of the land; loitering under the shady lee of yonder
526warehouses will not suffice. No. They must get just as nigh the water
527as they possibly can without falling in. And there they stand--miles of
528them--leagues. Inlanders all, they come from lanes and alleys, streets
529and avenues--north, east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite.
530Tell me, does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all
531those ships attract them thither?
532
533Once more. Say you are in the country; in some high land of lakes. Take
534almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a
535dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic
536in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest
537reveries--stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will
538infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region.
539Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this
540experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical
541professor. Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for
542ever.
543
544But here is an artist. He desires to paint you the dreamiest, shadiest,
545quietest, most enchanting bit of romantic landscape in all the valley of
546the Saco. What is the chief element he employs? There stand his trees,
547each with a hollow trunk, as if a hermit and a crucifix were within; and
548here sleeps his meadow, and there sleep his cattle; and up from yonder
549cottage goes a sleepy smoke. Deep into distant woodlands winds a
550mazy way, reaching to overlapping spurs of mountains bathed in their
551hill-side blue. But though the picture lies thus tranced, and though
552this pine-tree shakes down its sighs like leaves upon this shepherd's
553head, yet all were vain, unless the shepherd's eye were fixed upon the
554magic stream before him. Go visit the Prairies in June, when for scores
555on scores of miles you wade knee-deep among Tiger-lilies--what is the
556one charm wanting?--Water--there is not a drop of water there! Were
557Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to
558see it? Why did the poor poet of Tennessee, upon suddenly receiving two
559handfuls of silver, deliberate whether to buy him a coat, which he sadly
560needed, or invest his money in a pedestrian trip to Rockaway Beach? Why
561is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at
562some time or other crazy to go to sea? Why upon your first voyage as a
563passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first
564told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? Why did the
565old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate
566deity, and own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning.
567And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because
568he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain,
569plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see
570in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of
571life; and this is the key to it all.
572
573Now, when I say that I am in the habit of going to sea whenever I begin
574to grow hazy about the eyes, and begin to be over conscious of my lungs,
575I do not mean to have it inferred that I ever go to sea as a passenger.
576For to go as a passenger you must needs have a purse, and a purse is
577but a rag unless you have something in it. Besides, passengers get
578sea-sick--grow quarrelsome--don't sleep of nights--do not enjoy
579themselves much, as a general thing;--no, I never go as a passenger;
580nor, though I am something of a salt, do I ever go to sea as a
581Commodore, or a Captain, or a Cook. I abandon the glory and distinction
582of such offices to those who like them. For my part, I abominate all
583honourable respectable toils, trials, and tribulations of every kind
584whatsoever. It is quite as much as I can do to take care of myself,
585without taking care of ships, barques, brigs, schooners, and what not.
586And as for going as cook,--though I confess there is considerable glory
587in that, a cook being a sort of officer on ship-board--yet, somehow,
588I never fancied broiling fowls;--though once broiled, judiciously
589buttered, and judgmatically salted and peppered, there is no one who
590will speak more respectfully, not to say reverentially, of a broiled
591fowl than I will. It is out of the idolatrous dotings of the old
592Egyptians upon broiled ibis and roasted river horse, that you see the
593mummies of those creatures in their huge bake-houses the pyramids.
594
595No, when I go to sea, I go as a simple sailor, right before the mast,
596plumb down into the forecastle, aloft there to the royal mast-head.
597True, they rather order me about some, and make me jump from spar to
598spar, like a grasshopper in a May meadow. And at first, this sort
599of thing is unpleasant enough. It touches one's sense of honour,
600particularly if you come of an old established family in the land, the
601Van Rensselaers, or Randolphs, or Hardicanutes. And more than all,
602if just previous to putting your hand into the tar-pot, you have been
603lording it as a country schoolmaster, making the tallest boys stand
604in awe of you. The transition is a keen one, I assure you, from a
605schoolmaster to a sailor, and requires a strong decoction of Seneca and
606the Stoics to enable you to grin and bear it. But even this wears off in
607time.
608
609What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me to get a broom
610and sweep down the decks? What does that indignity amount to, weighed,
611I mean, in the scales of the New Testament? Do you think the archangel
612Gabriel thinks anything the less of me, because I promptly and
613respectfully obey that old hunks in that particular instance? Who ain't
614a slave? Tell me that. Well, then, however the old sea-captains may
615order me about--however they may thump and punch me about, I have the
616satisfaction of knowing that it is all right; that everybody else is
617one way or other served in much the same way--either in a physical
618or metaphysical point of view, that is; and so the universal thump is
619passed round, and all hands should rub each other's shoulder-blades, and
620be content.
621
622Again, I always go to sea as a sailor, because they make a point of
623paying me for my trouble, whereas they never pay passengers a single
624penny that I ever heard of. On the contrary, passengers themselves must
625pay. And there is all the difference in the world between paying
626and being paid. The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable
627infliction that the two orchard thieves entailed upon us. But BEING
628PAID,--what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man
629receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly
630believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account
631can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves
632to perdition!
633
634Finally, I always go to sea as a sailor, because of the wholesome
635exercise and pure air of the fore-castle deck. For as in this world,
636head winds are far more prevalent than winds from astern (that is,
637if you never violate the Pythagorean maxim), so for the most part the
638Commodore on the quarter-deck gets his atmosphere at second hand from
639the sailors on the forecastle. He thinks he breathes it first; but not
640so. In much the same way do the commonalty lead their leaders in many
641other things, at the same time that the leaders little suspect it.
642But wherefore it was that after having repeatedly smelt the sea as a
643merchant sailor, I should now take it into my head to go on a whaling
644voyage; this the invisible police officer of the Fates, who has the
645constant surveillance of me, and secretly dogs me, and influences me
646in some unaccountable way--he can better answer than any one else. And,
647doubtless, my going on this whaling voyage, formed part of the grand
648programme of Providence that was drawn up a long time ago. It came in as
649a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances.
650I take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this:
651
652
653"GRAND CONTESTED ELECTION FOR THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES.
654
655"WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL.
656
657"BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN."
658
659
660Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers, the
661Fates, put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage, when others
662were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies, and short and
663easy parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces--though
664I cannot tell why this was exactly; yet, now that I recall all the
665circumstances, I think I can see a little into the springs and motives
666which being cunningly presented to me under various disguises, induced
667me to set about performing the part I did, besides cajoling me into the
668delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill
669and discriminating judgment.
670
671Chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great
672whale himself. Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my
673curiosity. Then the wild and distant seas where he rolled his island
674bulk; the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale; these, with all
675the attending marvels of a thousand Patagonian sights and sounds, helped
676to sway me to my wish. With other men, perhaps, such things would not
677have been inducements; but as for me, I am tormented with an everlasting
678itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on
679barbarous coasts. Not ignoring what is good, I am quick to perceive a
680horror, and could still be social with it--would they let me--since it
681is but well to be on friendly terms with all the inmates of the place
682one lodges in.
683
684By reason of these things, then, the whaling voyage was welcome; the
685great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open, and in the wild
686conceits that swayed me to my purpose, two and two there floated into
687my inmost soul, endless processions of the whale, and, mid most of them
688all, one grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in the air.
689
690
691
692CHAPTER 2. The Carpet-Bag.
693
694
695I stuffed a shirt or two into my old carpet-bag, tucked it under my arm,
696and started for Cape Horn and the Pacific. Quitting the good city of
697old Manhatto, I duly arrived in New Bedford. It was a Saturday night in
698December. Much was I disappointed upon learning that the little packet
699for Nantucket had already sailed, and that no way of reaching that place
700would offer, till the following Monday.
701
702As most young candidates for the pains and penalties of whaling stop at
703this same New Bedford, thence to embark on their voyage, it may as well
704be related that I, for one, had no idea of so doing. For my mind was
705made up to sail in no other than a Nantucket craft, because there was a
706fine, boisterous something about everything connected with that famous
707old island, which amazingly pleased me. Besides though New Bedford has
708of late been gradually monopolising the business of whaling, and though
709in this matter poor old Nantucket is now much behind her, yet Nantucket
710was her great original--the Tyre of this Carthage;--the place where the
711first dead American whale was stranded. Where else but from Nantucket
712did those aboriginal whalemen, the Red-Men, first sally out in canoes to
713give chase to the Leviathan? And where but from Nantucket, too, did that
714first adventurous little sloop put forth, partly laden with imported
715cobblestones--so goes the story--to throw at the whales, in order to
716discover when they were nigh enough to risk a harpoon from the bowsprit?
717
718Now having a night, a day, and still another night following before me
719in New Bedford, ere I could embark for my destined port, it became a
720matter of concernment where I was to eat and sleep meanwhile. It was a
721very dubious-looking, nay, a very dark and dismal night, bitingly cold
722and cheerless. I knew no one in the place. With anxious grapnels I had
723sounded my pocket, and only brought up a few pieces of silver,--So,
724wherever you go, Ishmael, said I to myself, as I stood in the middle of
725a dreary street shouldering my bag, and comparing the gloom towards the
726north with the darkness towards the south--wherever in your wisdom you
727may conclude to lodge for the night, my dear Ishmael, be sure to inquire
728the price, and don't be too particular.
729
730With halting steps I paced the streets, and passed the sign of "The
731Crossed Harpoons"--but it looked too expensive and jolly there. Further
732on, from the bright red windows of the "Sword-Fish Inn," there came such
733fervent rays, that it seemed to have melted the packed snow and ice from
734before the house, for everywhere else the congealed frost lay ten inches
735thick in a hard, asphaltic pavement,--rather weary for me, when I struck
736my foot against the flinty projections, because from hard, remorseless
737service the soles of my boots were in a most miserable plight. Too
738expensive and jolly, again thought I, pausing one moment to watch the
739broad glare in the street, and hear the sounds of the tinkling glasses
740within. But go on, Ishmael, said I at last; don't you hear? get away
741from before the door; your patched boots are stopping the way. So on I
742went. I now by instinct followed the streets that took me waterward, for
743there, doubtless, were the cheapest, if not the cheeriest inns.
744
745Such dreary streets! blocks of blackness, not houses, on either hand,
746and here and there a candle, like a candle moving about in a tomb. At
747this hour of the night, of the last day of the week, that quarter of
748the town proved all but deserted. But presently I came to a smoky light
749proceeding from a low, wide building, the door of which stood invitingly
750open. It had a careless look, as if it were meant for the uses of the
751public; so, entering, the first thing I did was to stumble over an
752ash-box in the porch. Ha! thought I, ha, as the flying particles almost
753choked me, are these ashes from that destroyed city, Gomorrah? But "The
754Crossed Harpoons," and "The Sword-Fish?"--this, then must needs be the
755sign of "The Trap." However, I picked myself up and hearing a loud voice
756within, pushed on and opened a second, interior door.
757
758It seemed the great Black Parliament sitting in Tophet. A hundred black
759faces turned round in their rows to peer; and beyond, a black Angel
760of Doom was beating a book in a pulpit. It was a negro church; and the
761preacher's text was about the blackness of darkness, and the weeping and
762wailing and teeth-gnashing there. Ha, Ishmael, muttered I, backing out,
763Wretched entertainment at the sign of 'The Trap!'
764
765Moving on, I at last came to a dim sort of light not far from the docks,
766and heard a forlorn creaking in the air; and looking up, saw a swinging
767sign over the door with a white painting upon it, faintly representing
768a tall straight jet of misty spray, and these words underneath--"The
769Spouter Inn:--Peter Coffin."
770
771Coffin?--Spouter?--Rather ominous in that particular connexion, thought
772I. But it is a common name in Nantucket, they say, and I suppose this
773Peter here is an emigrant from there. As the light looked so dim, and
774the place, for the time, looked quiet enough, and the dilapidated little
775wooden house itself looked as if it might have been carted here from
776the ruins of some burnt district, and as the swinging sign had a
777poverty-stricken sort of creak to it, I thought that here was the very
778spot for cheap lodgings, and the best of pea coffee.
779
780It was a queer sort of place--a gable-ended old house, one side palsied
781as it were, and leaning over sadly. It stood on a sharp bleak corner,
782where that tempestuous wind Euroclydon kept up a worse howling than ever
783it did about poor Paul's tossed craft. Euroclydon, nevertheless, is a
784mighty pleasant zephyr to any one in-doors, with his feet on the hob
785quietly toasting for bed. "In judging of that tempestuous wind called
786Euroclydon," says an old writer--of whose works I possess the only copy
787extant--"it maketh a marvellous difference, whether thou lookest out at
788it from a glass window where the frost is all on the outside, or whether
789thou observest it from that sashless window, where the frost is on both
790sides, and of which the wight Death is the only glazier." True enough,
791thought I, as this passage occurred to my mind--old black-letter, thou
792reasonest well. Yes, these eyes are windows, and this body of mine is
793the house. What a pity they didn't stop up the chinks and the crannies
794though, and thrust in a little lint here and there. But it's too late
795to make any improvements now. The universe is finished; the copestone
796is on, and the chips were carted off a million years ago. Poor Lazarus
797there, chattering his teeth against the curbstone for his pillow, and
798shaking off his tatters with his shiverings, he might plug up both ears
799with rags, and put a corn-cob into his mouth, and yet that would not
800keep out the tempestuous Euroclydon. Euroclydon! says old Dives, in his
801red silken wrapper--(he had a redder one afterwards) pooh, pooh! What
802a fine frosty night; how Orion glitters; what northern lights! Let them
803talk of their oriental summer climes of everlasting conservatories; give
804me the privilege of making my own summer with my own coals.
805
806But what thinks Lazarus? Can he warm his blue hands by holding them up
807to the grand northern lights? Would not Lazarus rather be in Sumatra
808than here? Would he not far rather lay him down lengthwise along the
809line of the equator; yea, ye gods! go down to the fiery pit itself, in
810order to keep out this frost?
811
812Now, that Lazarus should lie stranded there on the curbstone before the
813door of Dives, this is more wonderful than that an iceberg should be
814moored to one of the Moluccas. Yet Dives himself, he too lives like a
815Czar in an ice palace made of frozen sighs, and being a president of a
816temperance society, he only drinks the tepid tears of orphans.
817
818But no more of this blubbering now, we are going a-whaling, and there is
819plenty of that yet to come. Let us scrape the ice from our frosted feet,
820and see what sort of a place this "Spouter" may be.
821
822
823
824CHAPTER 3. The Spouter-Inn.
825
826
827Entering that gable-ended Spouter-Inn, you found yourself in a wide,
828low, straggling entry with old-fashioned wainscots, reminding one of
829the bulwarks of some condemned old craft. On one side hung a very large
830oilpainting so thoroughly besmoked, and every way defaced, that in the
831unequal crosslights by which you viewed it, it was only by diligent
832study and a series of systematic visits to it, and careful inquiry of
833the neighbors, that you could any way arrive at an understanding of its
834purpose. Such unaccountable masses of shades and shadows, that at first
835you almost thought some ambitious young artist, in the time of the New
836England hags, had endeavored to delineate chaos bewitched. But by dint
837of much and earnest contemplation, and oft repeated ponderings, and
838especially by throwing open the little window towards the back of the
839entry, you at last come to the conclusion that such an idea, however
840wild, might not be altogether unwarranted.
841
842But what most puzzled and confounded you was a long, limber, portentous,
843black mass of something hovering in the centre of the picture over three
844blue, dim, perpendicular lines floating in a nameless yeast. A boggy,
845soggy, squitchy picture truly, enough to drive a nervous man distracted.
846Yet was there a sort of indefinite, half-attained, unimaginable
847sublimity about it that fairly froze you to it, till you involuntarily
848took an oath with yourself to find out what that marvellous painting
849meant. Ever and anon a bright, but, alas, deceptive idea would dart you
850through.--It's the Black Sea in a midnight gale.--It's the unnatural
851combat of the four primal elements.--It's a blasted heath.--It's a
852Hyperborean winter scene.--It's the breaking-up of the icebound stream
853of Time. But at last all these fancies yielded to that one portentous
854something in the picture's midst. THAT once found out, and all the rest
855were plain. But stop; does it not bear a faint resemblance to a gigantic
856fish? even the great leviathan himself?
857
858In fact, the artist's design seemed this: a final theory of my own,
859partly based upon the aggregated opinions of many aged persons with whom
860I conversed upon the subject. The picture represents a Cape-Horner in a
861great hurricane; the half-foundered ship weltering there with its three
862dismantled masts alone visible; and an exasperated whale, purposing to
863spring clean over the craft, is in the enormous act of impaling himself
864upon the three mast-heads.
865
866The opposite wall of this entry was hung all over with a heathenish
867array of monstrous clubs and spears. Some were thickly set with
868glittering teeth resembling ivory saws; others were tufted with knots of
869human hair; and one was sickle-shaped, with a vast handle sweeping round
870like the segment made in the new-mown grass by a long-armed mower. You
871shuddered as you gazed, and wondered what monstrous cannibal and savage
872could ever have gone a death-harvesting with such a hacking, horrifying
873implement. Mixed with these were rusty old whaling lances and harpoons
874all broken and deformed. Some were storied weapons. With this once long
875lance, now wildly elbowed, fifty years ago did Nathan Swain kill fifteen
876whales between a sunrise and a sunset. And that harpoon--so like a
877corkscrew now--was flung in Javan seas, and run away with by a whale,
878years afterwards slain off the Cape of Blanco. The original iron entered
879nigh the tail, and, like a restless needle sojourning in the body of a
880man, travelled full forty feet, and at last was found imbedded in the
881hump.
882
883Crossing this dusky entry, and on through yon low-arched way--cut
884through what in old times must have been a great central chimney with
885fireplaces all round--you enter the public room. A still duskier place
886is this, with such low ponderous beams above, and such old wrinkled
887planks beneath, that you would almost fancy you trod some old craft's
888cockpits, especially of such a howling night, when this corner-anchored
889old ark rocked so furiously. On one side stood a long, low, shelf-like
890table covered with cracked glass cases, filled with dusty rarities
891gathered from this wide world's remotest nooks. Projecting from the
892further angle of the room stands a dark-looking den--the bar--a rude
893attempt at a right whale's head. Be that how it may, there stands the
894vast arched bone of the whale's jaw, so wide, a coach might almost drive
895beneath it. Within are shabby shelves, ranged round with old decanters,
896bottles, flasks; and in those jaws of swift destruction, like another
897cursed Jonah (by which name indeed they called him), bustles a little
898withered old man, who, for their money, dearly sells the sailors
899deliriums and death.
900
901Abominable are the tumblers into which he pours his poison. Though
902true cylinders without--within, the villanous green goggling glasses
903deceitfully tapered downwards to a cheating bottom. Parallel meridians
904rudely pecked into the glass, surround these footpads' goblets. Fill to
905THIS mark, and your charge is but a penny; to THIS a penny more; and so
906on to the full glass--the Cape Horn measure, which you may gulp down for
907a shilling.
908
909Upon entering the place I found a number of young seamen gathered about
910a table, examining by a dim light divers specimens of SKRIMSHANDER. I
911sought the landlord, and telling him I desired to be accommodated with a
912room, received for answer that his house was full--not a bed unoccupied.
913"But avast," he added, tapping his forehead, "you haint no objections
914to sharing a harpooneer's blanket, have ye? I s'pose you are goin'
915a-whalin', so you'd better get used to that sort of thing."
916
917I told him that I never liked to sleep two in a bed; that if I should
918ever do so, it would depend upon who the harpooneer might be, and
919that if he (the landlord) really had no other place for me, and the
920harpooneer was not decidedly objectionable, why rather than wander
921further about a strange town on so bitter a night, I would put up with
922the half of any decent man's blanket.
923
924"I thought so. All right; take a seat. Supper?--you want supper?
925Supper'll be ready directly."
926
927I sat down on an old wooden settle, carved all over like a bench on the
928Battery. At one end a ruminating tar was still further adorning it with
929his jack-knife, stooping over and diligently working away at the space
930between his legs. He was trying his hand at a ship under full sail, but
931he didn't make much headway, I thought.
932
933At last some four or five of us were summoned to our meal in an
934adjoining room. It was cold as Iceland--no fire at all--the landlord
935said he couldn't afford it. Nothing but two dismal tallow candles, each
936in a winding sheet. We were fain to button up our monkey jackets, and
937hold to our lips cups of scalding tea with our half frozen fingers. But
938the fare was of the most substantial kind--not only meat and potatoes,
939but dumplings; good heavens! dumplings for supper! One young fellow in
940a green box coat, addressed himself to these dumplings in a most direful
941manner.
942
943"My boy," said the landlord, "you'll have the nightmare to a dead
944sartainty."
945
946"Landlord," I whispered, "that aint the harpooneer is it?"
947
948"Oh, no," said he, looking a sort of diabolically funny, "the harpooneer
949is a dark complexioned chap. He never eats dumplings, he don't--he eats
950nothing but steaks, and he likes 'em rare."
951
952"The devil he does," says I. "Where is that harpooneer? Is he here?"
953
954"He'll be here afore long," was the answer.
955
956I could not help it, but I began to feel suspicious of this "dark
957complexioned" harpooneer. At any rate, I made up my mind that if it so
958turned out that we should sleep together, he must undress and get into
959bed before I did.
960
961Supper over, the company went back to the bar-room, when, knowing not
962what else to do with myself, I resolved to spend the rest of the evening
963as a looker on.
964
965Presently a rioting noise was heard without. Starting up, the landlord
966cried, "That's the Grampus's crew. I seed her reported in the offing
967this morning; a three years' voyage, and a full ship. Hurrah, boys; now
968we'll have the latest news from the Feegees."
969
970A tramping of sea boots was heard in the entry; the door was flung open,
971and in rolled a wild set of mariners enough. Enveloped in their shaggy
972watch coats, and with their heads muffled in woollen comforters, all
973bedarned and ragged, and their beards stiff with icicles, they seemed an
974eruption of bears from Labrador. They had just landed from their boat,
975and this was the first house they entered. No wonder, then, that they
976made a straight wake for the whale's mouth--the bar--when the wrinkled
977little old Jonah, there officiating, soon poured them out brimmers all
978round. One complained of a bad cold in his head, upon which Jonah
979mixed him a pitch-like potion of gin and molasses, which he swore was a
980sovereign cure for all colds and catarrhs whatsoever, never mind of how
981long standing, or whether caught off the coast of Labrador, or on the
982weather side of an ice-island.
983
984The liquor soon mounted into their heads, as it generally does even
985with the arrantest topers newly landed from sea, and they began capering
986about most obstreperously.
987
988I observed, however, that one of them held somewhat aloof, and though
989he seemed desirous not to spoil the hilarity of his shipmates by his own
990sober face, yet upon the whole he refrained from making as much noise
991as the rest. This man interested me at once; and since the sea-gods
992had ordained that he should soon become my shipmate (though but a
993sleeping-partner one, so far as this narrative is concerned), I will
994here venture upon a little description of him. He stood full six feet
995in height, with noble shoulders, and a chest like a coffer-dam. I have
996seldom seen such brawn in a man. His face was deeply brown and burnt,
997making his white teeth dazzling by the contrast; while in the deep
998shadows of his eyes floated some reminiscences that did not seem to give
999him much joy. His voice at once announced that he was a Southerner,
1000and from his fine stature, I thought he must be one of those tall
1001mountaineers from the Alleghanian Ridge in Virginia. When the revelry
1002of his companions had mounted to its height, this man slipped away
1003unobserved, and I saw no more of him till he became my comrade on the
1004sea. In a few minutes, however, he was missed by his shipmates, and
1005being, it seems, for some reason a huge favourite with them, they raised
1006a cry of "Bulkington! Bulkington! where's Bulkington?" and darted out of
1007the house in pursuit of him.
1008
1009It was now about nine o'clock, and the room seeming almost
1010supernaturally quiet after these orgies, I began to congratulate myself
1011upon a little plan that had occurred to me just previous to the entrance
1012of the seamen.
1013
1014No man prefers to sleep two in a bed. In fact, you would a good deal
1015rather not sleep with your own brother. I don't know how it is, but
1016people like to be private when they are sleeping. And when it comes to
1017sleeping with an unknown stranger, in a strange inn, in a strange
1018town, and that stranger a harpooneer, then your objections indefinitely
1019multiply. Nor was there any earthly reason why I as a sailor should
1020sleep two in a bed, more than anybody else; for sailors no more sleep
1021two in a bed at sea, than bachelor Kings do ashore. To be sure they
1022all sleep together in one apartment, but you have your own hammock, and
1023cover yourself with your own blanket, and sleep in your own skin.
1024
1025The more I pondered over this harpooneer, the more I abominated the
1026thought of sleeping with him. It was fair to presume that being a
1027harpooneer, his linen or woollen, as the case might be, would not be of
1028the tidiest, certainly none of the finest. I began to twitch all over.
1029Besides, it was getting late, and my decent harpooneer ought to be
1030home and going bedwards. Suppose now, he should tumble in upon me at
1031midnight--how could I tell from what vile hole he had been coming?
1032
1033"Landlord! I've changed my mind about that harpooneer.--I shan't sleep
1034with him. I'll try the bench here."
1035
1036"Just as you please; I'm sorry I can't spare ye a tablecloth for a
1037mattress, and it's a plaguy rough board here"--feeling of the knots and
1038notches. "But wait a bit, Skrimshander; I've got a carpenter's plane
1039there in the bar--wait, I say, and I'll make ye snug enough." So saying
1040he procured the plane; and with his old silk handkerchief first dusting
1041the bench, vigorously set to planing away at my bed, the while grinning
1042like an ape. The shavings flew right and left; till at last the
1043plane-iron came bump against an indestructible knot. The landlord was
1044near spraining his wrist, and I told him for heaven's sake to quit--the
1045bed was soft enough to suit me, and I did not know how all the planing
1046in the world could make eider down of a pine plank. So gathering up the
1047shavings with another grin, and throwing them into the great stove in
1048the middle of the room, he went about his business, and left me in a
1049brown study.
1050
1051I now took the measure of the bench, and found that it was a foot too
1052short; but that could be mended with a chair. But it was a foot too
1053narrow, and the other bench in the room was about four inches higher
1054than the planed one--so there was no yoking them. I then placed the
1055first bench lengthwise along the only clear space against the wall,
1056leaving a little interval between, for my back to settle down in. But I
1057soon found that there came such a draught of cold air over me from under
1058the sill of the window, that this plan would never do at all, especially
1059as another current from the rickety door met the one from the window,
1060and both together formed a series of small whirlwinds in the immediate
1061vicinity of the spot where I had thought to spend the night.
1062
1063The devil fetch that harpooneer, thought I, but stop, couldn't I steal
1064a march on him--bolt his door inside, and jump into his bed, not to be
1065wakened by the most violent knockings? It seemed no bad idea; but upon
1066second thoughts I dismissed it. For who could tell but what the next
1067morning, so soon as I popped out of the room, the harpooneer might be
1068standing in the entry, all ready to knock me down!
1069
1070Still, looking round me again, and seeing no possible chance of spending
1071a sufferable night unless in some other person's bed, I began to think
1072that after all I might be cherishing unwarrantable prejudices against
1073this unknown harpooneer. Thinks I, I'll wait awhile; he must be dropping
1074in before long. I'll have a good look at him then, and perhaps we may
1075become jolly good bedfellows after all--there's no telling.
1076
1077But though the other boarders kept coming in by ones, twos, and threes,
1078and going to bed, yet no sign of my harpooneer.
1079
1080"Landlord!" said I, "what sort of a chap is he--does he always keep such
1081late hours?" It was now hard upon twelve o'clock.
1082
1083The landlord chuckled again with his lean chuckle, and seemed to
1084be mightily tickled at something beyond my comprehension. "No," he
1085answered, "generally he's an early bird--airley to bed and airley to
1086rise--yes, he's the bird what catches the worm. But to-night he went out
1087a peddling, you see, and I don't see what on airth keeps him so late,
1088unless, may be, he can't sell his head."
1089
1090"Can't sell his head?--What sort of a bamboozingly story is this you
1091are telling me?" getting into a towering rage. "Do you pretend to say,
1092landlord, that this harpooneer is actually engaged this blessed Saturday
1093night, or rather Sunday morning, in peddling his head around this town?"
1094
1095"That's precisely it," said the landlord, "and I told him he couldn't
1096sell it here, the market's overstocked."
1097
1098"With what?" shouted I.
1099
1100"With heads to be sure; ain't there too many heads in the world?"
1101
1102"I tell you what it is, landlord," said I quite calmly, "you'd better
1103stop spinning that yarn to me--I'm not green."
1104
1105"May be not," taking out a stick and whittling a toothpick, "but I
1106rayther guess you'll be done BROWN if that ere harpooneer hears you a
1107slanderin' his head."
1108
1109"I'll break it for him," said I, now flying into a passion again at this
1110unaccountable farrago of the landlord's.
1111
1112"It's broke a'ready," said he.
1113
1114"Broke," said I--"BROKE, do you mean?"
1115
1116"Sartain, and that's the very reason he can't sell it, I guess."
1117
1118"Landlord," said I, going up to him as cool as Mt. Hecla in a
1119snow-storm--"landlord, stop whittling. You and I must understand one
1120another, and that too without delay. I come to your house and want a
1121bed; you tell me you can only give me half a one; that the other half
1122belongs to a certain harpooneer. And about this harpooneer, whom I
1123have not yet seen, you persist in telling me the most mystifying and
1124exasperating stories tending to beget in me an uncomfortable feeling
1125towards the man whom you design for my bedfellow--a sort of connexion,
1126landlord, which is an intimate and confidential one in the highest
1127degree. I now demand of you to speak out and tell me who and what this
1128harpooneer is, and whether I shall be in all respects safe to spend the
1129night with him. And in the first place, you will be so good as to unsay
1130that story about selling his head, which if true I take to be good
1131evidence that this harpooneer is stark mad, and I've no idea of sleeping
1132with a madman; and you, sir, YOU I mean, landlord, YOU, sir, by trying
1133to induce me to do so knowingly, would thereby render yourself liable to
1134a criminal prosecution."
1135
1136"Wall," said the landlord, fetching a long breath, "that's a purty long
1137sarmon for a chap that rips a little now and then. But be easy, be easy,
1138this here harpooneer I have been tellin' you of has just arrived from
1139the south seas, where he bought up a lot of 'balmed New Zealand heads
1140(great curios, you know), and he's sold all on 'em but one, and that one
1141he's trying to sell to-night, cause to-morrow's Sunday, and it would not
1142do to be sellin' human heads about the streets when folks is goin' to
1143churches. He wanted to, last Sunday, but I stopped him just as he was
1144goin' out of the door with four heads strung on a string, for all the
1145airth like a string of inions."
1146
1147This account cleared up the otherwise unaccountable mystery, and showed
1148that the landlord, after all, had had no idea of fooling me--but at
1149the same time what could I think of a harpooneer who stayed out of a
1150Saturday night clean into the holy Sabbath, engaged in such a cannibal
1151business as selling the heads of dead idolators?
1152
1153"Depend upon it, landlord, that harpooneer is a dangerous man."
1154
1155"He pays reg'lar," was the rejoinder. "But come, it's getting dreadful
1156late, you had better be turning flukes--it's a nice bed; Sal and me
1157slept in that ere bed the night we were spliced. There's plenty of room
1158for two to kick about in that bed; it's an almighty big bed that. Why,
1159afore we give it up, Sal used to put our Sam and little Johnny in the
1160foot of it. But I got a dreaming and sprawling about one night, and
1161somehow, Sam got pitched on the floor, and came near breaking his arm.
1162Arter that, Sal said it wouldn't do. Come along here, I'll give ye a
1163glim in a jiffy;" and so saying he lighted a candle and held it towards
1164me, offering to lead the way. But I stood irresolute; when looking at a
1165clock in the corner, he exclaimed "I vum it's Sunday--you won't see that
1166harpooneer to-night; he's come to anchor somewhere--come along then; DO
1167come; WON'T ye come?"
1168
1169I considered the matter a moment, and then up stairs we went, and I was
1170ushered into a small room, cold as a clam, and furnished, sure enough,
1171with a prodigious bed, almost big enough indeed for any four harpooneers
1172to sleep abreast.
1173
1174"There," said the landlord, placing the candle on a crazy old sea chest
1175that did double duty as a wash-stand and centre table; "there, make
1176yourself comfortable now, and good night to ye." I turned round from
1177eyeing the bed, but he had disappeared.
1178
1179Folding back the counterpane, I stooped over the bed. Though none of the
1180most elegant, it yet stood the scrutiny tolerably well. I then glanced
1181round the room; and besides the bedstead and centre table, could see
1182no other furniture belonging to the place, but a rude shelf, the four
1183walls, and a papered fireboard representing a man striking a whale. Of
1184things not properly belonging to the room, there was a hammock lashed
1185up, and thrown upon the floor in one corner; also a large seaman's bag,
1186containing the harpooneer's wardrobe, no doubt in lieu of a land trunk.
1187Likewise, there was a parcel of outlandish bone fish hooks on the shelf
1188over the fire-place, and a tall harpoon standing at the head of the bed.
1189
1190But what is this on the chest? I took it up, and held it close to the
1191light, and felt it, and smelt it, and tried every way possible to arrive
1192at some satisfactory conclusion concerning it. I can compare it to
1193nothing but a large door mat, ornamented at the edges with little
1194tinkling tags something like the stained porcupine quills round an
1195Indian moccasin. There was a hole or slit in the middle of this mat,
1196as you see the same in South American ponchos. But could it be possible
1197that any sober harpooneer would get into a door mat, and parade the
1198streets of any Christian town in that sort of guise? I put it on, to try
1199it, and it weighed me down like a hamper, being uncommonly shaggy and
1200thick, and I thought a little damp, as though this mysterious harpooneer
1201had been wearing it of a rainy day. I went up in it to a bit of glass
1202stuck against the wall, and I never saw such a sight in my life. I tore
1203myself out of it in such a hurry that I gave myself a kink in the neck.
1204
1205I sat down on the side of the bed, and commenced thinking about this
1206head-peddling harpooneer, and his door mat. After thinking some time on
1207the bed-side, I got up and took off my monkey jacket, and then stood in
1208the middle of the room thinking. I then took off my coat, and thought
1209a little more in my shirt sleeves. But beginning to feel very cold now,
1210half undressed as I was, and remembering what the landlord said about
1211the harpooneer's not coming home at all that night, it being so very
1212late, I made no more ado, but jumped out of my pantaloons and boots, and
1213then blowing out the light tumbled into bed, and commended myself to the
1214care of heaven.
1215
1216Whether that mattress was stuffed with corn-cobs or broken crockery,
1217there is no telling, but I rolled about a good deal, and could not sleep
1218for a long time. At last I slid off into a light doze, and had pretty
1219nearly made a good offing towards the land of Nod, when I heard a heavy
1220footfall in the passage, and saw a glimmer of light come into the room
1221from under the door.
1222
1223Lord save me, thinks I, that must be the harpooneer, the infernal
1224head-peddler. But I lay perfectly still, and resolved not to say a word
1225till spoken to. Holding a light in one hand, and that identical New
1226Zealand head in the other, the stranger entered the room, and without
1227looking towards the bed, placed his candle a good way off from me on the
1228floor in one corner, and then began working away at the knotted cords
1229of the large bag I before spoke of as being in the room. I was all
1230eagerness to see his face, but he kept it averted for some time while
1231employed in unlacing the bag's mouth. This accomplished, however, he
1232turned round--when, good heavens! what a sight! Such a face! It was of
1233a dark, purplish, yellow colour, here and there stuck over with large
1234blackish looking squares. Yes, it's just as I thought, he's a terrible
1235bedfellow; he's been in a fight, got dreadfully cut, and here he is,
1236just from the surgeon. But at that moment he chanced to turn his face
1237so towards the light, that I plainly saw they could not be
1238sticking-plasters at all, those black squares on his cheeks. They were
1239stains of some sort or other. At first I knew not what to make of this;
1240but soon an inkling of the truth occurred to me. I remembered a story of
1241a white man--a whaleman too--who, falling among the cannibals, had been
1242tattooed by them. I concluded that this harpooneer, in the course of his
1243distant voyages, must have met with a similar adventure. And what is it,
1244thought I, after all! It's only his outside; a man can be honest in any
1245sort of skin. But then, what to make of his unearthly complexion, that
1246part of it, I mean, lying round about, and completely independent of the
1247squares of tattooing. To be sure, it might be nothing but a good coat of
1248tropical tanning; but I never heard of a hot sun's tanning a white man
1249into a purplish yellow one. However, I had never been in the South Seas;
1250and perhaps the sun there produced these extraordinary effects upon the
1251skin. Now, while all these ideas were passing through me like lightning,
1252this harpooneer never noticed me at all. But, after some difficulty
1253having opened his bag, he commenced fumbling in it, and presently pulled
1254out a sort of tomahawk, and a seal-skin wallet with the hair on. Placing
1255these on the old chest in the middle of the room, he then took the New
1256Zealand head--a ghastly thing enough--and crammed it down into the bag.
1257He now took off his hat--a new beaver hat--when I came nigh singing out
1258with fresh surprise. There was no hair on his head--none to speak of at
1259least--nothing but a small scalp-knot twisted up on his forehead. His
1260bald purplish head now looked for all the world like a mildewed skull.
1261Had not the stranger stood between me and the door, I would have bolted
1262out of it quicker than ever I bolted a dinner.
1263
1264Even as it was, I thought something of slipping out of the window, but
1265it was the second floor back. I am no coward, but what to make of
1266this head-peddling purple rascal altogether passed my comprehension.
1267Ignorance is the parent of fear, and being completely nonplussed and
1268confounded about the stranger, I confess I was now as much afraid of him
1269as if it was the devil himself who had thus broken into my room at
1270the dead of night. In fact, I was so afraid of him that I was not
1271game enough just then to address him, and demand a satisfactory answer
1272concerning what seemed inexplicable in him.
1273
1274Meanwhile, he continued the business of undressing, and at last showed
1275his chest and arms. As I live, these covered parts of him were checkered
1276with the same squares as his face; his back, too, was all over the same
1277dark squares; he seemed to have been in a Thirty Years' War, and just
1278escaped from it with a sticking-plaster shirt. Still more, his very
1279legs were marked, as if a parcel of dark green frogs were running up
1280the trunks of young palms. It was now quite plain that he must be some
1281abominable savage or other shipped aboard of a whaleman in the South
1282Seas, and so landed in this Christian country. I quaked to think of it.
1283A peddler of heads too--perhaps the heads of his own brothers. He might
1284take a fancy to mine--heavens! look at that tomahawk!
1285
1286But there was no time for shuddering, for now the savage went about
1287something that completely fascinated my attention, and convinced me that
1288he must indeed be a heathen. Going to his heavy grego, or wrapall, or
1289dreadnaught, which he had previously hung on a chair, he fumbled in the
1290pockets, and produced at length a curious little deformed image with
1291a hunch on its back, and exactly the colour of a three days' old Congo
1292baby. Remembering the embalmed head, at first I almost thought that
1293this black manikin was a real baby preserved in some similar manner. But
1294seeing that it was not at all limber, and that it glistened a good deal
1295like polished ebony, I concluded that it must be nothing but a wooden
1296idol, which indeed it proved to be. For now the savage goes up to the
1297empty fire-place, and removing the papered fire-board, sets up this
1298little hunch-backed image, like a tenpin, between the andirons. The
1299chimney jambs and all the bricks inside were very sooty, so that I
1300thought this fire-place made a very appropriate little shrine or chapel
1301for his Congo idol.
1302
1303I now screwed my eyes hard towards the half hidden image, feeling but
1304ill at ease meantime--to see what was next to follow. First he takes
1305about a double handful of shavings out of his grego pocket, and places
1306them carefully before the idol; then laying a bit of ship biscuit on
1307top and applying the flame from the lamp, he kindled the shavings into
1308a sacrificial blaze. Presently, after many hasty snatches into the fire,
1309and still hastier withdrawals of his fingers (whereby he seemed to be
1310scorching them badly), he at last succeeded in drawing out the biscuit;
1311then blowing off the heat and ashes a little, he made a polite offer of
1312it to the little negro. But the little devil did not seem to fancy such
1313dry sort of fare at all; he never moved his lips. All these strange
1314antics were accompanied by still stranger guttural noises from the
1315devotee, who seemed to be praying in a sing-song or else singing some
1316pagan psalmody or other, during which his face twitched about in the
1317most unnatural manner. At last extinguishing the fire, he took the idol
1318up very unceremoniously, and bagged it again in his grego pocket as
1319carelessly as if he were a sportsman bagging a dead woodcock.
1320
1321All these queer proceedings increased my uncomfortableness, and
1322seeing him now exhibiting strong symptoms of concluding his business
1323operations, and jumping into bed with me, I thought it was high time,
1324now or never, before the light was put out, to break the spell in which
1325I had so long been bound.
1326
1327But the interval I spent in deliberating what to say, was a fatal one.
1328Taking up his tomahawk from the table, he examined the head of it for an
1329instant, and then holding it to the light, with his mouth at the handle,
1330he puffed out great clouds of tobacco smoke. The next moment the light
1331was extinguished, and this wild cannibal, tomahawk between his teeth,
1332sprang into bed with me. I sang out, I could not help it now; and giving
1333a sudden grunt of astonishment he began feeling me.
1334
1335Stammering out something, I knew not what, I rolled away from him
1336against the wall, and then conjured him, whoever or whatever he might
1337be, to keep quiet, and let me get up and light the lamp again. But his
1338guttural responses satisfied me at once that he but ill comprehended my
1339meaning.
1340
1341"Who-e debel you?"--he at last said--"you no speak-e, dam-me, I kill-e."
1342And so saying the lighted tomahawk began flourishing about me in the
1343dark.
1344
1345"Landlord, for God's sake, Peter Coffin!" shouted I. "Landlord! Watch!
1346Coffin! Angels! save me!"
1347
1348"Speak-e! tell-ee me who-ee be, or dam-me, I kill-e!" again growled the
1349cannibal, while his horrid flourishings of the tomahawk scattered the
1350hot tobacco ashes about me till I thought my linen would get on fire.
1351But thank heaven, at that moment the landlord came into the room light
1352in hand, and leaping from the bed I ran up to him.
1353
1354"Don't be afraid now," said he, grinning again, "Queequeg here wouldn't
1355harm a hair of your head."
1356
1357"Stop your grinning," shouted I, "and why didn't you tell me that that
1358infernal harpooneer was a cannibal?"
1359
1360"I thought ye know'd it;--didn't I tell ye, he was a peddlin' heads
1361around town?--but turn flukes again and go to sleep. Queequeg, look
1362here--you sabbee me, I sabbee--you this man sleepe you--you sabbee?"
1363
1364"Me sabbee plenty"--grunted Queequeg, puffing away at his pipe and
1365sitting up in bed.
1366
1367"You gettee in," he added, motioning to me with his tomahawk, and
1368throwing the clothes to one side. He really did this in not only a civil
1369but a really kind and charitable way. I stood looking at him a moment.
1370For all his tattooings he was on the whole a clean, comely looking
1371cannibal. What's all this fuss I have been making about, thought I to
1372myself--the man's a human being just as I am: he has just as much reason
1373to fear me, as I have to be afraid of him. Better sleep with a sober
1374cannibal than a drunken Christian.
1375
1376"Landlord," said I, "tell him to stash his tomahawk there, or pipe, or
1377whatever you call it; tell him to stop smoking, in short, and I will
1378turn in with him. But I don't fancy having a man smoking in bed with me.
1379It's dangerous. Besides, I ain't insured."
1380
1381This being told to Queequeg, he at once complied, and again politely
1382motioned me to get into bed--rolling over to one side as much as to
1383say--"I won't touch a leg of ye."
1384
1385"Good night, landlord," said I, "you may go."
1386
1387I turned in, and never slept better in my life.
1388
1389
1390
1391CHAPTER 4. The Counterpane.
1392
1393
1394Upon waking next morning about daylight, I found Queequeg's arm thrown
1395over me in the most loving and affectionate manner. You had almost
1396thought I had been his wife. The counterpane was of patchwork, full of
1397odd little parti-coloured squares and triangles; and this arm of his
1398tattooed all over with an interminable Cretan labyrinth of a figure,
1399no two parts of which were of one precise shade--owing I suppose to
1400his keeping his arm at sea unmethodically in sun and shade, his shirt
1401sleeves irregularly rolled up at various times--this same arm of his, I
1402say, looked for all the world like a strip of that same patchwork quilt.
1403Indeed, partly lying on it as the arm did when I first awoke, I could
1404hardly tell it from the quilt, they so blended their hues together; and
1405it was only by the sense of weight and pressure that I could tell that
1406Queequeg was hugging me.
1407
1408My sensations were strange. Let me try to explain them. When I was a
1409child, I well remember a somewhat similar circumstance that befell me;
1410whether it was a reality or a dream, I never could entirely settle.
1411The circumstance was this. I had been cutting up some caper or other--I
1412think it was trying to crawl up the chimney, as I had seen a little
1413sweep do a few days previous; and my stepmother who, somehow or other,
1414was all the time whipping me, or sending me to bed supperless,--my
1415mother dragged me by the legs out of the chimney and packed me off to
1416bed, though it was only two o'clock in the afternoon of the 21st June,
1417the longest day in the year in our hemisphere. I felt dreadfully. But
1418there was no help for it, so up stairs I went to my little room in the
1419third floor, undressed myself as slowly as possible so as to kill time,
1420and with a bitter sigh got between the sheets.
1421
1422I lay there dismally calculating that sixteen entire hours must elapse
1423before I could hope for a resurrection. Sixteen hours in bed! the
1424small of my back ached to think of it. And it was so light too; the
1425sun shining in at the window, and a great rattling of coaches in the
1426streets, and the sound of gay voices all over the house. I felt worse
1427and worse--at last I got up, dressed, and softly going down in my
1428stockinged feet, sought out my stepmother, and suddenly threw myself
1429at her feet, beseeching her as a particular favour to give me a good
1430slippering for my misbehaviour; anything indeed but condemning me to lie
1431abed such an unendurable length of time. But she was the best and most
1432conscientious of stepmothers, and back I had to go to my room. For
1433several hours I lay there broad awake, feeling a great deal worse than I
1434have ever done since, even from the greatest subsequent misfortunes. At
1435last I must have fallen into a troubled nightmare of a doze; and slowly
1436waking from it--half steeped in dreams--I opened my eyes, and the before
1437sun-lit room was now wrapped in outer darkness. Instantly I felt a shock
1438running through all my frame; nothing was to be seen, and nothing was
1439to be heard; but a supernatural hand seemed placed in mine. My arm hung
1440over the counterpane, and the nameless, unimaginable, silent form
1441or phantom, to which the hand belonged, seemed closely seated by my
1442bed-side. For what seemed ages piled on ages, I lay there, frozen with
1443the most awful fears, not daring to drag away my hand; yet ever thinking
1444that if I could but stir it one single inch, the horrid spell would be
1445broken. I knew not how this consciousness at last glided away from me;
1446but waking in the morning, I shudderingly remembered it all, and for
1447days and weeks and months afterwards I lost myself in confounding
1448attempts to explain the mystery. Nay, to this very hour, I often puzzle
1449myself with it.
1450
1451Now, take away the awful fear, and my sensations at feeling the
1452supernatural hand in mine were very similar, in their strangeness, to
1453those which I experienced on waking up and seeing Queequeg's pagan
1454arm thrown round me. But at length all the past night's events soberly
1455recurred, one by one, in fixed reality, and then I lay only alive to
1456the comical predicament. For though I tried to move his arm--unlock his
1457bridegroom clasp--yet, sleeping as he was, he still hugged me tightly,
1458as though naught but death should part us twain. I now strove to rouse
1459him--"Queequeg!"--but his only answer was a snore. I then rolled over,
1460my neck feeling as if it were in a horse-collar; and suddenly felt a
1461slight scratch. Throwing aside the counterpane, there lay the tomahawk
1462sleeping by the savage's side, as if it were a hatchet-faced baby. A
1463pretty pickle, truly, thought I; abed here in a strange house in the
1464broad day, with a cannibal and a tomahawk! "Queequeg!--in the name of
1465goodness, Queequeg, wake!" At length, by dint of much wriggling, and
1466loud and incessant expostulations upon the unbecomingness of his
1467hugging a fellow male in that matrimonial sort of style, I succeeded in
1468extracting a grunt; and presently, he drew back his arm, shook himself
1469all over like a Newfoundland dog just from the water, and sat up in bed,
1470stiff as a pike-staff, looking at me, and rubbing his eyes as if he
1471did not altogether remember how I came to be there, though a dim
1472consciousness of knowing something about me seemed slowly dawning over
1473him. Meanwhile, I lay quietly eyeing him, having no serious misgivings
1474now, and bent upon narrowly observing so curious a creature. When, at
1475last, his mind seemed made up touching the character of his bedfellow,
1476and he became, as it were, reconciled to the fact; he jumped out upon
1477the floor, and by certain signs and sounds gave me to understand that,
1478if it pleased me, he would dress first and then leave me to dress
1479afterwards, leaving the whole apartment to myself. Thinks I, Queequeg,
1480under the circumstances, this is a very civilized overture; but, the
1481truth is, these savages have an innate sense of delicacy, say what
1482you will; it is marvellous how essentially polite they are. I pay this
1483particular compliment to Queequeg, because he treated me with so much
1484civility and consideration, while I was guilty of great rudeness;
1485staring at him from the bed, and watching all his toilette motions; for
1486the time my curiosity getting the better of my breeding. Nevertheless,
1487a man like Queequeg you don't see every day, he and his ways were well
1488worth unusual regarding.
1489
1490He commenced dressing at top by donning his beaver hat, a very tall one,
1491by the by, and then--still minus his trowsers--he hunted up his boots.
1492What under the heavens he did it for, I cannot tell, but his next
1493movement was to crush himself--boots in hand, and hat on--under the bed;
1494when, from sundry violent gaspings and strainings, I inferred he was
1495hard at work booting himself; though by no law of propriety that I ever
1496heard of, is any man required to be private when putting on his
1497boots. But Queequeg, do you see, was a creature in the transition
1498stage--neither caterpillar nor butterfly. He was just enough civilized
1499to show off his outlandishness in the strangest possible manners. His
1500education was not yet completed. He was an undergraduate. If he had not
1501been a small degree civilized, he very probably would not have troubled
1502himself with boots at all; but then, if he had not been still a savage,
1503he never would have dreamt of getting under the bed to put them on. At
1504last, he emerged with his hat very much dented and crushed down over his
1505eyes, and began creaking and limping about the room, as if, not
1506being much accustomed to boots, his pair of damp, wrinkled cowhide
1507ones--probably not made to order either--rather pinched and tormented
1508him at the first go off of a bitter cold morning.
1509
1510Seeing, now, that there were no curtains to the window, and that the
1511street being very narrow, the house opposite commanded a plain view
1512into the room, and observing more and more the indecorous figure that
1513Queequeg made, staving about with little else but his hat and boots on;
1514I begged him as well as I could, to accelerate his toilet somewhat,
1515and particularly to get into his pantaloons as soon as possible. He
1516complied, and then proceeded to wash himself. At that time in the
1517morning any Christian would have washed his face; but Queequeg, to
1518my amazement, contented himself with restricting his ablutions to his
1519chest, arms, and hands. He then donned his waistcoat, and taking up a
1520piece of hard soap on the wash-stand centre table, dipped it into water
1521and commenced lathering his face. I was watching to see where he kept
1522his razor, when lo and behold, he takes the harpoon from the bed corner,
1523slips out the long wooden stock, unsheathes the head, whets it a little
1524on his boot, and striding up to the bit of mirror against the wall,
1525begins a vigorous scraping, or rather harpooning of his cheeks. Thinks
1526I, Queequeg, this is using Rogers's best cutlery with a vengeance.
1527Afterwards I wondered the less at this operation when I came to know of
1528what fine steel the head of a harpoon is made, and how exceedingly sharp
1529the long straight edges are always kept.
1530
1531The rest of his toilet was soon achieved, and he proudly marched out of
1532the room, wrapped up in his great pilot monkey jacket, and sporting his
1533harpoon like a marshal's baton.
1534
1535
1536
1537CHAPTER 5. Breakfast.
1538
1539
1540I quickly followed suit, and descending into the bar-room accosted the
1541grinning landlord very pleasantly. I cherished no malice towards him,
1542though he had been skylarking with me not a little in the matter of my
1543bedfellow.
1544
1545However, a good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a
1546good thing; the more's the pity. So, if any one man, in his own
1547proper person, afford stuff for a good joke to anybody, let him not be
1548backward, but let him cheerfully allow himself to spend and be spent in
1549that way. And the man that has anything bountifully laughable about him,
1550be sure there is more in that man than you perhaps think for.
1551
1552The bar-room was now full of the boarders who had been dropping in the
1553night previous, and whom I had not as yet had a good look at. They were
1554nearly all whalemen; chief mates, and second mates, and third mates, and
1555sea carpenters, and sea coopers, and sea blacksmiths, and harpooneers,
1556and ship keepers; a brown and brawny company, with bosky beards; an
1557unshorn, shaggy set, all wearing monkey jackets for morning gowns.
1558
1559You could pretty plainly tell how long each one had been ashore. This
1560young fellow's healthy cheek is like a sun-toasted pear in hue, and
1561would seem to smell almost as musky; he cannot have been three days
1562landed from his Indian voyage. That man next him looks a few shades
1563lighter; you might say a touch of satin wood is in him. In the
1564complexion of a third still lingers a tropic tawn, but slightly bleached
1565withal; HE doubtless has tarried whole weeks ashore. But who could show
1566a cheek like Queequeg? which, barred with various tints, seemed like the
1567Andes' western slope, to show forth in one array, contrasting climates,
1568zone by zone.
1569
1570"Grub, ho!" now cried the landlord, flinging open a door, and in we went
1571to breakfast.
1572
1573They say that men who have seen the world, thereby become quite at ease
1574in manner, quite self-possessed in company. Not always, though: Ledyard,
1575the great New England traveller, and Mungo Park, the Scotch one; of all
1576men, they possessed the least assurance in the parlor. But perhaps the
1577mere crossing of Siberia in a sledge drawn by dogs as Ledyard did, or
1578the taking a long solitary walk on an empty stomach, in the negro heart
1579of Africa, which was the sum of poor Mungo's performances--this kind of
1580travel, I say, may not be the very best mode of attaining a high social
1581polish. Still, for the most part, that sort of thing is to be had
1582anywhere.
1583
1584These reflections just here are occasioned by the circumstance that
1585after we were all seated at the table, and I was preparing to hear some
1586good stories about whaling; to my no small surprise, nearly every
1587man maintained a profound silence. And not only that, but they looked
1588embarrassed. Yes, here were a set of sea-dogs, many of whom without the
1589slightest bashfulness had boarded great whales on the high seas--entire
1590strangers to them--and duelled them dead without winking; and yet, here
1591they sat at a social breakfast table--all of the same calling, all of
1592kindred tastes--looking round as sheepishly at each other as though they
1593had never been out of sight of some sheepfold among the Green Mountains.
1594A curious sight; these bashful bears, these timid warrior whalemen!
1595
1596But as for Queequeg--why, Queequeg sat there among them--at the head of
1597the table, too, it so chanced; as cool as an icicle. To be sure I cannot
1598say much for his breeding. His greatest admirer could not have cordially
1599justified his bringing his harpoon into breakfast with him, and using it
1600there without ceremony; reaching over the table with it, to the imminent
1601jeopardy of many heads, and grappling the beefsteaks towards him. But
1602THAT was certainly very coolly done by him, and every one knows that in
1603most people's estimation, to do anything coolly is to do it genteelly.
1604
1605We will not speak of all Queequeg's peculiarities here; how he eschewed
1606coffee and hot rolls, and applied his undivided attention to beefsteaks,
1607done rare. Enough, that when breakfast was over he withdrew like the
1608rest into the public room, lighted his tomahawk-pipe, and was sitting
1609there quietly digesting and smoking with his inseparable hat on, when I
1610sallied out for a stroll.
1611
1612
1613
1614CHAPTER 6. The Street.
1615
1616
1617If I had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of so outlandish
1618an individual as Queequeg circulating among the polite society of a
1619civilized town, that astonishment soon departed upon taking my first
1620daylight stroll through the streets of New Bedford.
1621
1622In thoroughfares nigh the docks, any considerable seaport will
1623frequently offer to view the queerest looking nondescripts from foreign
1624parts. Even in Broadway and Chestnut streets, Mediterranean mariners
1625will sometimes jostle the affrighted ladies. Regent Street is not
1626unknown to Lascars and Malays; and at Bombay, in the Apollo Green, live
1627Yankees have often scared the natives. But New Bedford beats all Water
1628Street and Wapping. In these last-mentioned haunts you see only sailors;
1629but in New Bedford, actual cannibals stand chatting at street corners;
1630savages outright; many of whom yet carry on their bones unholy flesh. It
1631makes a stranger stare.
1632
1633But, besides the Feegeeans, Tongatobooarrs, Erromanggoans, Pannangians,
1634and Brighggians, and, besides the wild specimens of the whaling-craft
1635which unheeded reel about the streets, you will see other sights still
1636more curious, certainly more comical. There weekly arrive in this town
1637scores of green Vermonters and New Hampshire men, all athirst for gain
1638and glory in the fishery. They are mostly young, of stalwart frames;
1639fellows who have felled forests, and now seek to drop the axe and snatch
1640the whale-lance. Many are as green as the Green Mountains whence they
1641came. In some things you would think them but a few hours old. Look
1642there! that chap strutting round the corner. He wears a beaver hat and
1643swallow-tailed coat, girdled with a sailor-belt and sheath-knife. Here
1644comes another with a sou'-wester and a bombazine cloak.
1645
1646No town-bred dandy will compare with a country-bred one--I mean a
1647downright bumpkin dandy--a fellow that, in the dog-days, will mow his
1648two acres in buckskin gloves for fear of tanning his hands. Now when a
1649country dandy like this takes it into his head to make a distinguished
1650reputation, and joins the great whale-fishery, you should see the
1651comical things he does upon reaching the seaport. In bespeaking his
1652sea-outfit, he orders bell-buttons to his waistcoats; straps to his
1653canvas trowsers. Ah, poor Hay-Seed! how bitterly will burst those straps
1654in the first howling gale, when thou art driven, straps, buttons, and
1655all, down the throat of the tempest.
1656
1657But think not that this famous town has only harpooneers, cannibals, and
1658bumpkins to show her visitors. Not at all. Still New Bedford is a queer
1659place. Had it not been for us whalemen, that tract of land would this
1660day perhaps have been in as howling condition as the coast of Labrador.
1661As it is, parts of her back country are enough to frighten one, they
1662look so bony. The town itself is perhaps the dearest place to live
1663in, in all New England. It is a land of oil, true enough: but not like
1664Canaan; a land, also, of corn and wine. The streets do not run with
1665milk; nor in the spring-time do they pave them with fresh eggs. Yet, in
1666spite of this, nowhere in all America will you find more patrician-like
1667houses; parks and gardens more opulent, than in New Bedford. Whence came
1668they? how planted upon this once scraggy scoria of a country?
1669
1670Go and gaze upon the iron emblematical harpoons round yonder lofty
1671mansion, and your question will be answered. Yes; all these brave houses
1672and flowery gardens came from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.
1673One and all, they were harpooned and dragged up hither from the bottom
1674of the sea. Can Herr Alexander perform a feat like that?
1675
1676In New Bedford, fathers, they say, give whales for dowers to their
1677daughters, and portion off their nieces with a few porpoises a-piece.
1678You must go to New Bedford to see a brilliant wedding; for, they say,
1679they have reservoirs of oil in every house, and every night recklessly
1680burn their lengths in spermaceti candles.
1681
1682In summer time, the town is sweet to see; full of fine maples--long
1683avenues of green and gold. And in August, high in air, the beautiful and
1684bountiful horse-chestnuts, candelabra-wise, proffer the passer-by their
1685tapering upright cones of congregated blossoms. So omnipotent is art;
1686which in many a district of New Bedford has superinduced bright terraces
1687of flowers upon the barren refuse rocks thrown aside at creation's final
1688day.
1689
1690And the women of New Bedford, they bloom like their own red roses. But
1691roses only bloom in summer; whereas the fine carnation of their cheeks
1692is perennial as sunlight in the seventh heavens. Elsewhere match that
1693bloom of theirs, ye cannot, save in Salem, where they tell me the young
1694girls breathe such musk, their sailor sweethearts smell them miles off
1695shore, as though they were drawing nigh the odorous Moluccas instead of
1696the Puritanic sands.
1697
1698
1699
1700CHAPTER 7. The Chapel.
1701
1702
1703In this same New Bedford there stands a Whaleman's Chapel, and few are
1704the moody fishermen, shortly bound for the Indian Ocean or Pacific, who
1705fail to make a Sunday visit to the spot. I am sure that I did not.
1706
1707Returning from my first morning stroll, I again sallied out upon this
1708special errand. The sky had changed from clear, sunny cold, to driving
1709sleet and mist. Wrapping myself in my shaggy jacket of the cloth called
1710bearskin, I fought my way against the stubborn storm. Entering, I
1711found a small scattered congregation of sailors, and sailors' wives and
1712widows. A muffled silence reigned, only broken at times by the shrieks
1713of the storm. Each silent worshipper seemed purposely sitting apart from
1714the other, as if each silent grief were insular and incommunicable. The
1715chaplain had not yet arrived; and there these silent islands of men and
1716women sat steadfastly eyeing several marble tablets, with black borders,
1717masoned into the wall on either side the pulpit. Three of them ran
1718something like the following, but I do not pretend to quote:--
1719
1720SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN TALBOT, Who, at the age of eighteen, was
1721lost overboard, Near the Isle of Desolation, off Patagonia, November
17221st, 1836. THIS TABLET Is erected to his Memory BY HIS SISTER.
1723
1724SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF ROBERT LONG, WILLIS ELLERY, NATHAN COLEMAN,
1725WALTER CANNY, SETH MACY, AND SAMUEL GLEIG, Forming one of the boats'
1726crews OF THE SHIP ELIZA Who were towed out of sight by a Whale, On the
1727Off-shore Ground in the PACIFIC, December 31st, 1839. THIS MARBLE Is
1728here placed by their surviving SHIPMATES.
1729
1730SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF The late CAPTAIN EZEKIEL HARDY, Who in the bows
1731of his boat was killed by a Sperm Whale on the coast of Japan, AUGUST
17323d, 1833. THIS TABLET Is erected to his Memory BY HIS WIDOW.
1733
1734Shaking off the sleet from my ice-glazed hat and jacket, I seated myself
1735near the door, and turning sideways was surprised to see Queequeg near
1736me. Affected by the solemnity of the scene, there was a wondering gaze
1737of incredulous curiosity in his countenance. This savage was the only
1738person present who seemed to notice my entrance; because he was the only
1739one who could not read, and, therefore, was not reading those frigid
1740inscriptions on the wall. Whether any of the relatives of the seamen
1741whose names appeared there were now among the congregation, I knew not;
1742but so many are the unrecorded accidents in the fishery, and so plainly
1743did several women present wear the countenance if not the trappings
1744of some unceasing grief, that I feel sure that here before me were
1745assembled those, in whose unhealing hearts the sight of those bleak
1746tablets sympathetically caused the old wounds to bleed afresh.
1747
1748Oh! ye whose dead lie buried beneath the green grass; who standing among
1749flowers can say--here, HERE lies my beloved; ye know not the desolation
1750that broods in bosoms like these. What bitter blanks in those
1751black-bordered marbles which cover no ashes! What despair in those
1752immovable inscriptions! What deadly voids and unbidden infidelities in
1753the lines that seem to gnaw upon all Faith, and refuse resurrections to
1754the beings who have placelessly perished without a grave. As well might
1755those tablets stand in the cave of Elephanta as here.
1756
1757In what census of living creatures, the dead of mankind are included;
1758why it is that a universal proverb says of them, that they tell no
1759tales, though containing more secrets than the Goodwin Sands; how it is
1760that to his name who yesterday departed for the other world, we prefix
1761so significant and infidel a word, and yet do not thus entitle him, if
1762he but embarks for the remotest Indies of this living earth; why the
1763Life Insurance Companies pay death-forfeitures upon immortals; in what
1764eternal, unstirring paralysis, and deadly, hopeless trance, yet lies
1765antique Adam who died sixty round centuries ago; how it is that we
1766still refuse to be comforted for those who we nevertheless maintain are
1767dwelling in unspeakable bliss; why all the living so strive to hush all
1768the dead; wherefore but the rumor of a knocking in a tomb will terrify a
1769whole city. All these things are not without their meanings.
1770
1771But Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these
1772dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.
1773
1774It needs scarcely to be told, with what feelings, on the eve of a
1775Nantucket voyage, I regarded those marble tablets, and by the murky
1776light of that darkened, doleful day read the fate of the whalemen
1777who had gone before me. Yes, Ishmael, the same fate may be thine. But
1778somehow I grew merry again. Delightful inducements to embark, fine
1779chance for promotion, it seems--aye, a stove boat will make me an
1780immortal by brevet. Yes, there is death in this business of whaling--a
1781speechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into Eternity. But what
1782then? Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death.
1783Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true
1784substance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too
1785much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking that
1786thick water the thinnest of air. Methinks my body is but the lees of my
1787better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not
1788me. And therefore three cheers for Nantucket; and come a stove boat and
1789stove body when they will, for stave my soul, Jove himself cannot.
1790
1791
1792
1793CHAPTER 8. The Pulpit.
1794
1795
1796I had not been seated very long ere a man of a certain venerable
1797robustness entered; immediately as the storm-pelted door flew back upon
1798admitting him, a quick regardful eyeing of him by all the congregation,
1799sufficiently attested that this fine old man was the chaplain. Yes, it
1800was the famous Father Mapple, so called by the whalemen, among whom he
1801was a very great favourite. He had been a sailor and a harpooneer in his
1802youth, but for many years past had dedicated his life to the ministry.
1803At the time I now write of, Father Mapple was in the hardy winter of a
1804healthy old age; that sort of old age which seems merging into a second
1805flowering youth, for among all the fissures of his wrinkles, there shone
1806certain mild gleams of a newly developing bloom--the spring verdure
1807peeping forth even beneath February's snow. No one having previously
1808heard his history, could for the first time behold Father Mapple without
1809the utmost interest, because there were certain engrafted clerical
1810peculiarities about him, imputable to that adventurous maritime life
1811he had led. When he entered I observed that he carried no umbrella, and
1812certainly had not come in his carriage, for his tarpaulin hat ran down
1813with melting sleet, and his great pilot cloth jacket seemed almost to
1814drag him to the floor with the weight of the water it had absorbed.
1815However, hat and coat and overshoes were one by one removed, and hung up
1816in a little space in an adjacent corner; when, arrayed in a decent suit,
1817he quietly approached the pulpit.
1818
1819Like most old fashioned pulpits, it was a very lofty one, and since a
1820regular stairs to such a height would, by its long angle with the floor,
1821seriously contract the already small area of the chapel, the architect,
1822it seemed, had acted upon the hint of Father Mapple, and finished the
1823pulpit without a stairs, substituting a perpendicular side ladder, like
1824those used in mounting a ship from a boat at sea. The wife of a whaling
1825captain had provided the chapel with a handsome pair of red worsted
1826man-ropes for this ladder, which, being itself nicely headed, and
1827stained with a mahogany colour, the whole contrivance, considering what
1828manner of chapel it was, seemed by no means in bad taste. Halting for
1829an instant at the foot of the ladder, and with both hands grasping the
1830ornamental knobs of the man-ropes, Father Mapple cast a look upwards,
1831and then with a truly sailor-like but still reverential dexterity, hand
1832over hand, mounted the steps as if ascending the main-top of his vessel.
1833
1834The perpendicular parts of this side ladder, as is usually the case with
1835swinging ones, were of cloth-covered rope, only the rounds were of wood,
1836so that at every step there was a joint. At my first glimpse of the
1837pulpit, it had not escaped me that however convenient for a ship,
1838these joints in the present instance seemed unnecessary. For I was not
1839prepared to see Father Mapple after gaining the height, slowly turn
1840round, and stooping over the pulpit, deliberately drag up the ladder
1841step by step, till the whole was deposited within, leaving him
1842impregnable in his little Quebec.
1843
1844I pondered some time without fully comprehending the reason for this.
1845Father Mapple enjoyed such a wide reputation for sincerity and sanctity,
1846that I could not suspect him of courting notoriety by any mere tricks
1847of the stage. No, thought I, there must be some sober reason for this
1848thing; furthermore, it must symbolize something unseen. Can it be,
1849then, that by that act of physical isolation, he signifies his spiritual
1850withdrawal for the time, from all outward worldly ties and connexions?
1851Yes, for replenished with the meat and wine of the word, to the faithful
1852man of God, this pulpit, I see, is a self-containing stronghold--a lofty
1853Ehrenbreitstein, with a perennial well of water within the walls.
1854
1855But the side ladder was not the only strange feature of the place,
1856borrowed from the chaplain's former sea-farings. Between the marble
1857cenotaphs on either hand of the pulpit, the wall which formed its back
1858was adorned with a large painting representing a gallant ship beating
1859against a terrible storm off a lee coast of black rocks and snowy
1860breakers. But high above the flying scud and dark-rolling clouds, there
1861floated a little isle of sunlight, from which beamed forth an angel's
1862face; and this bright face shed a distinct spot of radiance upon the
1863ship's tossed deck, something like that silver plate now inserted into
1864the Victory's plank where Nelson fell. "Ah, noble ship," the angel
1865seemed to say, "beat on, beat on, thou noble ship, and bear a hardy
1866helm; for lo! the sun is breaking through; the clouds are rolling
1867off--serenest azure is at hand."
1868
1869Nor was the pulpit itself without a trace of the same sea-taste that
1870had achieved the ladder and the picture. Its panelled front was in
1871the likeness of a ship's bluff bows, and the Holy Bible rested on a
1872projecting piece of scroll work, fashioned after a ship's fiddle-headed
1873beak.
1874
1875What could be more full of meaning?--for the pulpit is ever this earth's
1876foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the
1877world. From thence it is the storm of God's quick wrath is first
1878descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is
1879the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favourable winds.
1880Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete;
1881and the pulpit is its prow.
1882
1883
1884
1885CHAPTER 9. The Sermon.
1886
1887
1888Father Mapple rose, and in a mild voice of unassuming authority ordered
1889the scattered people to condense. "Starboard gangway, there! side away
1890to larboard--larboard gangway to starboard! Midships! midships!"
1891
1892There was a low rumbling of heavy sea-boots among the benches, and a
1893still slighter shuffling of women's shoes, and all was quiet again, and
1894every eye on the preacher.
1895
1896He paused a little; then kneeling in the pulpit's bows, folded his large
1897brown hands across his chest, uplifted his closed eyes, and offered
1898a prayer so deeply devout that he seemed kneeling and praying at the
1899bottom of the sea.
1900
1901This ended, in prolonged solemn tones, like the continual tolling of
1902a bell in a ship that is foundering at sea in a fog--in such tones he
1903commenced reading the following hymn; but changing his manner towards
1904the concluding stanzas, burst forth with a pealing exultation and joy--
1905
1906     "The ribs and terrors in the whale,
1907     Arched over me a dismal gloom,
1908     While all God's sun-lit waves rolled by,
1909     And lift me deepening down to doom.
1910
1911     "I saw the opening maw of hell,
1912     With endless pains and sorrows there;
1913     Which none but they that feel can tell--
1914     Oh, I was plunging to despair.
1915
1916     "In black distress, I called my God,
1917     When I could scarce believe him mine,
1918     He bowed his ear to my complaints--
1919     No more the whale did me confine.
1920
1921     "With speed he flew to my relief,
1922     As on a radiant dolphin borne;
1923     Awful, yet bright, as lightning shone
1924     The face of my Deliverer God.
1925
1926     "My song for ever shall record
1927     That terrible, that joyful hour;
1928     I give the glory to my God,
1929     His all the mercy and the power."
1930
1931
1932Nearly all joined in singing this hymn, which swelled high above the
1933howling of the storm. A brief pause ensued; the preacher slowly turned
1934over the leaves of the Bible, and at last, folding his hand down upon
1935the proper page, said: "Beloved shipmates, clinch the last verse of the
1936first chapter of Jonah--'And God had prepared a great fish to swallow up
1937Jonah.'"
1938
1939"Shipmates, this book, containing only four chapters--four yarns--is one
1940of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures. Yet what
1941depths of the soul does Jonah's deep sealine sound! what a pregnant
1942lesson to us is this prophet! What a noble thing is that canticle in the
1943fish's belly! How billow-like and boisterously grand! We feel the floods
1944surging over us; we sound with him to the kelpy bottom of the waters;
1945sea-weed and all the slime of the sea is about us! But WHAT is this
1946lesson that the book of Jonah teaches? Shipmates, it is a two-stranded
1947lesson; a lesson to us all as sinful men, and a lesson to me as a pilot
1948of the living God. As sinful men, it is a lesson to us all, because it
1949is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly awakened fears, the
1950swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally the deliverance and
1951joy of Jonah. As with all sinners among men, the sin of this son of
1952Amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the command of God--never
1953mind now what that command was, or how conveyed--which he found a hard
1954command. But all the things that God would have us do are hard for us to
1955do--remember that--and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavors to
1956persuade. And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in
1957this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.
1958
1959"With this sin of disobedience in him, Jonah still further flouts at
1960God, by seeking to flee from Him. He thinks that a ship made by men will
1961carry him into countries where God does not reign, but only the Captains
1962of this earth. He skulks about the wharves of Joppa, and seeks a ship
1963that's bound for Tarshish. There lurks, perhaps, a hitherto unheeded
1964meaning here. By all accounts Tarshish could have been no other city
1965than the modern Cadiz. That's the opinion of learned men. And where is
1966Cadiz, shipmates? Cadiz is in Spain; as far by water, from Joppa,
1967as Jonah could possibly have sailed in those ancient days, when the
1968Atlantic was an almost unknown sea. Because Joppa, the modern Jaffa,
1969shipmates, is on the most easterly coast of the Mediterranean, the
1970Syrian; and Tarshish or Cadiz more than two thousand miles to the
1971westward from that, just outside the Straits of Gibraltar. See ye
1972not then, shipmates, that Jonah sought to flee world-wide from God?
1973Miserable man! Oh! most contemptible and worthy of all scorn; with
1974slouched hat and guilty eye, skulking from his God; prowling among the
1975shipping like a vile burglar hastening to cross the seas. So disordered,
1976self-condemning is his look, that had there been policemen in those
1977days, Jonah, on the mere suspicion of something wrong, had been arrested
1978ere he touched a deck. How plainly he's a fugitive! no baggage, not a
1979hat-box, valise, or carpet-bag,--no friends accompany him to the wharf
1980with their adieux. At last, after much dodging search, he finds the
1981Tarshish ship receiving the last items of her cargo; and as he steps on
1982board to see its Captain in the cabin, all the sailors for the moment
1983desist from hoisting in the goods, to mark the stranger's evil eye.
1984Jonah sees this; but in vain he tries to look all ease and confidence;
1985in vain essays his wretched smile. Strong intuitions of the man assure
1986the mariners he can be no innocent. In their gamesome but still serious
1987way, one whispers to the other--"Jack, he's robbed a widow;" or, "Joe,
1988do you mark him; he's a bigamist;" or, "Harry lad, I guess he's the
1989adulterer that broke jail in old Gomorrah, or belike, one of the missing
1990murderers from Sodom." Another runs to read the bill that's stuck
1991against the spile upon the wharf to which the ship is moored, offering
1992five hundred gold coins for the apprehension of a parricide, and
1993containing a description of his person. He reads, and looks from Jonah
1994to the bill; while all his sympathetic shipmates now crowd round Jonah,
1995prepared to lay their hands upon him. Frighted Jonah trembles, and
1996summoning all his boldness to his face, only looks so much the more a
1997coward. He will not confess himself suspected; but that itself is strong
1998suspicion. So he makes the best of it; and when the sailors find him
1999not to be the man that is advertised, they let him pass, and he descends
2000into the cabin.
2001
2002"'Who's there?' cries the Captain at his busy desk, hurriedly making
2003out his papers for the Customs--'Who's there?' Oh! how that harmless
2004question mangles Jonah! For the instant he almost turns to flee again.
2005But he rallies. 'I seek a passage in this ship to Tarshish; how soon
2006sail ye, sir?' Thus far the busy Captain had not looked up to Jonah,
2007though the man now stands before him; but no sooner does he hear that
2008hollow voice, than he darts a scrutinizing glance. 'We sail with the
2009next coming tide,' at last he slowly answered, still intently eyeing
2010him. 'No sooner, sir?'--'Soon enough for any honest man that goes a
2011passenger.' Ha! Jonah, that's another stab. But he swiftly calls away
2012the Captain from that scent. 'I'll sail with ye,'--he says,--'the
2013passage money how much is that?--I'll pay now.' For it is particularly
2014written, shipmates, as if it were a thing not to be overlooked in this
2015history, 'that he paid the fare thereof' ere the craft did sail. And
2016taken with the context, this is full of meaning.
2017
2018"Now Jonah's Captain, shipmates, was one whose discernment detects crime
2019in any, but whose cupidity exposes it only in the penniless. In this
2020world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without
2021a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.
2022So Jonah's Captain prepares to test the length of Jonah's purse, ere he
2023judge him openly. He charges him thrice the usual sum; and it's assented
2024to. Then the Captain knows that Jonah is a fugitive; but at the same
2025time resolves to help a flight that paves its rear with gold. Yet when
2026Jonah fairly takes out his purse, prudent suspicions still molest the
2027Captain. He rings every coin to find a counterfeit. Not a forger, any
2028way, he mutters; and Jonah is put down for his passage. 'Point out my
2029state-room, Sir,' says Jonah now, 'I'm travel-weary; I need sleep.'
2030'Thou lookest like it,' says the Captain, 'there's thy room.' Jonah
2031enters, and would lock the door, but the lock contains no key. Hearing
2032him foolishly fumbling there, the Captain laughs lowly to himself, and
2033mutters something about the doors of convicts' cells being never allowed
2034to be locked within. All dressed and dusty as he is, Jonah throws
2035himself into his berth, and finds the little state-room ceiling almost
2036resting on his forehead. The air is close, and Jonah gasps. Then, in
2037that contracted hole, sunk, too, beneath the ship's water-line, Jonah
2038feels the heralding presentiment of that stifling hour, when the whale
2039shall hold him in the smallest of his bowels' wards.
2040
2041"Screwed at its axis against the side, a swinging lamp slightly
2042oscillates in Jonah's room; and the ship, heeling over towards the wharf
2043with the weight of the last bales received, the lamp, flame and all,
2044though in slight motion, still maintains a permanent obliquity with
2045reference to the room; though, in truth, infallibly straight itself, it
2046but made obvious the false, lying levels among which it hung. The lamp
2047alarms and frightens Jonah; as lying in his berth his tormented eyes
2048roll round the place, and this thus far successful fugitive finds no
2049refuge for his restless glance. But that contradiction in the lamp more
2050and more appals him. The floor, the ceiling, and the side, are all awry.
2051'Oh! so my conscience hangs in me!' he groans, 'straight upwards, so it
2052burns; but the chambers of my soul are all in crookedness!'
2053
2054"Like one who after a night of drunken revelry hies to his bed, still
2055reeling, but with conscience yet pricking him, as the plungings of the
2056Roman race-horse but so much the more strike his steel tags into him; as
2057one who in that miserable plight still turns and turns in giddy anguish,
2058praying God for annihilation until the fit be passed; and at last amid
2059the whirl of woe he feels, a deep stupor steals over him, as over the
2060man who bleeds to death, for conscience is the wound, and there's naught
2061to staunch it; so, after sore wrestlings in his berth, Jonah's prodigy
2062of ponderous misery drags him drowning down to sleep.
2063
2064"And now the time of tide has come; the ship casts off her cables; and
2065from the deserted wharf the uncheered ship for Tarshish, all careening,
2066glides to sea. That ship, my friends, was the first of recorded
2067smugglers! the contraband was Jonah. But the sea rebels; he will not
2068bear the wicked burden. A dreadful storm comes on, the ship is like to
2069break. But now when the boatswain calls all hands to lighten her;
2070when boxes, bales, and jars are clattering overboard; when the wind
2071is shrieking, and the men are yelling, and every plank thunders with
2072trampling feet right over Jonah's head; in all this raging tumult, Jonah
2073sleeps his hideous sleep. He sees no black sky and raging sea, feels not
2074the reeling timbers, and little hears he or heeds he the far rush of the
2075mighty whale, which even now with open mouth is cleaving the seas after
2076him. Aye, shipmates, Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship--a
2077berth in the cabin as I have taken it, and was fast asleep. But the
2078frightened master comes to him, and shrieks in his dead ear, 'What
2079meanest thou, O, sleeper! arise!' Startled from his lethargy by that
2080direful cry, Jonah staggers to his feet, and stumbling to the deck,
2081grasps a shroud, to look out upon the sea. But at that moment he is
2082sprung upon by a panther billow leaping over the bulwarks. Wave after
2083wave thus leaps into the ship, and finding no speedy vent runs roaring
2084fore and aft, till the mariners come nigh to drowning while yet afloat.
2085And ever, as the white moon shows her affrighted face from the steep
2086gullies in the blackness overhead, aghast Jonah sees the rearing
2087bowsprit pointing high upward, but soon beat downward again towards the
2088tormented deep.
2089
2090"Terrors upon terrors run shouting through his soul. In all his cringing
2091attitudes, the God-fugitive is now too plainly known. The sailors mark
2092him; more and more certain grow their suspicions of him, and at last,
2093fully to test the truth, by referring the whole matter to high Heaven,
2094they fall to casting lots, to see for whose cause this great tempest was
2095upon them. The lot is Jonah's; that discovered, then how furiously they
2096mob him with their questions. 'What is thine occupation? Whence comest
2097thou? Thy country? What people? But mark now, my shipmates, the behavior
2098of poor Jonah. The eager mariners but ask him who he is, and where
2099from; whereas, they not only receive an answer to those questions,
2100but likewise another answer to a question not put by them, but the
2101unsolicited answer is forced from Jonah by the hard hand of God that is
2102upon him.
2103
2104"'I am a Hebrew,' he cries--and then--'I fear the Lord the God of Heaven
2105who hath made the sea and the dry land!' Fear him, O Jonah? Aye, well
2106mightest thou fear the Lord God THEN! Straightway, he now goes on to
2107make a full confession; whereupon the mariners became more and more
2108appalled, but still are pitiful. For when Jonah, not yet supplicating
2109God for mercy, since he but too well knew the darkness of his
2110deserts,--when wretched Jonah cries out to them to take him and cast him
2111forth into the sea, for he knew that for HIS sake this great tempest
2112was upon them; they mercifully turn from him, and seek by other means to
2113save the ship. But all in vain; the indignant gale howls louder;
2114then, with one hand raised invokingly to God, with the other they not
2115unreluctantly lay hold of Jonah.
2116
2117"And now behold Jonah taken up as an anchor and dropped into the sea;
2118when instantly an oily calmness floats out from the east, and the sea
2119is still, as Jonah carries down the gale with him, leaving smooth
2120water behind. He goes down in the whirling heart of such a masterless
2121commotion that he scarce heeds the moment when he drops seething into
2122the yawning jaws awaiting him; and the whale shoots-to all his ivory
2123teeth, like so many white bolts, upon his prison. Then Jonah prayed unto
2124the Lord out of the fish's belly. But observe his prayer, and learn a
2125weighty lesson. For sinful as he is, Jonah does not weep and wail for
2126direct deliverance. He feels that his dreadful punishment is just. He
2127leaves all his deliverance to God, contenting himself with this, that
2128spite of all his pains and pangs, he will still look towards His holy
2129temple. And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance; not
2130clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment. And how pleasing to
2131God was this conduct in Jonah, is shown in the eventual deliverance of
2132him from the sea and the whale. Shipmates, I do not place Jonah before
2133you to be copied for his sin but I do place him before you as a model
2134for repentance. Sin not; but if you do, take heed to repent of it like
2135Jonah."
2136
2137While he was speaking these words, the howling of the shrieking,
2138slanting storm without seemed to add new power to the preacher, who,
2139when describing Jonah's sea-storm, seemed tossed by a storm himself.
2140His deep chest heaved as with a ground-swell; his tossed arms seemed the
2141warring elements at work; and the thunders that rolled away from off his
2142swarthy brow, and the light leaping from his eye, made all his simple
2143hearers look on him with a quick fear that was strange to them.
2144
2145There now came a lull in his look, as he silently turned over the leaves
2146of the Book once more; and, at last, standing motionless, with closed
2147eyes, for the moment, seemed communing with God and himself.
2148
2149But again he leaned over towards the people, and bowing his head lowly,
2150with an aspect of the deepest yet manliest humility, he spake these
2151words:
2152
2153"Shipmates, God has laid but one hand upon you; both his hands press
2154upon me. I have read ye by what murky light may be mine the lesson that
2155Jonah teaches to all sinners; and therefore to ye, and still more to me,
2156for I am a greater sinner than ye. And now how gladly would I come down
2157from this mast-head and sit on the hatches there where you sit, and
2158listen as you listen, while some one of you reads ME that other and more
2159awful lesson which Jonah teaches to ME, as a pilot of the living God.
2160How being an anointed pilot-prophet, or speaker of true things, and
2161bidden by the Lord to sound those unwelcome truths in the ears of a
2162wicked Nineveh, Jonah, appalled at the hostility he should raise, fled
2163from his mission, and sought to escape his duty and his God by taking
2164ship at Joppa. But God is everywhere; Tarshish he never reached. As we
2165have seen, God came upon him in the whale, and swallowed him down to
2166living gulfs of doom, and with swift slantings tore him along 'into the
2167midst of the seas,' where the eddying depths sucked him ten thousand
2168fathoms down, and 'the weeds were wrapped about his head,' and all the
2169watery world of woe bowled over him. Yet even then beyond the reach of
2170any plummet--'out of the belly of hell'--when the whale grounded upon
2171the ocean's utmost bones, even then, God heard the engulphed, repenting
2172prophet when he cried. Then God spake unto the fish; and from the
2173shuddering cold and blackness of the sea, the whale came breeching
2174up towards the warm and pleasant sun, and all the delights of air and
2175earth; and 'vomited out Jonah upon the dry land;' when the word of the
2176Lord came a second time; and Jonah, bruised and beaten--his ears, like
2177two sea-shells, still multitudinously murmuring of the ocean--Jonah
2178did the Almighty's bidding. And what was that, shipmates? To preach the
2179Truth to the face of Falsehood! That was it!
2180
2181"This, shipmates, this is that other lesson; and woe to that pilot of
2182the living God who slights it. Woe to him whom this world charms from
2183Gospel duty! Woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God
2184has brewed them into a gale! Woe to him who seeks to please rather than
2185to appal! Woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness! Woe
2186to him who, in this world, courts not dishonour! Woe to him who would
2187not be true, even though to be false were salvation! Yea, woe to him
2188who, as the great Pilot Paul has it, while preaching to others is
2189himself a castaway!"
2190
2191He dropped and fell away from himself for a moment; then lifting his
2192face to them again, showed a deep joy in his eyes, as he cried out with
2193a heavenly enthusiasm,--"But oh! shipmates! on the starboard hand of
2194every woe, there is a sure delight; and higher the top of that delight,
2195than the bottom of the woe is deep. Is not the main-truck higher than
2196the kelson is low? Delight is to him--a far, far upward, and inward
2197delight--who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever
2198stands forth his own inexorable self. Delight is to him whose strong
2199arms yet support him, when the ship of this base treacherous world has
2200gone down beneath him. Delight is to him, who gives no quarter in the
2201truth, and kills, burns, and destroys all sin though he pluck it out
2202from under the robes of Senators and Judges. Delight,--top-gallant
2203delight is to him, who acknowledges no law or lord, but the Lord his
2204God, and is only a patriot to heaven. Delight is to him, whom all the
2205waves of the billows of the seas of the boisterous mob can never shake
2206from this sure Keel of the Ages. And eternal delight and deliciousness
2207will be his, who coming to lay him down, can say with his final
2208breath--O Father!--chiefly known to me by Thy rod--mortal or immortal,
2209here I die. I have striven to be Thine, more than to be this world's, or
2210mine own. Yet this is nothing: I leave eternity to Thee; for what is man
2211that he should live out the lifetime of his God?"
2212
2213He said no more, but slowly waving a benediction, covered his face with
2214his hands, and so remained kneeling, till all the people had departed,
2215and he was left alone in the place.
2216
2217
2218
2219CHAPTER 10. A Bosom Friend.
2220
2221
2222Returning to the Spouter-Inn from the Chapel, I found Queequeg there
2223quite alone; he having left the Chapel before the benediction some time.
2224He was sitting on a bench before the fire, with his feet on the stove
2225hearth, and in one hand was holding close up to his face that little
2226negro idol of his; peering hard into its face, and with a jack-knife
2227gently whittling away at its nose, meanwhile humming to himself in his
2228heathenish way.
2229
2230But being now interrupted, he put up the image; and pretty soon, going
2231to the table, took up a large book there, and placing it on his lap
2232began counting the pages with deliberate regularity; at every fiftieth
2233page--as I fancied--stopping a moment, looking vacantly around him, and
2234giving utterance to a long-drawn gurgling whistle of astonishment. He
2235would then begin again at the next fifty; seeming to commence at number
2236one each time, as though he could not count more than fifty, and it was
2237only by such a large number of fifties being found together, that his
2238astonishment at the multitude of pages was excited.
2239
2240With much interest I sat watching him. Savage though he was, and
2241hideously marred about the face--at least to my taste--his countenance
2242yet had a something in it which was by no means disagreeable. You cannot
2243hide the soul. Through all his unearthly tattooings, I thought I saw
2244the traces of a simple honest heart; and in his large, deep eyes,
2245fiery black and bold, there seemed tokens of a spirit that would dare a
2246thousand devils. And besides all this, there was a certain lofty bearing
2247about the Pagan, which even his uncouthness could not altogether maim.
2248He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had had a creditor.
2249Whether it was, too, that his head being shaved, his forehead was drawn
2250out in freer and brighter relief, and looked more expansive than it
2251otherwise would, this I will not venture to decide; but certain it was
2252his head was phrenologically an excellent one. It may seem ridiculous,
2253but it reminded me of General Washington's head, as seen in the popular
2254busts of him. It had the same long regularly graded retreating slope
2255from above the brows, which were likewise very projecting, like two
2256long promontories thickly wooded on top. Queequeg was George Washington
2257cannibalistically developed.
2258
2259Whilst I was thus closely scanning him, half-pretending meanwhile to be
2260looking out at the storm from the casement, he never heeded my presence,
2261never troubled himself with so much as a single glance; but appeared
2262wholly occupied with counting the pages of the marvellous book.
2263Considering how sociably we had been sleeping together the night
2264previous, and especially considering the affectionate arm I had found
2265thrown over me upon waking in the morning, I thought this indifference
2266of his very strange. But savages are strange beings; at times you do not
2267know exactly how to take them. At first they are overawing; their calm
2268self-collectedness of simplicity seems a Socratic wisdom. I had noticed
2269also that Queequeg never consorted at all, or but very little, with the
2270other seamen in the inn. He made no advances whatever; appeared to have
2271no desire to enlarge the circle of his acquaintances. All this struck
2272me as mighty singular; yet, upon second thoughts, there was something
2273almost sublime in it. Here was a man some twenty thousand miles from
2274home, by the way of Cape Horn, that is--which was the only way he could
2275get there--thrown among people as strange to him as though he were in
2276the planet Jupiter; and yet he seemed entirely at his ease; preserving
2277the utmost serenity; content with his own companionship; always equal to
2278himself. Surely this was a touch of fine philosophy; though no doubt he
2279had never heard there was such a thing as that. But, perhaps, to be
2280true philosophers, we mortals should not be conscious of so living or
2281so striving. So soon as I hear that such or such a man gives himself
2282out for a philosopher, I conclude that, like the dyspeptic old woman, he
2283must have "broken his digester."
2284
2285As I sat there in that now lonely room; the fire burning low, in that
2286mild stage when, after its first intensity has warmed the air, it then
2287only glows to be looked at; the evening shades and phantoms gathering
2288round the casements, and peering in upon us silent, solitary twain;
2289the storm booming without in solemn swells; I began to be sensible of
2290strange feelings. I felt a melting in me. No more my splintered heart
2291and maddened hand were turned against the wolfish world. This soothing
2292savage had redeemed it. There he sat, his very indifference speaking a
2293nature in which there lurked no civilized hypocrisies and bland deceits.
2294Wild he was; a very sight of sights to see; yet I began to feel myself
2295mysteriously drawn towards him. And those same things that would have
2296repelled most others, they were the very magnets that thus drew me. I'll
2297try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but
2298hollow courtesy. I drew my bench near him, and made some friendly signs
2299and hints, doing my best to talk with him meanwhile. At first he little
2300noticed these advances; but presently, upon my referring to his last
2301night's hospitalities, he made out to ask me whether we were again to be
2302bedfellows. I told him yes; whereat I thought he looked pleased, perhaps
2303a little complimented.
2304
2305We then turned over the book together, and I endeavored to explain to
2306him the purpose of the printing, and the meaning of the few pictures
2307that were in it. Thus I soon engaged his interest; and from that we went
2308to jabbering the best we could about the various outer sights to be seen
2309in this famous town. Soon I proposed a social smoke; and, producing
2310his pouch and tomahawk, he quietly offered me a puff. And then we sat
2311exchanging puffs from that wild pipe of his, and keeping it regularly
2312passing between us.
2313
2314If there yet lurked any ice of indifference towards me in the Pagan's
2315breast, this pleasant, genial smoke we had, soon thawed it out, and left
2316us cronies. He seemed to take to me quite as naturally and unbiddenly as
2317I to him; and when our smoke was over, he pressed his forehead against
2318mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that henceforth we were
2319married; meaning, in his country's phrase, that we were bosom friends;
2320he would gladly die for me, if need should be. In a countryman, this
2321sudden flame of friendship would have seemed far too premature, a thing
2322to be much distrusted; but in this simple savage those old rules would
2323not apply.
2324
2325After supper, and another social chat and smoke, we went to our room
2326together. He made me a present of his embalmed head; took out his
2327enormous tobacco wallet, and groping under the tobacco, drew out
2328some thirty dollars in silver; then spreading them on the table, and
2329mechanically dividing them into two equal portions, pushed one of them
2330towards me, and said it was mine. I was going to remonstrate; but he
2331silenced me by pouring them into my trowsers' pockets. I let them stay.
2332He then went about his evening prayers, took out his idol, and removed
2333the paper fireboard. By certain signs and symptoms, I thought he seemed
2334anxious for me to join him; but well knowing what was to follow, I
2335deliberated a moment whether, in case he invited me, I would comply or
2336otherwise.
2337
2338I was a good Christian; born and bred in the bosom of the infallible
2339Presbyterian Church. How then could I unite with this wild idolator in
2340worshipping his piece of wood? But what is worship? thought I. Do
2341you suppose now, Ishmael, that the magnanimous God of heaven and
2342earth--pagans and all included--can possibly be jealous of an
2343insignificant bit of black wood? Impossible! But what is worship?--to do
2344the will of God--THAT is worship. And what is the will of God?--to do to
2345my fellow man what I would have my fellow man to do to me--THAT is the
2346will of God. Now, Queequeg is my fellow man. And what do I wish that
2347this Queequeg would do to me? Why, unite with me in my particular
2348Presbyterian form of worship. Consequently, I must then unite with him
2349in his; ergo, I must turn idolator. So I kindled the shavings; helped
2350prop up the innocent little idol; offered him burnt biscuit with
2351Queequeg; salamed before him twice or thrice; kissed his nose; and that
2352done, we undressed and went to bed, at peace with our own consciences
2353and all the world. But we did not go to sleep without some little chat.
2354
2355How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential
2356disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very
2357bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often lie
2358and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts'
2359honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg--a cosy, loving pair.
2360
2361
2362
2363CHAPTER 11. Nightgown.
2364
2365
2366We had lain thus in bed, chatting and napping at short intervals, and
2367Queequeg now and then affectionately throwing his brown tattooed legs
2368over mine, and then drawing them back; so entirely sociable and free
2369and easy were we; when, at last, by reason of our confabulations, what
2370little nappishness remained in us altogether departed, and we felt like
2371getting up again, though day-break was yet some way down the future.
2372
2373Yes, we became very wakeful; so much so that our recumbent position
2374began to grow wearisome, and by little and little we found ourselves
2375sitting up; the clothes well tucked around us, leaning against the
2376head-board with our four knees drawn up close together, and our two
2377noses bending over them, as if our kneepans were warming-pans. We felt
2378very nice and snug, the more so since it was so chilly out of doors;
2379indeed out of bed-clothes too, seeing that there was no fire in the
2380room. The more so, I say, because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some
2381small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world
2382that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If
2383you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so
2384a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more. But if,
2385like Queequeg and me in the bed, the tip of your nose or the crown
2386of your head be slightly chilled, why then, indeed, in the general
2387consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm. For this
2388reason a sleeping apartment should never be furnished with a fire, which
2389is one of the luxurious discomforts of the rich. For the height of this
2390sort of deliciousness is to have nothing but the blanket between you and
2391your snugness and the cold of the outer air. Then there you lie like the
2392one warm spark in the heart of an arctic crystal.
2393
2394We had been sitting in this crouching manner for some time, when all at
2395once I thought I would open my eyes; for when between sheets, whether
2396by day or by night, and whether asleep or awake, I have a way of always
2397keeping my eyes shut, in order the more to concentrate the snugness
2398of being in bed. Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright
2399except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element
2400of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part. Upon
2401opening my eyes then, and coming out of my own pleasant and self-created
2402darkness into the imposed and coarse outer gloom of the unilluminated
2403twelve-o'clock-at-night, I experienced a disagreeable revulsion. Nor did
2404I at all object to the hint from Queequeg that perhaps it were best to
2405strike a light, seeing that we were so wide awake; and besides he felt
2406a strong desire to have a few quiet puffs from his Tomahawk. Be it said,
2407that though I had felt such a strong repugnance to his smoking in the
2408bed the night before, yet see how elastic our stiff prejudices grow when
2409love once comes to bend them. For now I liked nothing better than to
2410have Queequeg smoking by me, even in bed, because he seemed to be full
2411of such serene household joy then. I no more felt unduly concerned for
2412the landlord's policy of insurance. I was only alive to the condensed
2413confidential comfortableness of sharing a pipe and a blanket with a real
2414friend. With our shaggy jackets drawn about our shoulders, we now passed
2415the Tomahawk from one to the other, till slowly there grew over us a
2416blue hanging tester of smoke, illuminated by the flame of the new-lit
2417lamp.
2418
2419Whether it was that this undulating tester rolled the savage away to far
2420distant scenes, I know not, but he now spoke of his native island; and,
2421eager to hear his history, I begged him to go on and tell it. He gladly
2422complied. Though at the time I but ill comprehended not a few of his
2423words, yet subsequent disclosures, when I had become more familiar with
2424his broken phraseology, now enable me to present the whole story such as
2425it may prove in the mere skeleton I give.
2426
2427
2428
2429CHAPTER 12. Biographical.
2430
2431
2432Queequeg was a native of Rokovoko, an island far away to the West and
2433South. It is not down in any map; true places never are.
2434
2435When a new-hatched savage running wild about his native woodlands in
2436a grass clout, followed by the nibbling goats, as if he were a green
2437sapling; even then, in Queequeg's ambitious soul, lurked a strong desire
2438to see something more of Christendom than a specimen whaler or two. His
2439father was a High Chief, a King; his uncle a High Priest; and on the
2440maternal side he boasted aunts who were the wives of unconquerable
2441warriors. There was excellent blood in his veins--royal stuff; though
2442sadly vitiated, I fear, by the cannibal propensity he nourished in his
2443untutored youth.
2444
2445A Sag Harbor ship visited his father's bay, and Queequeg sought a
2446passage to Christian lands. But the ship, having her full complement of
2447seamen, spurned his suit; and not all the King his father's influence
2448could prevail. But Queequeg vowed a vow. Alone in his canoe, he paddled
2449off to a distant strait, which he knew the ship must pass through when
2450she quitted the island. On one side was a coral reef; on the other a low
2451tongue of land, covered with mangrove thickets that grew out into the
2452water. Hiding his canoe, still afloat, among these thickets, with its
2453prow seaward, he sat down in the stern, paddle low in hand; and when the
2454ship was gliding by, like a flash he darted out; gained her side; with
2455one backward dash of his foot capsized and sank his canoe; climbed up
2456the chains; and throwing himself at full length upon the deck, grappled
2457a ring-bolt there, and swore not to let it go, though hacked in pieces.
2458
2459In vain the captain threatened to throw him overboard; suspended a
2460cutlass over his naked wrists; Queequeg was the son of a King, and
2461Queequeg budged not. Struck by his desperate dauntlessness, and his wild
2462desire to visit Christendom, the captain at last relented, and told
2463him he might make himself at home. But this fine young savage--this sea
2464Prince of Wales, never saw the Captain's cabin. They put him down among
2465the sailors, and made a whaleman of him. But like Czar Peter content to
2466toil in the shipyards of foreign cities, Queequeg disdained no seeming
2467ignominy, if thereby he might happily gain the power of enlightening his
2468untutored countrymen. For at bottom--so he told me--he was actuated by a
2469profound desire to learn among the Christians, the arts whereby to
2470make his people still happier than they were; and more than that,
2471still better than they were. But, alas! the practices of whalemen soon
2472convinced him that even Christians could be both miserable and wicked;
2473infinitely more so, than all his father's heathens. Arrived at last in
2474old Sag Harbor; and seeing what the sailors did there; and then going on
2475to Nantucket, and seeing how they spent their wages in that place also,
2476poor Queequeg gave it up for lost. Thought he, it's a wicked world in
2477all meridians; I'll die a pagan.
2478
2479And thus an old idolator at heart, he yet lived among these Christians,
2480wore their clothes, and tried to talk their gibberish. Hence the queer
2481ways about him, though now some time from home.
2482
2483By hints, I asked him whether he did not propose going back, and having
2484a coronation; since he might now consider his father dead and gone, he
2485being very old and feeble at the last accounts. He answered no, not yet;
2486and added that he was fearful Christianity, or rather Christians, had
2487unfitted him for ascending the pure and undefiled throne of thirty pagan
2488Kings before him. But by and by, he said, he would return,--as soon as
2489he felt himself baptized again. For the nonce, however, he proposed to
2490sail about, and sow his wild oats in all four oceans. They had made a
2491harpooneer of him, and that barbed iron was in lieu of a sceptre now.
2492
2493I asked him what might be his immediate purpose, touching his future
2494movements. He answered, to go to sea again, in his old vocation. Upon
2495this, I told him that whaling was my own design, and informed him of my
2496intention to sail out of Nantucket, as being the most promising port for
2497an adventurous whaleman to embark from. He at once resolved to accompany
2498me to that island, ship aboard the same vessel, get into the same watch,
2499the same boat, the same mess with me, in short to share my every hap;
2500with both my hands in his, boldly dip into the Potluck of both worlds.
2501To all this I joyously assented; for besides the affection I now felt
2502for Queequeg, he was an experienced harpooneer, and as such, could not
2503fail to be of great usefulness to one, who, like me, was wholly ignorant
2504of the mysteries of whaling, though well acquainted with the sea, as
2505known to merchant seamen.
2506
2507His story being ended with his pipe's last dying puff, Queequeg embraced
2508me, pressed his forehead against mine, and blowing out the light, we
2509rolled over from each other, this way and that, and very soon were
2510sleeping.
2511
2512
2513CHAPTER 13. Wheelbarrow.
2514
2515
2516Next morning, Monday, after disposing of the embalmed head to a barber,
2517for a block, I settled my own and comrade's bill; using, however, my
2518comrade's money. The grinning landlord, as well as the boarders, seemed
2519amazingly tickled at the sudden friendship which had sprung up between
2520me and Queequeg--especially as Peter Coffin's cock and bull stories
2521about him had previously so much alarmed me concerning the very person
2522whom I now companied with.
2523
2524We borrowed a wheelbarrow, and embarking our things, including my own
2525poor carpet-bag, and Queequeg's canvas sack and hammock, away we went
2526down to "the Moss," the little Nantucket packet schooner moored at the
2527wharf. As we were going along the people stared; not at Queequeg
2528so much--for they were used to seeing cannibals like him in their
2529streets,--but at seeing him and me upon such confidential terms. But we
2530heeded them not, going along wheeling the barrow by turns, and Queequeg
2531now and then stopping to adjust the sheath on his harpoon barbs. I asked
2532him why he carried such a troublesome thing with him ashore, and
2533whether all whaling ships did not find their own harpoons. To this, in
2534substance, he replied, that though what I hinted was true enough, yet
2535he had a particular affection for his own harpoon, because it was of
2536assured stuff, well tried in many a mortal combat, and deeply intimate
2537with the hearts of whales. In short, like many inland reapers
2538and mowers, who go into the farmers' meadows armed with their own
2539scythes--though in no wise obliged to furnish them--even so, Queequeg,
2540for his own private reasons, preferred his own harpoon.
2541
2542Shifting the barrow from my hand to his, he told me a funny story about
2543the first wheelbarrow he had ever seen. It was in Sag Harbor. The owners
2544of his ship, it seems, had lent him one, in which to carry his
2545heavy chest to his boarding house. Not to seem ignorant about the
2546thing--though in truth he was entirely so, concerning the precise way in
2547which to manage the barrow--Queequeg puts his chest upon it; lashes it
2548fast; and then shoulders the barrow and marches up the wharf. "Why,"
2549said I, "Queequeg, you might have known better than that, one would
2550think. Didn't the people laugh?"
2551
2552Upon this, he told me another story. The people of his island of
2553Rokovoko, it seems, at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water
2554of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl; and
2555this punchbowl always forms the great central ornament on the braided
2556mat where the feast is held. Now a certain grand merchant ship once
2557touched at Rokovoko, and its commander--from all accounts, a very
2558stately punctilious gentleman, at least for a sea captain--this
2559commander was invited to the wedding feast of Queequeg's sister, a
2560pretty young princess just turned of ten. Well; when all the wedding
2561guests were assembled at the bride's bamboo cottage, this Captain
2562marches in, and being assigned the post of honour, placed himself over
2563against the punchbowl, and between the High Priest and his majesty the
2564King, Queequeg's father. Grace being said,--for those people have their
2565grace as well as we--though Queequeg told me that unlike us, who at such
2566times look downwards to our platters, they, on the contrary, copying the
2567ducks, glance upwards to the great Giver of all feasts--Grace, I say,
2568being said, the High Priest opens the banquet by the immemorial ceremony
2569of the island; that is, dipping his consecrated and consecrating fingers
2570into the bowl before the blessed beverage circulates. Seeing himself
2571placed next the Priest, and noting the ceremony, and thinking
2572himself--being Captain of a ship--as having plain precedence over a
2573mere island King, especially in the King's own house--the Captain coolly
2574proceeds to wash his hands in the punchbowl;--taking it I suppose for a
2575huge finger-glass. "Now," said Queequeg, "what you tink now?--Didn't our
2576people laugh?"
2577
2578At last, passage paid, and luggage safe, we stood on board the schooner.
2579Hoisting sail, it glided down the Acushnet river. On one side, New
2580Bedford rose in terraces of streets, their ice-covered trees all
2581glittering in the clear, cold air. Huge hills and mountains of casks on
2582casks were piled upon her wharves, and side by side the world-wandering
2583whale ships lay silent and safely moored at last; while from others
2584came a sound of carpenters and coopers, with blended noises of fires and
2585forges to melt the pitch, all betokening that new cruises were on the
2586start; that one most perilous and long voyage ended, only begins a
2587second; and a second ended, only begins a third, and so on, for ever
2588and for aye. Such is the endlessness, yea, the intolerableness of all
2589earthly effort.
2590
2591Gaining the more open water, the bracing breeze waxed fresh; the little
2592Moss tossed the quick foam from her bows, as a young colt his snortings.
2593How I snuffed that Tartar air!--how I spurned that turnpike earth!--that
2594common highway all over dented with the marks of slavish heels and
2595hoofs; and turned me to admire the magnanimity of the sea which will
2596permit no records.
2597
2598At the same foam-fountain, Queequeg seemed to drink and reel with me.
2599His dusky nostrils swelled apart; he showed his filed and pointed teeth.
2600On, on we flew; and our offing gained, the Moss did homage to the
2601blast; ducked and dived her bows as a slave before the Sultan. Sideways
2602leaning, we sideways darted; every ropeyarn tingling like a wire; the
2603two tall masts buckling like Indian canes in land tornadoes. So full of
2604this reeling scene were we, as we stood by the plunging bowsprit, that
2605for some time we did not notice the jeering glances of the passengers, a
2606lubber-like assembly, who marvelled that two fellow beings should be so
2607companionable; as though a white man were anything more dignified than a
2608whitewashed negro. But there were some boobies and bumpkins there, who,
2609by their intense greenness, must have come from the heart and centre of
2610all verdure. Queequeg caught one of these young saplings mimicking him
2611behind his back. I thought the bumpkin's hour of doom was come. Dropping
2612his harpoon, the brawny savage caught him in his arms, and by an almost
2613miraculous dexterity and strength, sent him high up bodily into the air;
2614then slightly tapping his stern in mid-somerset, the fellow landed with
2615bursting lungs upon his feet, while Queequeg, turning his back upon him,
2616lighted his tomahawk pipe and passed it to me for a puff.
2617
2618"Capting! Capting!" yelled the bumpkin, running towards that officer;
2619"Capting, Capting, here's the devil."
2620
2621"Hallo, _you_ sir," cried the Captain, a gaunt rib of the sea, stalking
2622up to Queequeg, "what in thunder do you mean by that? Don't you know you
2623might have killed that chap?"
2624
2625"What him say?" said Queequeg, as he mildly turned to me.
2626
2627"He say," said I, "that you came near kill-e that man there," pointing
2628to the still shivering greenhorn.
2629
2630"Kill-e," cried Queequeg, twisting his tattooed face into an unearthly
2631expression of disdain, "ah! him bevy small-e fish-e; Queequeg no kill-e
2632so small-e fish-e; Queequeg kill-e big whale!"
2633
2634"Look you," roared the Captain, "I'll kill-e YOU, you cannibal, if you
2635try any more of your tricks aboard here; so mind your eye."
2636
2637But it so happened just then, that it was high time for the Captain to
2638mind his own eye. The prodigious strain upon the main-sail had parted
2639the weather-sheet, and the tremendous boom was now flying from side to
2640side, completely sweeping the entire after part of the deck. The poor
2641fellow whom Queequeg had handled so roughly, was swept overboard; all
2642hands were in a panic; and to attempt snatching at the boom to stay it,
2643seemed madness. It flew from right to left, and back again, almost
2644in one ticking of a watch, and every instant seemed on the point of
2645snapping into splinters. Nothing was done, and nothing seemed capable of
2646being done; those on deck rushed towards the bows, and stood eyeing the
2647boom as if it were the lower jaw of an exasperated whale. In the
2648midst of this consternation, Queequeg dropped deftly to his knees, and
2649crawling under the path of the boom, whipped hold of a rope, secured one
2650end to the bulwarks, and then flinging the other like a lasso, caught it
2651round the boom as it swept over his head, and at the next jerk, the spar
2652was that way trapped, and all was safe. The schooner was run into the
2653wind, and while the hands were clearing away the stern boat, Queequeg,
2654stripped to the waist, darted from the side with a long living arc of
2655a leap. For three minutes or more he was seen swimming like a dog,
2656throwing his long arms straight out before him, and by turns revealing
2657his brawny shoulders through the freezing foam. I looked at the grand
2658and glorious fellow, but saw no one to be saved. The greenhorn had gone
2659down. Shooting himself perpendicularly from the water, Queequeg, now
2660took an instant's glance around him, and seeming to see just how matters
2661were, dived down and disappeared. A few minutes more, and he rose again,
2662one arm still striking out, and with the other dragging a lifeless form.
2663The boat soon picked them up. The poor bumpkin was restored. All hands
2664voted Queequeg a noble trump; the captain begged his pardon. From that
2665hour I clove to Queequeg like a barnacle; yea, till poor Queequeg took
2666his last long dive.
2667
2668Was there ever such unconsciousness? He did not seem to think that he at
2669all deserved a medal from the Humane and Magnanimous Societies. He only
2670asked for water--fresh water--something to wipe the brine off; that
2671done, he put on dry clothes, lighted his pipe, and leaning against the
2672bulwarks, and mildly eyeing those around him, seemed to be saying
2673to himself--"It's a mutual, joint-stock world, in all meridians. We
2674cannibals must help these Christians."
2675
2676
2677
2678CHAPTER 14. Nantucket.
2679
2680
2681Nothing more happened on the passage worthy the mentioning; so, after a
2682fine run, we safely arrived in Nantucket.
2683
2684Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it. See what a real corner of
2685the world it occupies; how it stands there, away off shore, more lonely
2686than the Eddystone lighthouse. Look at it--a mere hillock, and elbow of
2687sand; all beach, without a background. There is more sand there than
2688you would use in twenty years as a substitute for blotting paper. Some
2689gamesome wights will tell you that they have to plant weeds there, they
2690don't grow naturally; that they import Canada thistles; that they have
2691to send beyond seas for a spile to stop a leak in an oil cask; that
2692pieces of wood in Nantucket are carried about like bits of the true
2693cross in Rome; that people there plant toadstools before their houses,
2694to get under the shade in summer time; that one blade of grass makes an
2695oasis, three blades in a day's walk a prairie; that they wear quicksand
2696shoes, something like Laplander snow-shoes; that they are so shut up,
2697belted about, every way inclosed, surrounded, and made an utter island
2698of by the ocean, that to their very chairs and tables small clams will
2699sometimes be found adhering, as to the backs of sea turtles. But these
2700extravaganzas only show that Nantucket is no Illinois.
2701
2702Look now at the wondrous traditional story of how this island was
2703settled by the red-men. Thus goes the legend. In olden times an eagle
2704swooped down upon the New England coast, and carried off an infant
2705Indian in his talons. With loud lament the parents saw their child borne
2706out of sight over the wide waters. They resolved to follow in the same
2707direction. Setting out in their canoes, after a perilous passage they
2708discovered the island, and there they found an empty ivory casket,--the
2709poor little Indian's skeleton.
2710
2711What wonder, then, that these Nantucketers, born on a beach, should take
2712to the sea for a livelihood! They first caught crabs and quohogs in
2713the sand; grown bolder, they waded out with nets for mackerel; more
2714experienced, they pushed off in boats and captured cod; and at last,
2715launching a navy of great ships on the sea, explored this watery world;
2716put an incessant belt of circumnavigations round it; peeped in
2717at Behring's Straits; and in all seasons and all oceans declared
2718everlasting war with the mightiest animated mass that has survived the
2719flood; most monstrous and most mountainous! That Himmalehan, salt-sea
2720Mastodon, clothed with such portentousness of unconscious power, that
2721his very panics are more to be dreaded than his most fearless and
2722malicious assaults!
2723
2724And thus have these naked Nantucketers, these sea hermits, issuing from
2725their ant-hill in the sea, overrun and conquered the watery world like
2726so many Alexanders; parcelling out among them the Atlantic, Pacific, and
2727Indian oceans, as the three pirate powers did Poland. Let America add
2728Mexico to Texas, and pile Cuba upon Canada; let the English overswarm
2729all India, and hang out their blazing banner from the sun; two thirds
2730of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer's. For the sea is his; he
2731owns it, as Emperors own empires; other seamen having but a right of
2732way through it. Merchant ships are but extension bridges; armed ones but
2733floating forts; even pirates and privateers, though following the sea
2734as highwaymen the road, they but plunder other ships, other fragments of
2735the land like themselves, without seeking to draw their living from the
2736bottomless deep itself. The Nantucketer, he alone resides and riots on
2737the sea; he alone, in Bible language, goes down to it in ships; to and
2738fro ploughing it as his own special plantation. THERE is his home; THERE
2739lies his business, which a Noah's flood would not interrupt, though it
2740overwhelmed all the millions in China. He lives on the sea, as prairie
2741cocks in the prairie; he hides among the waves, he climbs them as
2742chamois hunters climb the Alps. For years he knows not the land; so
2743that when he comes to it at last, it smells like another world, more
2744strangely than the moon would to an Earthsman. With the landless gull,
2745that at sunset folds her wings and is rocked to sleep between billows;
2746so at nightfall, the Nantucketer, out of sight of land, furls his sails,
2747and lays him to his rest, while under his very pillow rush herds of
2748walruses and whales.
2749
2750
2751
2752CHAPTER 15. Chowder.
2753
2754
2755It was quite late in the evening when the little Moss came snugly
2756to anchor, and Queequeg and I went ashore; so we could attend to no
2757business that day, at least none but a supper and a bed. The landlord of
2758the Spouter-Inn had recommended us to his cousin Hosea Hussey of the
2759Try Pots, whom he asserted to be the proprietor of one of the best kept
2760hotels in all Nantucket, and moreover he had assured us that Cousin
2761Hosea, as he called him, was famous for his chowders. In short, he
2762plainly hinted that we could not possibly do better than try pot-luck at
2763the Try Pots. But the directions he had given us about keeping a yellow
2764warehouse on our starboard hand till we opened a white church to the
2765larboard, and then keeping that on the larboard hand till we made a
2766corner three points to the starboard, and that done, then ask the first
2767man we met where the place was: these crooked directions of his very
2768much puzzled us at first, especially as, at the outset, Queequeg
2769insisted that the yellow warehouse--our first point of departure--must
2770be left on the larboard hand, whereas I had understood Peter Coffin to
2771say it was on the starboard. However, by dint of beating about a little
2772in the dark, and now and then knocking up a peaceable inhabitant
2773to inquire the way, we at last came to something which there was no
2774mistaking.
2775
2776Two enormous wooden pots painted black, and suspended by asses' ears,
2777swung from the cross-trees of an old top-mast, planted in front of an
2778old doorway. The horns of the cross-trees were sawed off on the other
2779side, so that this old top-mast looked not a little like a gallows.
2780Perhaps I was over sensitive to such impressions at the time, but I
2781could not help staring at this gallows with a vague misgiving. A sort of
2782crick was in my neck as I gazed up to the two remaining horns; yes, TWO
2783of them, one for Queequeg, and one for me. It's ominous, thinks I. A
2784Coffin my Innkeeper upon landing in my first whaling port; tombstones
2785staring at me in the whalemen's chapel; and here a gallows! and a pair
2786of prodigious black pots too! Are these last throwing out oblique hints
2787touching Tophet?
2788
2789I was called from these reflections by the sight of a freckled woman
2790with yellow hair and a yellow gown, standing in the porch of the inn,
2791under a dull red lamp swinging there, that looked much like an injured
2792eye, and carrying on a brisk scolding with a man in a purple woollen
2793shirt.
2794
2795"Get along with ye," said she to the man, "or I'll be combing ye!"
2796
2797"Come on, Queequeg," said I, "all right. There's Mrs. Hussey."
2798
2799And so it turned out; Mr. Hosea Hussey being from home, but leaving
2800Mrs. Hussey entirely competent to attend to all his affairs. Upon
2801making known our desires for a supper and a bed, Mrs. Hussey, postponing
2802further scolding for the present, ushered us into a little room, and
2803seating us at a table spread with the relics of a recently concluded
2804repast, turned round to us and said--"Clam or Cod?"
2805
2806"What's that about Cods, ma'am?" said I, with much politeness.
2807
2808"Clam or Cod?" she repeated.
2809
2810"A clam for supper? a cold clam; is THAT what you mean, Mrs. Hussey?"
2811says I, "but that's a rather cold and clammy reception in the winter
2812time, ain't it, Mrs. Hussey?"
2813
2814But being in a great hurry to resume scolding the man in the purple
2815Shirt, who was waiting for it in the entry, and seeming to hear nothing
2816but the word "clam," Mrs. Hussey hurried towards an open door leading to
2817the kitchen, and bawling out "clam for two," disappeared.
2818
2819"Queequeg," said I, "do you think that we can make out a supper for us
2820both on one clam?"
2821
2822However, a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the
2823apparently cheerless prospect before us. But when that smoking chowder
2824came in, the mystery was delightfully explained. Oh, sweet friends!
2825hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than
2826hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into
2827little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned
2828with pepper and salt. Our appetites being sharpened by the frosty
2829voyage, and in particular, Queequeg seeing his favourite fishing food
2830before him, and the chowder being surpassingly excellent, we despatched
2831it with great expedition: when leaning back a moment and bethinking
2832me of Mrs. Hussey's clam and cod announcement, I thought I would try
2833a little experiment. Stepping to the kitchen door, I uttered the word
2834"cod" with great emphasis, and resumed my seat. In a few moments the
2835savoury steam came forth again, but with a different flavor, and in good
2836time a fine cod-chowder was placed before us.
2837
2838We resumed business; and while plying our spoons in the bowl, thinks I
2839to myself, I wonder now if this here has any effect on the head?
2840What's that stultifying saying about chowder-headed people? "But look,
2841Queequeg, ain't that a live eel in your bowl? Where's your harpoon?"
2842
2843Fishiest of all fishy places was the Try Pots, which well deserved
2844its name; for the pots there were always boiling chowders. Chowder for
2845breakfast, and chowder for dinner, and chowder for supper, till you
2846began to look for fish-bones coming through your clothes. The area
2847before the house was paved with clam-shells. Mrs. Hussey wore a polished
2848necklace of codfish vertebra; and Hosea Hussey had his account books
2849bound in superior old shark-skin. There was a fishy flavor to the milk,
2850too, which I could not at all account for, till one morning happening
2851to take a stroll along the beach among some fishermen's boats, I saw
2852Hosea's brindled cow feeding on fish remnants, and marching along the
2853sand with each foot in a cod's decapitated head, looking very slip-shod,
2854I assure ye.
2855
2856Supper concluded, we received a lamp, and directions from Mrs. Hussey
2857concerning the nearest way to bed; but, as Queequeg was about to precede
2858me up the stairs, the lady reached forth her arm, and demanded his
2859harpoon; she allowed no harpoon in her chambers. "Why not?" said I;
2860"every true whaleman sleeps with his harpoon--but why not?" "Because
2861it's dangerous," says she. "Ever since young Stiggs coming from that
2862unfort'nt v'y'ge of his, when he was gone four years and a half, with
2863only three barrels of _ile_, was found dead in my first floor back, with
2864his harpoon in his side; ever since then I allow no boarders to take
2865sich dangerous weepons in their rooms at night. So, Mr. Queequeg" (for
2866she had learned his name), "I will just take this here iron, and keep
2867it for you till morning. But the chowder; clam or cod to-morrow for
2868breakfast, men?"
2869
2870"Both," says I; "and let's have a couple of smoked herring by way of
2871variety."
2872
2873
2874
2875CHAPTER 16. The Ship.
2876
2877
2878In bed we concocted our plans for the morrow. But to my surprise and
2879no small concern, Queequeg now gave me to understand, that he had been
2880diligently consulting Yojo--the name of his black little god--and Yojo
2881had told him two or three times over, and strongly insisted upon it
2882everyway, that instead of our going together among the whaling-fleet in
2883harbor, and in concert selecting our craft; instead of this, I say, Yojo
2884earnestly enjoined that the selection of the ship should rest wholly
2885with me, inasmuch as Yojo purposed befriending us; and, in order to
2886do so, had already pitched upon a vessel, which, if left to myself, I,
2887Ishmael, should infallibly light upon, for all the world as though it
2888had turned out by chance; and in that vessel I must immediately ship
2889myself, for the present irrespective of Queequeg.
2890
2891I have forgotten to mention that, in many things, Queequeg placed great
2892confidence in the excellence of Yojo's judgment and surprising forecast
2893of things; and cherished Yojo with considerable esteem, as a rather good
2894sort of god, who perhaps meant well enough upon the whole, but in all
2895cases did not succeed in his benevolent designs.
2896
2897Now, this plan of Queequeg's, or rather Yojo's, touching the selection
2898of our craft; I did not like that plan at all. I had not a little relied
2899upon Queequeg's sagacity to point out the whaler best fitted to carry
2900us and our fortunes securely. But as all my remonstrances produced
2901no effect upon Queequeg, I was obliged to acquiesce; and accordingly
2902prepared to set about this business with a determined rushing sort
2903of energy and vigor, that should quickly settle that trifling little
2904affair. Next morning early, leaving Queequeg shut up with Yojo in our
2905little bedroom--for it seemed that it was some sort of Lent or Ramadan,
2906or day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer with Queequeg and Yojo that
2907day; HOW it was I never could find out, for, though I applied myself
2908to it several times, I never could master his liturgies and XXXIX
2909Articles--leaving Queequeg, then, fasting on his tomahawk pipe, and Yojo
2910warming himself at his sacrificial fire of shavings, I sallied out among
2911the shipping. After much prolonged sauntering and many random inquiries,
2912I learnt that there were three ships up for three-years' voyages--The
2913Devil-dam, the Tit-bit, and the Pequod. DEVIL-DAM, I do not know the
2914origin of; TIT-BIT is obvious; PEQUOD, you will no doubt remember, was
2915the name of a celebrated tribe of Massachusetts Indians; now extinct
2916as the ancient Medes. I peered and pryed about the Devil-dam; from her,
2917hopped over to the Tit-bit; and finally, going on board the Pequod,
2918looked around her for a moment, and then decided that this was the very
2919ship for us.
2920
2921You may have seen many a quaint craft in your day, for aught I
2922know;--square-toed luggers; mountainous Japanese junks; butter-box
2923galliots, and what not; but take my word for it, you never saw such a
2924rare old craft as this same rare old Pequod. She was a ship of the old
2925school, rather small if anything; with an old-fashioned claw-footed look
2926about her. Long seasoned and weather-stained in the typhoons and calms
2927of all four oceans, her old hull's complexion was darkened like a French
2928grenadier's, who has alike fought in Egypt and Siberia. Her venerable
2929bows looked bearded. Her masts--cut somewhere on the coast of Japan,
2930where her original ones were lost overboard in a gale--her masts stood
2931stiffly up like the spines of the three old kings of Cologne. Her
2932ancient decks were worn and wrinkled, like the pilgrim-worshipped
2933flag-stone in Canterbury Cathedral where Becket bled. But to all these
2934her old antiquities, were added new and marvellous features, pertaining
2935to the wild business that for more than half a century she had followed.
2936Old Captain Peleg, many years her chief-mate, before he commanded
2937another vessel of his own, and now a retired seaman, and one of the
2938principal owners of the Pequod,--this old Peleg, during the term of his
2939chief-mateship, had built upon her original grotesqueness, and inlaid
2940it, all over, with a quaintness both of material and device, unmatched
2941by anything except it be Thorkill-Hake's carved buckler or bedstead. She
2942was apparelled like any barbaric Ethiopian emperor, his neck heavy with
2943pendants of polished ivory. She was a thing of trophies. A cannibal of
2944a craft, tricking herself forth in the chased bones of her enemies. All
2945round, her unpanelled, open bulwarks were garnished like one continuous
2946jaw, with the long sharp teeth of the sperm whale, inserted there for
2947pins, to fasten her old hempen thews and tendons to. Those thews ran not
2948through base blocks of land wood, but deftly travelled over sheaves of
2949sea-ivory. Scorning a turnstile wheel at her reverend helm, she sported
2950there a tiller; and that tiller was in one mass, curiously carved
2951from the long narrow lower jaw of her hereditary foe. The helmsman who
2952steered by that tiller in a tempest, felt like the Tartar, when he holds
2953back his fiery steed by clutching its jaw. A noble craft, but somehow a
2954most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that.
2955
2956Now when I looked about the quarter-deck, for some one having authority,
2957in order to propose myself as a candidate for the voyage, at first I saw
2958nobody; but I could not well overlook a strange sort of tent, or
2959rather wigwam, pitched a little behind the main-mast. It seemed only
2960a temporary erection used in port. It was of a conical shape, some ten
2961feet high; consisting of the long, huge slabs of limber black bone taken
2962from the middle and highest part of the jaws of the right-whale.
2963Planted with their broad ends on the deck, a circle of these slabs laced
2964together, mutually sloped towards each other, and at the apex united in
2965a tufted point, where the loose hairy fibres waved to and fro like the
2966top-knot on some old Pottowottamie Sachem's head. A triangular opening
2967faced towards the bows of the ship, so that the insider commanded a
2968complete view forward.
2969
2970And half concealed in this queer tenement, I at length found one who
2971by his aspect seemed to have authority; and who, it being noon, and
2972the ship's work suspended, was now enjoying respite from the burden of
2973command. He was seated on an old-fashioned oaken chair, wriggling all
2974over with curious carving; and the bottom of which was formed of a
2975stout interlacing of the same elastic stuff of which the wigwam was
2976constructed.
2977
2978There was nothing so very particular, perhaps, about the appearance of
2979the elderly man I saw; he was brown and brawny, like most old seamen,
2980and heavily rolled up in blue pilot-cloth, cut in the Quaker style;
2981only there was a fine and almost microscopic net-work of the minutest
2982wrinkles interlacing round his eyes, which must have arisen from
2983his continual sailings in many hard gales, and always looking to
2984windward;--for this causes the muscles about the eyes to become pursed
2985together. Such eye-wrinkles are very effectual in a scowl.
2986
2987"Is this the Captain of the Pequod?" said I, advancing to the door of
2988the tent.
2989
2990"Supposing it be the captain of the Pequod, what dost thou want of him?"
2991he demanded.
2992
2993"I was thinking of shipping."
2994
2995"Thou wast, wast thou? I see thou art no Nantucketer--ever been in a
2996stove boat?"
2997
2998"No, Sir, I never have."
2999
3000"Dost know nothing at all about whaling, I dare say--eh?
3001
3002"Nothing, Sir; but I have no doubt I shall soon learn. I've been several
3003voyages in the merchant service, and I think that--"
3004
3005"Merchant service be damned. Talk not that lingo to me. Dost see that
3006leg?--I'll take that leg away from thy stern, if ever thou talkest of
3007the marchant service to me again. Marchant service indeed! I suppose now
3008ye feel considerable proud of having served in those marchant ships.
3009But flukes! man, what makes thee want to go a whaling, eh?--it looks
3010a little suspicious, don't it, eh?--Hast not been a pirate, hast
3011thou?--Didst not rob thy last Captain, didst thou?--Dost not think of
3012murdering the officers when thou gettest to sea?"
3013
3014I protested my innocence of these things. I saw that under the mask
3015of these half humorous innuendoes, this old seaman, as an insulated
3016Quakerish Nantucketer, was full of his insular prejudices, and rather
3017distrustful of all aliens, unless they hailed from Cape Cod or the
3018Vineyard.
3019
3020"But what takes thee a-whaling? I want to know that before I think of
3021shipping ye."
3022
3023"Well, sir, I want to see what whaling is. I want to see the world."
3024
3025"Want to see what whaling is, eh? Have ye clapped eye on Captain Ahab?"
3026
3027"Who is Captain Ahab, sir?"
3028
3029"Aye, aye, I thought so. Captain Ahab is the Captain of this ship."
3030
3031"I am mistaken then. I thought I was speaking to the Captain himself."
3032
3033"Thou art speaking to Captain Peleg--that's who ye are speaking to,
3034young man. It belongs to me and Captain Bildad to see the Pequod fitted
3035out for the voyage, and supplied with all her needs, including crew. We
3036are part owners and agents. But as I was going to say, if thou wantest
3037to know what whaling is, as thou tellest ye do, I can put ye in a way of
3038finding it out before ye bind yourself to it, past backing out. Clap
3039eye on Captain Ahab, young man, and thou wilt find that he has only one
3040leg."
3041
3042"What do you mean, sir? Was the other one lost by a whale?"
3043
3044"Lost by a whale! Young man, come nearer to me: it was devoured,
3045chewed up, crunched by the monstrousest parmacetty that ever chipped a
3046boat!--ah, ah!"
3047
3048I was a little alarmed by his energy, perhaps also a little touched at
3049the hearty grief in his concluding exclamation, but said as calmly as I
3050could, "What you say is no doubt true enough, sir; but how could I know
3051there was any peculiar ferocity in that particular whale, though indeed
3052I might have inferred as much from the simple fact of the accident."
3053
3054"Look ye now, young man, thy lungs are a sort of soft, d'ye see; thou
3055dost not talk shark a bit. SURE, ye've been to sea before now; sure of
3056that?"
3057
3058"Sir," said I, "I thought I told you that I had been four voyages in the
3059merchant--"
3060
3061"Hard down out of that! Mind what I said about the marchant
3062service--don't aggravate me--I won't have it. But let us understand each
3063other. I have given thee a hint about what whaling is; do ye yet feel
3064inclined for it?"
3065
3066"I do, sir."
3067
3068"Very good. Now, art thou the man to pitch a harpoon down a live whale's
3069throat, and then jump after it? Answer, quick!"
3070
3071"I am, sir, if it should be positively indispensable to do so; not to be
3072got rid of, that is; which I don't take to be the fact."
3073
3074"Good again. Now then, thou not only wantest to go a-whaling, to find
3075out by experience what whaling is, but ye also want to go in order to
3076see the world? Was not that what ye said? I thought so. Well then, just
3077step forward there, and take a peep over the weather-bow, and then back
3078to me and tell me what ye see there."
3079
3080For a moment I stood a little puzzled by this curious request, not
3081knowing exactly how to take it, whether humorously or in earnest. But
3082concentrating all his crow's feet into one scowl, Captain Peleg started
3083me on the errand.
3084
3085Going forward and glancing over the weather bow, I perceived that the
3086ship swinging to her anchor with the flood-tide, was now obliquely
3087pointing towards the open ocean. The prospect was unlimited, but
3088exceedingly monotonous and forbidding; not the slightest variety that I
3089could see.
3090
3091"Well, what's the report?" said Peleg when I came back; "what did ye
3092see?"
3093
3094"Not much," I replied--"nothing but water; considerable horizon though,
3095and there's a squall coming up, I think."
3096
3097"Well, what does thou think then of seeing the world? Do ye wish to go
3098round Cape Horn to see any more of it, eh? Can't ye see the world where
3099you stand?"
3100
3101I was a little staggered, but go a-whaling I must, and I would; and the
3102Pequod was as good a ship as any--I thought the best--and all this I now
3103repeated to Peleg. Seeing me so determined, he expressed his willingness
3104to ship me.
3105
3106"And thou mayest as well sign the papers right off," he added--"come
3107along with ye." And so saying, he led the way below deck into the cabin.
3108
3109Seated on the transom was what seemed to me a most uncommon and
3110surprising figure. It turned out to be Captain Bildad, who along with
3111Captain Peleg was one of the largest owners of the vessel; the other
3112shares, as is sometimes the case in these ports, being held by a crowd
3113of old annuitants; widows, fatherless children, and chancery wards; each
3114owning about the value of a timber head, or a foot of plank, or a nail
3115or two in the ship. People in Nantucket invest their money in whaling
3116vessels, the same way that you do yours in approved state stocks
3117bringing in good interest.
3118
3119Now, Bildad, like Peleg, and indeed many other Nantucketers, was a
3120Quaker, the island having been originally settled by that sect; and to
3121this day its inhabitants in general retain in an uncommon measure the
3122peculiarities of the Quaker, only variously and anomalously modified
3123by things altogether alien and heterogeneous. For some of these same
3124Quakers are the most sanguinary of all sailors and whale-hunters. They
3125are fighting Quakers; they are Quakers with a vengeance.
3126
3127So that there are instances among them of men, who, named with Scripture
3128names--a singularly common fashion on the island--and in childhood
3129naturally imbibing the stately dramatic thee and thou of the Quaker
3130idiom; still, from the audacious, daring, and boundless adventure
3131of their subsequent lives, strangely blend with these unoutgrown
3132peculiarities, a thousand bold dashes of character, not unworthy a
3133Scandinavian sea-king, or a poetical Pagan Roman. And when these things
3134unite in a man of greatly superior natural force, with a globular brain
3135and a ponderous heart; who has also by the stillness and seclusion
3136of many long night-watches in the remotest waters, and beneath
3137constellations never seen here at the north, been led to think
3138untraditionally and independently; receiving all nature's sweet or
3139savage impressions fresh from her own virgin voluntary and confiding
3140breast, and thereby chiefly, but with some help from accidental
3141advantages, to learn a bold and nervous lofty language--that man makes
3142one in a whole nation's census--a mighty pageant creature, formed for
3143noble tragedies. Nor will it at all detract from him, dramatically
3144regarded, if either by birth or other circumstances, he have what seems
3145a half wilful overruling morbidness at the bottom of his nature. For all
3146men tragically great are made so through a certain morbidness. Be sure
3147of this, O young ambition, all mortal greatness is but disease. But,
3148as yet we have not to do with such an one, but with quite another; and
3149still a man, who, if indeed peculiar, it only results again from another
3150phase of the Quaker, modified by individual circumstances.
3151
3152Like Captain Peleg, Captain Bildad was a well-to-do, retired whaleman.
3153But unlike Captain Peleg--who cared not a rush for what are called
3154serious things, and indeed deemed those self-same serious things the
3155veriest of all trifles--Captain Bildad had not only been originally
3156educated according to the strictest sect of Nantucket Quakerism, but all
3157his subsequent ocean life, and the sight of many unclad, lovely island
3158creatures, round the Horn--all that had not moved this native born
3159Quaker one single jot, had not so much as altered one angle of his
3160vest. Still, for all this immutableness, was there some lack of
3161common consistency about worthy Captain Bildad. Though refusing, from
3162conscientious scruples, to bear arms against land invaders, yet himself
3163had illimitably invaded the Atlantic and Pacific; and though a sworn foe
3164to human bloodshed, yet had he in his straight-bodied coat, spilled tuns
3165upon tuns of leviathan gore. How now in the contemplative evening of his
3166days, the pious Bildad reconciled these things in the reminiscence, I do
3167not know; but it did not seem to concern him much, and very probably
3168he had long since come to the sage and sensible conclusion that a man's
3169religion is one thing, and this practical world quite another. This
3170world pays dividends. Rising from a little cabin-boy in short clothes
3171of the drabbest drab, to a harpooneer in a broad shad-bellied waistcoat;
3172from that becoming boat-header, chief-mate, and captain, and finally a
3173ship owner; Bildad, as I hinted before, had concluded his adventurous
3174career by wholly retiring from active life at the goodly age of
3175sixty, and dedicating his remaining days to the quiet receiving of his
3176well-earned income.
3177
3178Now, Bildad, I am sorry to say, had the reputation of being an
3179incorrigible old hunks, and in his sea-going days, a bitter, hard
3180task-master. They told me in Nantucket, though it certainly seems a
3181curious story, that when he sailed the old Categut whaleman, his crew,
3182upon arriving home, were mostly all carried ashore to the hospital, sore
3183exhausted and worn out. For a pious man, especially for a Quaker, he was
3184certainly rather hard-hearted, to say the least. He never used to swear,
3185though, at his men, they said; but somehow he got an inordinate
3186quantity of cruel, unmitigated hard work out of them. When Bildad was a
3187chief-mate, to have his drab-coloured eye intently looking at you, made
3188you feel completely nervous, till you could clutch something--a hammer
3189or a marling-spike, and go to work like mad, at something or other,
3190never mind what. Indolence and idleness perished before him. His own
3191person was the exact embodiment of his utilitarian character. On his
3192long, gaunt body, he carried no spare flesh, no superfluous beard,
3193his chin having a soft, economical nap to it, like the worn nap of his
3194broad-brimmed hat.
3195
3196Such, then, was the person that I saw seated on the transom when I
3197followed Captain Peleg down into the cabin. The space between the decks
3198was small; and there, bolt-upright, sat old Bildad, who always sat so,
3199and never leaned, and this to save his coat tails. His broad-brim was
3200placed beside him; his legs were stiffly crossed; his drab vesture was
3201buttoned up to his chin; and spectacles on nose, he seemed absorbed in
3202reading from a ponderous volume.
3203
3204"Bildad," cried Captain Peleg, "at it again, Bildad, eh? Ye have been
3205studying those Scriptures, now, for the last thirty years, to my certain
3206knowledge. How far ye got, Bildad?"
3207
3208As if long habituated to such profane talk from his old shipmate,
3209Bildad, without noticing his present irreverence, quietly looked up, and
3210seeing me, glanced again inquiringly towards Peleg.
3211
3212"He says he's our man, Bildad," said Peleg, "he wants to ship."
3213
3214"Dost thee?" said Bildad, in a hollow tone, and turning round to me.
3215
3216"I dost," said I unconsciously, he was so intense a Quaker.
3217
3218"What do ye think of him, Bildad?" said Peleg.
3219
3220"He'll do," said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on spelling away at
3221his book in a mumbling tone quite audible.
3222
3223I thought him the queerest old Quaker I ever saw, especially as Peleg,
3224his friend and old shipmate, seemed such a blusterer. But I said
3225nothing, only looking round me sharply. Peleg now threw open a chest,
3226and drawing forth the ship's articles, placed pen and ink before him,
3227and seated himself at a little table. I began to think it was high time
3228to settle with myself at what terms I would be willing to engage for the
3229voyage. I was already aware that in the whaling business they paid no
3230wages; but all hands, including the captain, received certain shares of
3231the profits called lays, and that these lays were proportioned to the
3232degree of importance pertaining to the respective duties of the ship's
3233company. I was also aware that being a green hand at whaling, my own
3234lay would not be very large; but considering that I was used to the sea,
3235could steer a ship, splice a rope, and all that, I made no doubt that
3236from all I had heard I should be offered at least the 275th lay--that
3237is, the 275th part of the clear net proceeds of the voyage, whatever
3238that might eventually amount to. And though the 275th lay was what they
3239call a rather LONG LAY, yet it was better than nothing; and if we had a
3240lucky voyage, might pretty nearly pay for the clothing I would wear out
3241on it, not to speak of my three years' beef and board, for which I would
3242not have to pay one stiver.
3243
3244It might be thought that this was a poor way to accumulate a princely
3245fortune--and so it was, a very poor way indeed. But I am one of those
3246that never take on about princely fortunes, and am quite content if the
3247world is ready to board and lodge me, while I am putting up at this grim
3248sign of the Thunder Cloud. Upon the whole, I thought that the 275th lay
3249would be about the fair thing, but would not have been surprised had I
3250been offered the 200th, considering I was of a broad-shouldered make.
3251
3252But one thing, nevertheless, that made me a little distrustful about
3253receiving a generous share of the profits was this: Ashore, I had heard
3254something of both Captain Peleg and his unaccountable old crony Bildad;
3255how that they being the principal proprietors of the Pequod, therefore
3256the other and more inconsiderable and scattered owners, left nearly the
3257whole management of the ship's affairs to these two. And I did not know
3258but what the stingy old Bildad might have a mighty deal to say about
3259shipping hands, especially as I now found him on board the Pequod,
3260quite at home there in the cabin, and reading his Bible as if at his
3261own fireside. Now while Peleg was vainly trying to mend a pen with his
3262jack-knife, old Bildad, to my no small surprise, considering that he was
3263such an interested party in these proceedings; Bildad never heeded
3264us, but went on mumbling to himself out of his book, "LAY not up for
3265yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth--"
3266
3267"Well, Captain Bildad," interrupted Peleg, "what d'ye say, what lay
3268shall we give this young man?"
3269
3270"Thou knowest best," was the sepulchral reply, "the seven hundred and
3271seventy-seventh wouldn't be too much, would it?--'where moth and rust do
3272corrupt, but LAY--'"
3273
3274LAY, indeed, thought I, and such a lay! the seven hundred and
3275seventy-seventh! Well, old Bildad, you are determined that I, for one,
3276shall not LAY up many LAYS here below, where moth and rust do corrupt.
3277It was an exceedingly LONG LAY that, indeed; and though from the
3278magnitude of the figure it might at first deceive a landsman, yet
3279the slightest consideration will show that though seven hundred and
3280seventy-seven is a pretty large number, yet, when you come to make
3281a TEENTH of it, you will then see, I say, that the seven hundred and
3282seventy-seventh part of a farthing is a good deal less than seven
3283hundred and seventy-seven gold doubloons; and so I thought at the time.
3284
3285"Why, blast your eyes, Bildad," cried Peleg, "thou dost not want to
3286swindle this young man! he must have more than that."
3287
3288"Seven hundred and seventy-seventh," again said Bildad, without lifting
3289his eyes; and then went on mumbling--"for where your treasure is, there
3290will your heart be also."
3291
3292"I am going to put him down for the three hundredth," said Peleg, "do ye
3293hear that, Bildad! The three hundredth lay, I say."
3294
3295Bildad laid down his book, and turning solemnly towards him said,
3296"Captain Peleg, thou hast a generous heart; but thou must consider the
3297duty thou owest to the other owners of this ship--widows and orphans,
3298many of them--and that if we too abundantly reward the labors of this
3299young man, we may be taking the bread from those widows and those
3300orphans. The seven hundred and seventy-seventh lay, Captain Peleg."
3301
3302"Thou Bildad!" roared Peleg, starting up and clattering about the
3303cabin. "Blast ye, Captain Bildad, if I had followed thy advice in these
3304matters, I would afore now had a conscience to lug about that would be
3305heavy enough to founder the largest ship that ever sailed round Cape
3306Horn."
3307
3308"Captain Peleg," said Bildad steadily, "thy conscience may be drawing
3309ten inches of water, or ten fathoms, I can't tell; but as thou art still
3310an impenitent man, Captain Peleg, I greatly fear lest thy conscience be
3311but a leaky one; and will in the end sink thee foundering down to the
3312fiery pit, Captain Peleg."
3313
3314"Fiery pit! fiery pit! ye insult me, man; past all natural bearing, ye
3315insult me. It's an all-fired outrage to tell any human creature that
3316he's bound to hell. Flukes and flames! Bildad, say that again to me, and
3317start my soul-bolts, but I'll--I'll--yes, I'll swallow a live goat with
3318all his hair and horns on. Out of the cabin, ye canting, drab-coloured
3319son of a wooden gun--a straight wake with ye!"
3320
3321As he thundered out this he made a rush at Bildad, but with a marvellous
3322oblique, sliding celerity, Bildad for that time eluded him.
3323
3324Alarmed at this terrible outburst between the two principal and
3325responsible owners of the ship, and feeling half a mind to give up
3326all idea of sailing in a vessel so questionably owned and temporarily
3327commanded, I stepped aside from the door to give egress to Bildad, who,
3328I made no doubt, was all eagerness to vanish from before the awakened
3329wrath of Peleg. But to my astonishment, he sat down again on the
3330transom very quietly, and seemed to have not the slightest intention of
3331withdrawing. He seemed quite used to impenitent Peleg and his ways. As
3332for Peleg, after letting off his rage as he had, there seemed no more
3333left in him, and he, too, sat down like a lamb, though he twitched a
3334little as if still nervously agitated. "Whew!" he whistled at last--"the
3335squall's gone off to leeward, I think. Bildad, thou used to be good at
3336sharpening a lance, mend that pen, will ye. My jack-knife here needs
3337the grindstone. That's he; thank ye, Bildad. Now then, my young man,
3338Ishmael's thy name, didn't ye say? Well then, down ye go here, Ishmael,
3339for the three hundredth lay."
3340
3341"Captain Peleg," said I, "I have a friend with me who wants to ship
3342too--shall I bring him down to-morrow?"
3343
3344"To be sure," said Peleg. "Fetch him along, and we'll look at him."
3345
3346"What lay does he want?" groaned Bildad, glancing up from the book in
3347which he had again been burying himself.
3348
3349"Oh! never thee mind about that, Bildad," said Peleg. "Has he ever
3350whaled it any?" turning to me.
3351
3352"Killed more whales than I can count, Captain Peleg."
3353
3354"Well, bring him along then."
3355
3356And, after signing the papers, off I went; nothing doubting but that I
3357had done a good morning's work, and that the Pequod was the identical
3358ship that Yojo had provided to carry Queequeg and me round the Cape.
3359
3360But I had not proceeded far, when I began to bethink me that the Captain
3361with whom I was to sail yet remained unseen by me; though, indeed, in
3362many cases, a whale-ship will be completely fitted out, and receive all
3363her crew on board, ere the captain makes himself visible by arriving
3364to take command; for sometimes these voyages are so prolonged, and the
3365shore intervals at home so exceedingly brief, that if the captain have
3366a family, or any absorbing concernment of that sort, he does not trouble
3367himself much about his ship in port, but leaves her to the owners till
3368all is ready for sea. However, it is always as well to have a look at
3369him before irrevocably committing yourself into his hands. Turning back
3370I accosted Captain Peleg, inquiring where Captain Ahab was to be found.
3371
3372"And what dost thou want of Captain Ahab? It's all right enough; thou
3373art shipped."
3374
3375"Yes, but I should like to see him."
3376
3377"But I don't think thou wilt be able to at present. I don't know exactly
3378what's the matter with him; but he keeps close inside the house; a sort
3379of sick, and yet he don't look so. In fact, he ain't sick; but no, he
3380isn't well either. Any how, young man, he won't always see me, so I
3381don't suppose he will thee. He's a queer man, Captain Ahab--so some
3382think--but a good one. Oh, thou'lt like him well enough; no fear, no
3383fear. He's a grand, ungodly, god-like man, Captain Ahab; doesn't speak
3384much; but, when he does speak, then you may well listen. Mark ye, be
3385forewarned; Ahab's above the common; Ahab's been in colleges, as well as
3386'mong the cannibals; been used to deeper wonders than the waves; fixed
3387his fiery lance in mightier, stranger foes than whales. His lance!
3388aye, the keenest and the surest that out of all our isle! Oh! he ain't
3389Captain Bildad; no, and he ain't Captain Peleg; HE'S AHAB, boy; and Ahab
3390of old, thou knowest, was a crowned king!"
3391
3392"And a very vile one. When that wicked king was slain, the dogs, did
3393they not lick his blood?"
3394
3395"Come hither to me--hither, hither," said Peleg, with a significance in
3396his eye that almost startled me. "Look ye, lad; never say that on board
3397the Pequod. Never say it anywhere. Captain Ahab did not name himself.
3398'Twas a foolish, ignorant whim of his crazy, widowed mother, who died
3399when he was only a twelvemonth old. And yet the old squaw Tistig, at
3400Gayhead, said that the name would somehow prove prophetic. And, perhaps,
3401other fools like her may tell thee the same. I wish to warn thee. It's a
3402lie. I know Captain Ahab well; I've sailed with him as mate years ago;
3403I know what he is--a good man--not a pious, good man, like Bildad, but
3404a swearing good man--something like me--only there's a good deal more of
3405him. Aye, aye, I know that he was never very jolly; and I know that on
3406the passage home, he was a little out of his mind for a spell; but it
3407was the sharp shooting pains in his bleeding stump that brought that
3408about, as any one might see. I know, too, that ever since he lost
3409his leg last voyage by that accursed whale, he's been a kind of
3410moody--desperate moody, and savage sometimes; but that will all pass
3411off. And once for all, let me tell thee and assure thee, young man, it's
3412better to sail with a moody good captain than a laughing bad one. So
3413good-bye to thee--and wrong not Captain Ahab, because he happens to
3414have a wicked name. Besides, my boy, he has a wife--not three voyages
3415wedded--a sweet, resigned girl. Think of that; by that sweet girl that
3416old man has a child: hold ye then there can be any utter, hopeless
3417harm in Ahab? No, no, my lad; stricken, blasted, if he be, Ahab has his
3418humanities!"
3419
3420As I walked away, I was full of thoughtfulness; what had been
3421incidentally revealed to me of Captain Ahab, filled me with a certain
3422wild vagueness of painfulness concerning him. And somehow, at the time,
3423I felt a sympathy and a sorrow for him, but for I don't know what,
3424unless it was the cruel loss of his leg. And yet I also felt a strange
3425awe of him; but that sort of awe, which I cannot at all describe, was
3426not exactly awe; I do not know what it was. But I felt it; and it did
3427not disincline me towards him; though I felt impatience at what seemed
3428like mystery in him, so imperfectly as he was known to me then. However,
3429my thoughts were at length carried in other directions, so that for the
3430present dark Ahab slipped my mind.
3431
3432
3433
3434CHAPTER 17. The Ramadan.
3435
3436
3437As Queequeg's Ramadan, or Fasting and Humiliation, was to continue all
3438day, I did not choose to disturb him till towards night-fall; for I
3439cherish the greatest respect towards everybody's religious obligations,
3440never mind how comical, and could not find it in my heart to undervalue
3441even a congregation of ants worshipping a toad-stool; or those other
3442creatures in certain parts of our earth, who with a degree of footmanism
3443quite unprecedented in other planets, bow down before the torso of
3444a deceased landed proprietor merely on account of the inordinate
3445possessions yet owned and rented in his name.
3446
3447I say, we good Presbyterian Christians should be charitable in these
3448things, and not fancy ourselves so vastly superior to other mortals,
3449pagans and what not, because of their half-crazy conceits on these
3450subjects. There was Queequeg, now, certainly entertaining the most
3451absurd notions about Yojo and his Ramadan;--but what of that? Queequeg
3452thought he knew what he was about, I suppose; he seemed to be content;
3453and there let him rest. All our arguing with him would not avail; let
3454him be, I say: and Heaven have mercy on us all--Presbyterians and Pagans
3455alike--for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and
3456sadly need mending.
3457
3458Towards evening, when I felt assured that all his performances and
3459rituals must be over, I went up to his room and knocked at the door; but
3460no answer. I tried to open it, but it was fastened inside. "Queequeg,"
3461said I softly through the key-hole:--all silent. "I say, Queequeg! why
3462don't you speak? It's I--Ishmael." But all remained still as before. I
3463began to grow alarmed. I had allowed him such abundant time; I thought
3464he might have had an apoplectic fit. I looked through the key-hole; but
3465the door opening into an odd corner of the room, the key-hole prospect
3466was but a crooked and sinister one. I could only see part of the
3467foot-board of the bed and a line of the wall, but nothing more. I
3468was surprised to behold resting against the wall the wooden shaft of
3469Queequeg's harpoon, which the landlady the evening previous had taken
3470from him, before our mounting to the chamber. That's strange, thought I;
3471but at any rate, since the harpoon stands yonder, and he seldom or
3472never goes abroad without it, therefore he must be inside here, and no
3473possible mistake.
3474
3475"Queequeg!--Queequeg!"--all still. Something must have happened.
3476Apoplexy! I tried to burst open the door; but it stubbornly resisted.
3477Running down stairs, I quickly stated my suspicions to the first person
3478I met--the chamber-maid. "La! la!" she cried, "I thought something must
3479be the matter. I went to make the bed after breakfast, and the door was
3480locked; and not a mouse to be heard; and it's been just so silent ever
3481since. But I thought, may be, you had both gone off and locked your
3482baggage in for safe keeping. La! la, ma'am!--Mistress! murder! Mrs.
3483Hussey! apoplexy!"--and with these cries, she ran towards the kitchen, I
3484following.
3485
3486Mrs. Hussey soon appeared, with a mustard-pot in one hand and a
3487vinegar-cruet in the other, having just broken away from the occupation
3488of attending to the castors, and scolding her little black boy meantime.
3489
3490"Wood-house!" cried I, "which way to it? Run for God's sake, and fetch
3491something to pry open the door--the axe!--the axe! he's had a stroke;
3492depend upon it!"--and so saying I was unmethodically rushing up stairs
3493again empty-handed, when Mrs. Hussey interposed the mustard-pot and
3494vinegar-cruet, and the entire castor of her countenance.
3495
3496"What's the matter with you, young man?"
3497
3498"Get the axe! For God's sake, run for the doctor, some one, while I pry
3499it open!"
3500
3501"Look here," said the landlady, quickly putting down the vinegar-cruet,
3502so as to have one hand free; "look here; are you talking about prying
3503open any of my doors?"--and with that she seized my arm. "What's the
3504matter with you? What's the matter with you, shipmate?"
3505
3506In as calm, but rapid a manner as possible, I gave her to understand the
3507whole case. Unconsciously clapping the vinegar-cruet to one side of her
3508nose, she ruminated for an instant; then exclaimed--"No! I haven't seen
3509it since I put it there." Running to a little closet under the landing
3510of the stairs, she glanced in, and returning, told me that Queequeg's
3511harpoon was missing. "He's killed himself," she cried. "It's unfort'nate
3512Stiggs done over again--there goes another counterpane--God pity his poor
3513mother!--it will be the ruin of my house. Has the poor lad a sister?
3514Where's that girl?--there, Betty, go to Snarles the Painter, and tell
3515him to paint me a sign, with--"no suicides permitted here, and no
3516smoking in the parlor;"--might as well kill both birds at once. Kill?
3517The Lord be merciful to his ghost! What's that noise there? You, young
3518man, avast there!"
3519
3520And running up after me, she caught me as I was again trying to force
3521open the door.
3522
3523"I don't allow it; I won't have my premises spoiled. Go for the
3524locksmith, there's one about a mile from here. But avast!" putting her
3525hand in her side-pocket, "here's a key that'll fit, I guess; let's
3526see." And with that, she turned it in the lock; but, alas! Queequeg's
3527supplemental bolt remained unwithdrawn within.
3528
3529"Have to burst it open," said I, and was running down the entry a
3530little, for a good start, when the landlady caught at me, again vowing
3531I should not break down her premises; but I tore from her, and with a
3532sudden bodily rush dashed myself full against the mark.
3533
3534With a prodigious noise the door flew open, and the knob slamming
3535against the wall, sent the plaster to the ceiling; and there, good
3536heavens! there sat Queequeg, altogether cool and self-collected; right
3537in the middle of the room; squatting on his hams, and holding Yojo on
3538top of his head. He looked neither one way nor the other way, but sat
3539like a carved image with scarce a sign of active life.
3540
3541"Queequeg," said I, going up to him, "Queequeg, what's the matter with
3542you?"
3543
3544"He hain't been a sittin' so all day, has he?" said the landlady.
3545
3546But all we said, not a word could we drag out of him; I almost felt
3547like pushing him over, so as to change his position, for it was almost
3548intolerable, it seemed so painfully and unnaturally constrained;
3549especially, as in all probability he had been sitting so for upwards of
3550eight or ten hours, going too without his regular meals.
3551
3552"Mrs. Hussey," said I, "he's ALIVE at all events; so leave us, if you
3553please, and I will see to this strange affair myself."
3554
3555Closing the door upon the landlady, I endeavored to prevail upon
3556Queequeg to take a chair; but in vain. There he sat; and all he could
3557do--for all my polite arts and blandishments--he would not move a peg,
3558nor say a single word, nor even look at me, nor notice my presence in
3559the slightest way.
3560
3561I wonder, thought I, if this can possibly be a part of his Ramadan; do
3562they fast on their hams that way in his native island. It must be so;
3563yes, it's part of his creed, I suppose; well, then, let him rest; he'll
3564get up sooner or later, no doubt. It can't last for ever, thank God,
3565and his Ramadan only comes once a year; and I don't believe it's very
3566punctual then.
3567
3568I went down to supper. After sitting a long time listening to the long
3569stories of some sailors who had just come from a plum-pudding voyage, as
3570they called it (that is, a short whaling-voyage in a schooner or brig,
3571confined to the north of the line, in the Atlantic Ocean only); after
3572listening to these plum-puddingers till nearly eleven o'clock, I went
3573up stairs to go to bed, feeling quite sure by this time Queequeg must
3574certainly have brought his Ramadan to a termination. But no; there he
3575was just where I had left him; he had not stirred an inch. I began to
3576grow vexed with him; it seemed so downright senseless and insane to be
3577sitting there all day and half the night on his hams in a cold room,
3578holding a piece of wood on his head.
3579
3580"For heaven's sake, Queequeg, get up and shake yourself; get up and have
3581some supper. You'll starve; you'll kill yourself, Queequeg." But not a
3582word did he reply.
3583
3584Despairing of him, therefore, I determined to go to bed and to sleep;
3585and no doubt, before a great while, he would follow me. But previous to
3586turning in, I took my heavy bearskin jacket, and threw it over him, as
3587it promised to be a very cold night; and he had nothing but his ordinary
3588round jacket on. For some time, do all I would, I could not get into
3589the faintest doze. I had blown out the candle; and the mere thought
3590of Queequeg--not four feet off--sitting there in that uneasy position,
3591stark alone in the cold and dark; this made me really wretched. Think of
3592it; sleeping all night in the same room with a wide awake pagan on his
3593hams in this dreary, unaccountable Ramadan!
3594
3595But somehow I dropped off at last, and knew nothing more till break of
3596day; when, looking over the bedside, there squatted Queequeg, as if he
3597had been screwed down to the floor. But as soon as the first glimpse of
3598sun entered the window, up he got, with stiff and grating joints,
3599but with a cheerful look; limped towards me where I lay; pressed his
3600forehead again against mine; and said his Ramadan was over.
3601
3602Now, as I before hinted, I have no objection to any person's religion,
3603be it what it may, so long as that person does not kill or insult any
3604other person, because that other person don't believe it also. But when
3605a man's religion becomes really frantic; when it is a positive torment
3606to him; and, in fine, makes this earth of ours an uncomfortable inn to
3607lodge in; then I think it high time to take that individual aside and
3608argue the point with him.
3609
3610And just so I now did with Queequeg. "Queequeg," said I, "get into bed
3611now, and lie and listen to me." I then went on, beginning with the rise
3612and progress of the primitive religions, and coming down to the various
3613religions of the present time, during which time I labored to show
3614Queequeg that all these Lents, Ramadans, and prolonged ham-squattings in
3615cold, cheerless rooms were stark nonsense; bad for the health; useless
3616for the soul; opposed, in short, to the obvious laws of Hygiene and
3617common sense. I told him, too, that he being in other things such an
3618extremely sensible and sagacious savage, it pained me, very badly pained
3619me, to see him now so deplorably foolish about this ridiculous Ramadan
3620of his. Besides, argued I, fasting makes the body cave in; hence the
3621spirit caves in; and all thoughts born of a fast must necessarily be
3622half-starved. This is the reason why most dyspeptic religionists cherish
3623such melancholy notions about their hereafters. In one word, Queequeg,
3624said I, rather digressively; hell is an idea first born on an undigested
3625apple-dumpling; and since then perpetuated through the hereditary
3626dyspepsias nurtured by Ramadans.
3627
3628I then asked Queequeg whether he himself was ever troubled with
3629dyspepsia; expressing the idea very plainly, so that he could take it
3630in. He said no; only upon one memorable occasion. It was after a great
3631feast given by his father the king, on the gaining of a great battle
3632wherein fifty of the enemy had been killed by about two o'clock in the
3633afternoon, and all cooked and eaten that very evening.
3634
3635"No more, Queequeg," said I, shuddering; "that will do;" for I knew the
3636inferences without his further hinting them. I had seen a sailor who had
3637visited that very island, and he told me that it was the custom, when
3638a great battle had been gained there, to barbecue all the slain in the
3639yard or garden of the victor; and then, one by one, they were placed
3640in great wooden trenchers, and garnished round like a pilau, with
3641breadfruit and cocoanuts; and with some parsley in their mouths, were
3642sent round with the victor's compliments to all his friends, just as
3643though these presents were so many Christmas turkeys.
3644
3645After all, I do not think that my remarks about religion made much
3646impression upon Queequeg. Because, in the first place, he somehow seemed
3647dull of hearing on that important subject, unless considered from his
3648own point of view; and, in the second place, he did not more than one
3649third understand me, couch my ideas simply as I would; and, finally, he
3650no doubt thought he knew a good deal more about the true religion than
3651I did. He looked at me with a sort of condescending concern and
3652compassion, as though he thought it a great pity that such a sensible
3653young man should be so hopelessly lost to evangelical pagan piety.
3654
3655At last we rose and dressed; and Queequeg, taking a prodigiously hearty
3656breakfast of chowders of all sorts, so that the landlady should not
3657make much profit by reason of his Ramadan, we sallied out to board the
3658Pequod, sauntering along, and picking our teeth with halibut bones.
3659
3660
3661
3662CHAPTER 18. His Mark.
3663
3664
3665As we were walking down the end of the wharf towards the ship, Queequeg
3666carrying his harpoon, Captain Peleg in his gruff voice loudly hailed us
3667from his wigwam, saying he had not suspected my friend was a cannibal,
3668and furthermore announcing that he let no cannibals on board that craft,
3669unless they previously produced their papers.
3670
3671"What do you mean by that, Captain Peleg?" said I, now jumping on the
3672bulwarks, and leaving my comrade standing on the wharf.
3673
3674"I mean," he replied, "he must show his papers."
3675
3676"Yes," said Captain Bildad in his hollow voice, sticking his head from
3677behind Peleg's, out of the wigwam. "He must show that he's converted.
3678Son of darkness," he added, turning to Queequeg, "art thou at present in
3679communion with any Christian church?"
3680
3681"Why," said I, "he's a member of the first Congregational Church." Here
3682be it said, that many tattooed savages sailing in Nantucket ships at
3683last come to be converted into the churches.
3684
3685"First Congregational Church," cried Bildad, "what! that worships in
3686Deacon Deuteronomy Coleman's meeting-house?" and so saying, taking
3687out his spectacles, he rubbed them with his great yellow bandana
3688handkerchief, and putting them on very carefully, came out of the
3689wigwam, and leaning stiffly over the bulwarks, took a good long look at
3690Queequeg.
3691
3692"How long hath he been a member?" he then said, turning to me; "not very
3693long, I rather guess, young man."
3694
3695"No," said Peleg, "and he hasn't been baptized right either, or it would
3696have washed some of that devil's blue off his face."
3697
3698"Do tell, now," cried Bildad, "is this Philistine a regular member of
3699Deacon Deuteronomy's meeting? I never saw him going there, and I pass it
3700every Lord's day."
3701
3702"I don't know anything about Deacon Deuteronomy or his meeting," said
3703I; "all I know is, that Queequeg here is a born member of the First
3704Congregational Church. He is a deacon himself, Queequeg is."
3705
3706"Young man," said Bildad sternly, "thou art skylarking with me--explain
3707thyself, thou young Hittite. What church dost thee mean? answer me."
3708
3709Finding myself thus hard pushed, I replied. "I mean, sir, the same
3710ancient Catholic Church to which you and I, and Captain Peleg there,
3711and Queequeg here, and all of us, and every mother's son and soul of
3712us belong; the great and everlasting First Congregation of this whole
3713worshipping world; we all belong to that; only some of us cherish some
3714queer crotchets no ways touching the grand belief; in THAT we all join
3715hands."
3716
3717"Splice, thou mean'st SPLICE hands," cried Peleg, drawing nearer. "Young
3718man, you'd better ship for a missionary, instead of a fore-mast hand;
3719I never heard a better sermon. Deacon Deuteronomy--why Father Mapple
3720himself couldn't beat it, and he's reckoned something. Come aboard, come
3721aboard; never mind about the papers. I say, tell Quohog there--what's
3722that you call him? tell Quohog to step along. By the great anchor, what
3723a harpoon he's got there! looks like good stuff that; and he handles it
3724about right. I say, Quohog, or whatever your name is, did you ever stand
3725in the head of a whale-boat? did you ever strike a fish?"
3726
3727Without saying a word, Queequeg, in his wild sort of way, jumped upon
3728the bulwarks, from thence into the bows of one of the whale-boats
3729hanging to the side; and then bracing his left knee, and poising his
3730harpoon, cried out in some such way as this:--
3731
3732"Cap'ain, you see him small drop tar on water dere? You see him? well,
3733spose him one whale eye, well, den!" and taking sharp aim at it, he
3734darted the iron right over old Bildad's broad brim, clean across the
3735ship's decks, and struck the glistening tar spot out of sight.
3736
3737"Now," said Queequeg, quietly hauling in the line, "spos-ee him whale-e
3738eye; why, dad whale dead."
3739
3740"Quick, Bildad," said Peleg, his partner, who, aghast at the close
3741vicinity of the flying harpoon, had retreated towards the cabin gangway.
3742"Quick, I say, you Bildad, and get the ship's papers. We must have
3743Hedgehog there, I mean Quohog, in one of our boats. Look ye, Quohog,
3744we'll give ye the ninetieth lay, and that's more than ever was given a
3745harpooneer yet out of Nantucket."
3746
3747So down we went into the cabin, and to my great joy Queequeg was soon
3748enrolled among the same ship's company to which I myself belonged.
3749
3750When all preliminaries were over and Peleg had got everything ready for
3751signing, he turned to me and said, "I guess, Quohog there don't know how
3752to write, does he? I say, Quohog, blast ye! dost thou sign thy name or
3753make thy mark?"
3754
3755But at this question, Queequeg, who had twice or thrice before taken
3756part in similar ceremonies, looked no ways abashed; but taking the
3757offered pen, copied upon the paper, in the proper place, an exact
3758counterpart of a queer round figure which was tattooed upon his arm; so
3759that through Captain Peleg's obstinate mistake touching his appellative,
3760it stood something like this:--
3761
3762Quohog. his X mark.
3763
3764Meanwhile Captain Bildad sat earnestly and steadfastly eyeing Queequeg,
3765and at last rising solemnly and fumbling in the huge pockets of his
3766broad-skirted drab coat, took out a bundle of tracts, and selecting
3767one entitled "The Latter Day Coming; or No Time to Lose," placed it in
3768Queequeg's hands, and then grasping them and the book with both his,
3769looked earnestly into his eyes, and said, "Son of darkness, I must do my
3770duty by thee; I am part owner of this ship, and feel concerned for the
3771souls of all its crew; if thou still clingest to thy Pagan ways, which I
3772sadly fear, I beseech thee, remain not for aye a Belial bondsman. Spurn
3773the idol Bell, and the hideous dragon; turn from the wrath to come; mind
3774thine eye, I say; oh! goodness gracious! steer clear of the fiery pit!"
3775
3776Something of the salt sea yet lingered in old Bildad's language,
3777heterogeneously mixed with Scriptural and domestic phrases.
3778
3779"Avast there, avast there, Bildad, avast now spoiling our harpooneer,"
3780cried Peleg. "Pious harpooneers never make good voyagers--it takes the shark
3781out of 'em; no harpooneer is worth a straw who aint pretty sharkish.
3782There was young Nat Swaine, once the bravest boat-header out of all
3783Nantucket and the Vineyard; he joined the meeting, and never came to
3784good. He got so frightened about his plaguy soul, that he shrinked and
3785sheered away from whales, for fear of after-claps, in case he got stove
3786and went to Davy Jones."
3787
3788"Peleg! Peleg!" said Bildad, lifting his eyes and hands, "thou thyself,
3789as I myself, hast seen many a perilous time; thou knowest, Peleg, what
3790it is to have the fear of death; how, then, can'st thou prate in this
3791ungodly guise. Thou beliest thine own heart, Peleg. Tell me, when this
3792same Pequod here had her three masts overboard in that typhoon on Japan,
3793that same voyage when thou went mate with Captain Ahab, did'st thou not
3794think of Death and the Judgment then?"
3795
3796"Hear him, hear him now," cried Peleg, marching across the cabin, and
3797thrusting his hands far down into his pockets,--"hear him, all of ye.
3798Think of that! When every moment we thought the ship would sink!
3799Death and the Judgment then? What? With all three masts making such an
3800everlasting thundering against the side; and every sea breaking over us,
3801fore and aft. Think of Death and the Judgment then? No! no time to think
3802about Death then. Life was what Captain Ahab and I was thinking of;
3803and how to save all hands--how to rig jury-masts--how to get into the
3804nearest port; that was what I was thinking of."
3805
3806Bildad said no more, but buttoning up his coat, stalked on deck,
3807where we followed him. There he stood, very quietly overlooking some
3808sailmakers who were mending a top-sail in the waist. Now and then
3809he stooped to pick up a patch, or save an end of tarred twine, which
3810otherwise might have been wasted.
3811
3812
3813
3814CHAPTER 19. The Prophet.
3815
3816
3817"Shipmates, have ye shipped in that ship?"
3818
3819Queequeg and I had just left the Pequod, and were sauntering away from
3820the water, for the moment each occupied with his own thoughts, when
3821the above words were put to us by a stranger, who, pausing before us,
3822levelled his massive forefinger at the vessel in question. He was but
3823shabbily apparelled in faded jacket and patched trowsers; a rag of a
3824black handkerchief investing his neck. A confluent small-pox had in all
3825directions flowed over his face, and left it like the complicated ribbed
3826bed of a torrent, when the rushing waters have been dried up.
3827
3828"Have ye shipped in her?" he repeated.
3829
3830"You mean the ship Pequod, I suppose," said I, trying to gain a little
3831more time for an uninterrupted look at him.
3832
3833"Aye, the Pequod--that ship there," he said, drawing back his whole
3834arm, and then rapidly shoving it straight out from him, with the fixed
3835bayonet of his pointed finger darted full at the object.
3836
3837"Yes," said I, "we have just signed the articles."
3838
3839"Anything down there about your souls?"
3840
3841"About what?"
3842
3843"Oh, perhaps you hav'n't got any," he said quickly. "No matter though,
3844I know many chaps that hav'n't got any,--good luck to 'em; and they are
3845all the better off for it. A soul's a sort of a fifth wheel to a wagon."
3846
3847"What are you jabbering about, shipmate?" said I.
3848
3849"HE'S got enough, though, to make up for all deficiencies of that sort
3850in other chaps," abruptly said the stranger, placing a nervous emphasis
3851upon the word HE.
3852
3853"Queequeg," said I, "let's go; this fellow has broken loose from
3854somewhere; he's talking about something and somebody we don't know."
3855
3856"Stop!" cried the stranger. "Ye said true--ye hav'n't seen Old Thunder
3857yet, have ye?"
3858
3859"Who's Old Thunder?" said I, again riveted with the insane earnestness
3860of his manner.
3861
3862"Captain Ahab."
3863
3864"What! the captain of our ship, the Pequod?"
3865
3866"Aye, among some of us old sailor chaps, he goes by that name. Ye
3867hav'n't seen him yet, have ye?"
3868
3869"No, we hav'n't. He's sick they say, but is getting better, and will be
3870all right again before long."
3871
3872"All right again before long!" laughed the stranger, with a solemnly
3873derisive sort of laugh. "Look ye; when Captain Ahab is all right, then
3874this left arm of mine will be all right; not before."
3875
3876"What do you know about him?"
3877
3878"What did they TELL you about him? Say that!"
3879
3880"They didn't tell much of anything about him; only I've heard that he's
3881a good whale-hunter, and a good captain to his crew."
3882
3883"That's true, that's true--yes, both true enough. But you must jump when
3884he gives an order. Step and growl; growl and go--that's the word with
3885Captain Ahab. But nothing about that thing that happened to him off Cape
3886Horn, long ago, when he lay like dead for three days and nights;
3887nothing about that deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar in
3888Santa?--heard nothing about that, eh? Nothing about the silver calabash
3889he spat into? And nothing about his losing his leg last voyage,
3890according to the prophecy. Didn't ye hear a word about them matters and
3891something more, eh? No, I don't think ye did; how could ye? Who knows
3892it? Not all Nantucket, I guess. But hows'ever, mayhap, ye've heard tell
3893about the leg, and how he lost it; aye, ye have heard of that, I dare
3894say. Oh yes, THAT every one knows a'most--I mean they know he's only one
3895leg; and that a parmacetti took the other off."
3896
3897"My friend," said I, "what all this gibberish of yours is about, I
3898don't know, and I don't much care; for it seems to me that you must be a
3899little damaged in the head. But if you are speaking of Captain Ahab, of
3900that ship there, the Pequod, then let me tell you, that I know all about
3901the loss of his leg."
3902
3903"ALL about it, eh--sure you do?--all?"
3904
3905"Pretty sure."
3906
3907With finger pointed and eye levelled at the Pequod, the beggar-like
3908stranger stood a moment, as if in a troubled reverie; then starting a
3909little, turned and said:--"Ye've shipped, have ye? Names down on the
3910papers? Well, well, what's signed, is signed; and what's to be, will be;
3911and then again, perhaps it won't be, after all. Anyhow, it's all fixed
3912and arranged a'ready; and some sailors or other must go with him, I
3913suppose; as well these as any other men, God pity 'em! Morning to ye,
3914shipmates, morning; the ineffable heavens bless ye; I'm sorry I stopped
3915ye."
3916
3917"Look here, friend," said I, "if you have anything important to tell
3918us, out with it; but if you are only trying to bamboozle us, you are
3919mistaken in your game; that's all I have to say."
3920
3921"And it's said very well, and I like to hear a chap talk up that way;
3922you are just the man for him--the likes of ye. Morning to ye, shipmates,
3923morning! Oh! when ye get there, tell 'em I've concluded not to make one
3924of 'em."
3925
3926"Ah, my dear fellow, you can't fool us that way--you can't fool us. It
3927is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a great
3928secret in him."
3929
3930"Morning to ye, shipmates, morning."
3931
3932"Morning it is," said I. "Come along, Queequeg, let's leave this crazy
3933man. But stop, tell me your name, will you?"
3934
3935"Elijah."
3936
3937Elijah! thought I, and we walked away, both commenting, after each
3938other's fashion, upon this ragged old sailor; and agreed that he was
3939nothing but a humbug, trying to be a bugbear. But we had not gone
3940perhaps above a hundred yards, when chancing to turn a corner, and
3941looking back as I did so, who should be seen but Elijah following us,
3942though at a distance. Somehow, the sight of him struck me so, that I
3943said nothing to Queequeg of his being behind, but passed on with my
3944comrade, anxious to see whether the stranger would turn the same corner
3945that we did. He did; and then it seemed to me that he was dogging
3946us, but with what intent I could not for the life of me imagine. This
3947circumstance, coupled with his ambiguous, half-hinting, half-revealing,
3948shrouded sort of talk, now begat in me all kinds of vague wonderments
3949and half-apprehensions, and all connected with the Pequod; and Captain
3950Ahab; and the leg he had lost; and the Cape Horn fit; and the silver
3951calabash; and what Captain Peleg had said of him, when I left the ship
3952the day previous; and the prediction of the squaw Tistig; and the voyage
3953we had bound ourselves to sail; and a hundred other shadowy things.
3954
3955I was resolved to satisfy myself whether this ragged Elijah was really
3956dogging us or not, and with that intent crossed the way with Queequeg,
3957and on that side of it retraced our steps. But Elijah passed on, without
3958seeming to notice us. This relieved me; and once more, and finally as it
3959seemed to me, I pronounced him in my heart, a humbug.
3960
3961
3962
3963CHAPTER 20. All Astir.
3964
3965
3966A day or two passed, and there was great activity aboard the Pequod.
3967Not only were the old sails being mended, but new sails were coming on
3968board, and bolts of canvas, and coils of rigging; in short, everything
3969betokened that the ship's preparations were hurrying to a close. Captain
3970Peleg seldom or never went ashore, but sat in his wigwam keeping a sharp
3971look-out upon the hands: Bildad did all the purchasing and providing
3972at the stores; and the men employed in the hold and on the rigging were
3973working till long after night-fall.
3974
3975On the day following Queequeg's signing the articles, word was given at
3976all the inns where the ship's company were stopping, that their chests
3977must be on board before night, for there was no telling how soon
3978the vessel might be sailing. So Queequeg and I got down our traps,
3979resolving, however, to sleep ashore till the last. But it seems they
3980always give very long notice in these cases, and the ship did not sail
3981for several days. But no wonder; there was a good deal to be done, and
3982there is no telling how many things to be thought of, before the Pequod
3983was fully equipped.
3984
3985Every one knows what a multitude of things--beds, sauce-pans, knives
3986and forks, shovels and tongs, napkins, nut-crackers, and what not, are
3987indispensable to the business of housekeeping. Just so with whaling,
3988which necessitates a three-years' housekeeping upon the wide ocean,
3989far from all grocers, costermongers, doctors, bakers, and bankers. And
3990though this also holds true of merchant vessels, yet not by any means
3991to the same extent as with whalemen. For besides the great length of the
3992whaling voyage, the numerous articles peculiar to the prosecution of the
3993fishery, and the impossibility of replacing them at the remote harbors
3994usually frequented, it must be remembered, that of all ships, whaling
3995vessels are the most exposed to accidents of all kinds, and especially
3996to the destruction and loss of the very things upon which the success of
3997the voyage most depends. Hence, the spare boats, spare spars, and spare
3998lines and harpoons, and spare everythings, almost, but a spare Captain
3999and duplicate ship.
4000
4001At the period of our arrival at the Island, the heaviest storage of the
4002Pequod had been almost completed; comprising her beef, bread, water,
4003fuel, and iron hoops and staves. But, as before hinted, for some time
4004there was a continual fetching and carrying on board of divers odds and
4005ends of things, both large and small.
4006
4007Chief among those who did this fetching and carrying was Captain
4008Bildad's sister, a lean old lady of a most determined and indefatigable
4009spirit, but withal very kindhearted, who seemed resolved that, if SHE
4010could help it, nothing should be found wanting in the Pequod, after once
4011fairly getting to sea. At one time she would come on board with a jar
4012of pickles for the steward's pantry; another time with a bunch of quills
4013for the chief mate's desk, where he kept his log; a third time with a
4014roll of flannel for the small of some one's rheumatic back. Never did
4015any woman better deserve her name, which was Charity--Aunt Charity, as
4016everybody called her. And like a sister of charity did this charitable
4017Aunt Charity bustle about hither and thither, ready to turn her hand
4018and heart to anything that promised to yield safety, comfort, and
4019consolation to all on board a ship in which her beloved brother
4020Bildad was concerned, and in which she herself owned a score or two of
4021well-saved dollars.
4022
4023But it was startling to see this excellent hearted Quakeress coming on
4024board, as she did the last day, with a long oil-ladle in one hand, and
4025a still longer whaling lance in the other. Nor was Bildad himself nor
4026Captain Peleg at all backward. As for Bildad, he carried about with him
4027a long list of the articles needed, and at every fresh arrival, down
4028went his mark opposite that article upon the paper. Every once in a
4029while Peleg came hobbling out of his whalebone den, roaring at the men
4030down the hatchways, roaring up to the riggers at the mast-head, and then
4031concluded by roaring back into his wigwam.
4032
4033During these days of preparation, Queequeg and I often visited the
4034craft, and as often I asked about Captain Ahab, and how he was, and when
4035he was going to come on board his ship. To these questions they would
4036answer, that he was getting better and better, and was expected aboard
4037every day; meantime, the two captains, Peleg and Bildad, could attend
4038to everything necessary to fit the vessel for the voyage. If I had been
4039downright honest with myself, I would have seen very plainly in my heart
4040that I did but half fancy being committed this way to so long a voyage,
4041without once laying my eyes on the man who was to be the absolute
4042dictator of it, so soon as the ship sailed out upon the open sea.
4043But when a man suspects any wrong, it sometimes happens that if he be
4044already involved in the matter, he insensibly strives to cover up his
4045suspicions even from himself. And much this way it was with me. I said
4046nothing, and tried to think nothing.
4047
4048At last it was given out that some time next day the ship would
4049certainly sail. So next morning, Queequeg and I took a very early start.
4050
4051
4052
4053CHAPTER 21. Going Aboard.
4054
4055
4056It was nearly six o'clock, but only grey imperfect misty dawn, when we
4057drew nigh the wharf.
4058
4059"There are some sailors running ahead there, if I see right," said I to
4060Queequeg, "it can't be shadows; she's off by sunrise, I guess; come on!"
4061
4062"Avast!" cried a voice, whose owner at the same time coming close behind
4063us, laid a hand upon both our shoulders, and then insinuating himself
4064between us, stood stooping forward a little, in the uncertain twilight,
4065strangely peering from Queequeg to me. It was Elijah.
4066
4067"Going aboard?"
4068
4069"Hands off, will you," said I.
4070
4071"Lookee here," said Queequeg, shaking himself, "go 'way!"
4072
4073"Ain't going aboard, then?"
4074
4075"Yes, we are," said I, "but what business is that of yours? Do you know,
4076Mr. Elijah, that I consider you a little impertinent?"
4077
4078"No, no, no; I wasn't aware of that," said Elijah, slowly and
4079wonderingly looking from me to Queequeg, with the most unaccountable
4080glances.
4081
4082"Elijah," said I, "you will oblige my friend and me by withdrawing. We
4083are going to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and would prefer not to be
4084detained."
4085
4086"Ye be, be ye? Coming back afore breakfast?"
4087
4088"He's cracked, Queequeg," said I, "come on."
4089
4090"Holloa!" cried stationary Elijah, hailing us when we had removed a few
4091paces.
4092
4093"Never mind him," said I, "Queequeg, come on."
4094
4095But he stole up to us again, and suddenly clapping his hand on my
4096shoulder, said--"Did ye see anything looking like men going towards that
4097ship a while ago?"
4098
4099Struck by this plain matter-of-fact question, I answered, saying, "Yes,
4100I thought I did see four or five men; but it was too dim to be sure."
4101
4102"Very dim, very dim," said Elijah. "Morning to ye."
4103
4104Once more we quitted him; but once more he came softly after us; and
4105touching my shoulder again, said, "See if you can find 'em now, will ye?
4106
4107"Find who?"
4108
4109"Morning to ye! morning to ye!" he rejoined, again moving off. "Oh! I
4110was going to warn ye against--but never mind, never mind--it's all one,
4111all in the family too;--sharp frost this morning, ain't it? Good-bye to
4112ye. Shan't see ye again very soon, I guess; unless it's before the Grand
4113Jury." And with these cracked words he finally departed, leaving me, for
4114the moment, in no small wonderment at his frantic impudence.
4115
4116At last, stepping on board the Pequod, we found everything in profound
4117quiet, not a soul moving. The cabin entrance was locked within; the
4118hatches were all on, and lumbered with coils of rigging. Going forward
4119to the forecastle, we found the slide of the scuttle open. Seeing a
4120light, we went down, and found only an old rigger there, wrapped in a
4121tattered pea-jacket. He was thrown at whole length upon two chests, his
4122face downwards and inclosed in his folded arms. The profoundest slumber
4123slept upon him.
4124
4125"Those sailors we saw, Queequeg, where can they have gone to?" said I,
4126looking dubiously at the sleeper. But it seemed that, when on the wharf,
4127Queequeg had not at all noticed what I now alluded to; hence I would
4128have thought myself to have been optically deceived in that matter,
4129were it not for Elijah's otherwise inexplicable question. But I beat the
4130thing down; and again marking the sleeper, jocularly hinted to Queequeg
4131that perhaps we had best sit up with the body; telling him to establish
4132himself accordingly. He put his hand upon the sleeper's rear, as though
4133feeling if it was soft enough; and then, without more ado, sat quietly
4134down there.
4135
4136"Gracious! Queequeg, don't sit there," said I.
4137
4138"Oh! perry dood seat," said Queequeg, "my country way; won't hurt him
4139face."
4140
4141"Face!" said I, "call that his face? very benevolent countenance then;
4142but how hard he breathes, he's heaving himself; get off, Queequeg, you
4143are heavy, it's grinding the face of the poor. Get off, Queequeg! Look,
4144he'll twitch you off soon. I wonder he don't wake."
4145
4146Queequeg removed himself to just beyond the head of the sleeper, and
4147lighted his tomahawk pipe. I sat at the feet. We kept the pipe passing
4148over the sleeper, from one to the other. Meanwhile, upon questioning him
4149in his broken fashion, Queequeg gave me to understand that, in his
4150land, owing to the absence of settees and sofas of all sorts, the king,
4151chiefs, and great people generally, were in the custom of fattening some
4152of the lower orders for ottomans; and to furnish a house comfortably in
4153that respect, you had only to buy up eight or ten lazy fellows, and lay
4154them round in the piers and alcoves. Besides, it was very convenient on
4155an excursion; much better than those garden-chairs which are convertible
4156into walking-sticks; upon occasion, a chief calling his attendant, and
4157desiring him to make a settee of himself under a spreading tree, perhaps
4158in some damp marshy place.
4159
4160While narrating these things, every time Queequeg received the tomahawk
4161from me, he flourished the hatchet-side of it over the sleeper's head.
4162
4163"What's that for, Queequeg?"
4164
4165"Perry easy, kill-e; oh! perry easy!"
4166
4167He was going on with some wild reminiscences about his tomahawk-pipe,
4168which, it seemed, had in its two uses both brained his foes and soothed
4169his soul, when we were directly attracted to the sleeping rigger. The
4170strong vapour now completely filling the contracted hole, it began
4171to tell upon him. He breathed with a sort of muffledness; then seemed
4172troubled in the nose; then revolved over once or twice; then sat up and
4173rubbed his eyes.
4174
4175"Holloa!" he breathed at last, "who be ye smokers?"
4176
4177"Shipped men," answered I, "when does she sail?"
4178
4179"Aye, aye, ye are going in her, be ye? She sails to-day. The Captain
4180came aboard last night."
4181
4182"What Captain?--Ahab?"
4183
4184"Who but him indeed?"
4185
4186I was going to ask him some further questions concerning Ahab, when we
4187heard a noise on deck.
4188
4189"Holloa! Starbuck's astir," said the rigger. "He's a lively chief mate,
4190that; good man, and a pious; but all alive now, I must turn to." And so
4191saying he went on deck, and we followed.
4192
4193It was now clear sunrise. Soon the crew came on board in twos and
4194threes; the riggers bestirred themselves; the mates were actively
4195engaged; and several of the shore people were busy in bringing various
4196last things on board. Meanwhile Captain Ahab remained invisibly
4197enshrined within his cabin.
4198
4199
4200
4201CHAPTER 22. Merry Christmas.
4202
4203
4204At length, towards noon, upon the final dismissal of the ship's riggers,
4205and after the Pequod had been hauled out from the wharf, and after the
4206ever-thoughtful Charity had come off in a whale-boat, with her last
4207gift--a night-cap for Stubb, the second mate, her brother-in-law, and a
4208spare Bible for the steward--after all this, the two Captains, Peleg
4209and Bildad, issued from the cabin, and turning to the chief mate, Peleg
4210said:
4211
4212"Now, Mr. Starbuck, are you sure everything is right? Captain Ahab is
4213all ready--just spoke to him--nothing more to be got from shore, eh?
4214Well, call all hands, then. Muster 'em aft here--blast 'em!"
4215
4216"No need of profane words, however great the hurry, Peleg," said Bildad,
4217"but away with thee, friend Starbuck, and do our bidding."
4218
4219How now! Here upon the very point of starting for the voyage, Captain
4220Peleg and Captain Bildad were going it with a high hand on the
4221quarter-deck, just as if they were to be joint-commanders at sea, as
4222well as to all appearances in port. And, as for Captain Ahab, no sign of
4223him was yet to be seen; only, they said he was in the cabin. But then,
4224the idea was, that his presence was by no means necessary in getting the
4225ship under weigh, and steering her well out to sea. Indeed, as that was
4226not at all his proper business, but the pilot's; and as he was not
4227yet completely recovered--so they said--therefore, Captain Ahab stayed
4228below. And all this seemed natural enough; especially as in the merchant
4229service many captains never show themselves on deck for a considerable
4230time after heaving up the anchor, but remain over the cabin table,
4231having a farewell merry-making with their shore friends, before they
4232quit the ship for good with the pilot.
4233
4234But there was not much chance to think over the matter, for Captain
4235Peleg was now all alive. He seemed to do most of the talking and
4236commanding, and not Bildad.
4237
4238"Aft here, ye sons of bachelors," he cried, as the sailors lingered at
4239the main-mast. "Mr. Starbuck, drive'em aft."
4240
4241"Strike the tent there!"--was the next order. As I hinted before, this
4242whalebone marquee was never pitched except in port; and on board the
4243Pequod, for thirty years, the order to strike the tent was well known to
4244be the next thing to heaving up the anchor.
4245
4246"Man the capstan! Blood and thunder!--jump!"--was the next command, and
4247the crew sprang for the handspikes.
4248
4249Now in getting under weigh, the station generally occupied by the pilot
4250is the forward part of the ship. And here Bildad, who, with Peleg, be it
4251known, in addition to his other officers, was one of the licensed pilots
4252of the port--he being suspected to have got himself made a pilot in
4253order to save the Nantucket pilot-fee to all the ships he was concerned
4254in, for he never piloted any other craft--Bildad, I say, might now
4255be seen actively engaged in looking over the bows for the approaching
4256anchor, and at intervals singing what seemed a dismal stave of psalmody,
4257to cheer the hands at the windlass, who roared forth some sort of
4258a chorus about the girls in Booble Alley, with hearty good will.
4259Nevertheless, not three days previous, Bildad had told them that no
4260profane songs would be allowed on board the Pequod, particularly in
4261getting under weigh; and Charity, his sister, had placed a small choice
4262copy of Watts in each seaman's berth.
4263
4264Meantime, overseeing the other part of the ship, Captain Peleg ripped
4265and swore astern in the most frightful manner. I almost thought he would
4266sink the ship before the anchor could be got up; involuntarily I paused
4267on my handspike, and told Queequeg to do the same, thinking of the
4268perils we both ran, in starting on the voyage with such a devil for a
4269pilot. I was comforting myself, however, with the thought that in pious
4270Bildad might be found some salvation, spite of his seven hundred and
4271seventy-seventh lay; when I felt a sudden sharp poke in my rear, and
4272turning round, was horrified at the apparition of Captain Peleg in the
4273act of withdrawing his leg from my immediate vicinity. That was my first
4274kick.
4275
4276"Is that the way they heave in the marchant service?" he roared.
4277"Spring, thou sheep-head; spring, and break thy backbone! Why don't ye
4278spring, I say, all of ye--spring! Quohog! spring, thou chap with the red
4279whiskers; spring there, Scotch-cap; spring, thou green pants. Spring, I
4280say, all of ye, and spring your eyes out!" And so saying, he moved
4281along the windlass, here and there using his leg very freely, while
4282imperturbable Bildad kept leading off with his psalmody. Thinks I,
4283Captain Peleg must have been drinking something to-day.
4284
4285At last the anchor was up, the sails were set, and off we glided. It
4286was a short, cold Christmas; and as the short northern day merged into
4287night, we found ourselves almost broad upon the wintry ocean, whose
4288freezing spray cased us in ice, as in polished armor. The long rows of
4289teeth on the bulwarks glistened in the moonlight; and like the white
4290ivory tusks of some huge elephant, vast curving icicles depended from
4291the bows.
4292
4293Lank Bildad, as pilot, headed the first watch, and ever and anon, as the
4294old craft deep dived into the green seas, and sent the shivering frost
4295all over her, and the winds howled, and the cordage rang, his steady
4296notes were heard,--
4297
4298"Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood, Stand dressed in living green.
4299So to the Jews old Canaan stood, While Jordan rolled between."
4300
4301
4302Never did those sweet words sound more sweetly to me than then. They
4303were full of hope and fruition. Spite of this frigid winter night in the
4304boisterous Atlantic, spite of my wet feet and wetter jacket, there was
4305yet, it then seemed to me, many a pleasant haven in store; and meads
4306and glades so eternally vernal, that the grass shot up by the spring,
4307untrodden, unwilted, remains at midsummer.
4308
4309At last we gained such an offing, that the two pilots were needed
4310no longer. The stout sail-boat that had accompanied us began ranging
4311alongside.
4312
4313It was curious and not unpleasing, how Peleg and Bildad were affected at
4314this juncture, especially Captain Bildad. For loath to depart, yet;
4315very loath to leave, for good, a ship bound on so long and perilous a
4316voyage--beyond both stormy Capes; a ship in which some thousands of
4317his hard earned dollars were invested; a ship, in which an old shipmate
4318sailed as captain; a man almost as old as he, once more starting to
4319encounter all the terrors of the pitiless jaw; loath to say good-bye to
4320a thing so every way brimful of every interest to him,--poor old Bildad
4321lingered long; paced the deck with anxious strides; ran down into the
4322cabin to speak another farewell word there; again came on deck, and
4323looked to windward; looked towards the wide and endless waters, only
4324bounded by the far-off unseen Eastern Continents; looked towards
4325the land; looked aloft; looked right and left; looked everywhere
4326and nowhere; and at last, mechanically coiling a rope upon its pin,
4327convulsively grasped stout Peleg by the hand, and holding up a lantern,
4328for a moment stood gazing heroically in his face, as much as to say,
4329"Nevertheless, friend Peleg, I can stand it; yes, I can."
4330
4331As for Peleg himself, he took it more like a philosopher; but for all
4332his philosophy, there was a tear twinkling in his eye, when the lantern
4333came too near. And he, too, did not a little run from cabin to deck--now
4334a word below, and now a word with Starbuck, the chief mate.
4335
4336But, at last, he turned to his comrade, with a final sort of look
4337about him,--"Captain Bildad--come, old shipmate, we must go. Back the
4338main-yard there! Boat ahoy! Stand by to come close alongside, now!
4339Careful, careful!--come, Bildad, boy--say your last. Luck to ye,
4340Starbuck--luck to ye, Mr. Stubb--luck to ye, Mr. Flask--good-bye and
4341good luck to ye all--and this day three years I'll have a hot supper
4342smoking for ye in old Nantucket. Hurrah and away!"
4343
4344"God bless ye, and have ye in His holy keeping, men," murmured old
4345Bildad, almost incoherently. "I hope ye'll have fine weather now, so
4346that Captain Ahab may soon be moving among ye--a pleasant sun is all
4347he needs, and ye'll have plenty of them in the tropic voyage ye go.
4348Be careful in the hunt, ye mates. Don't stave the boats needlessly,
4349ye harpooneers; good white cedar plank is raised full three per cent.
4350within the year. Don't forget your prayers, either. Mr. Starbuck, mind
4351that cooper don't waste the spare staves. Oh! the sail-needles are in
4352the green locker! Don't whale it too much a' Lord's days, men; but don't
4353miss a fair chance either, that's rejecting Heaven's good gifts. Have an
4354eye to the molasses tierce, Mr. Stubb; it was a little leaky, I thought.
4355If ye touch at the islands, Mr. Flask, beware of fornication. Good-bye,
4356good-bye! Don't keep that cheese too long down in the hold, Mr.
4357Starbuck; it'll spoil. Be careful with the butter--twenty cents the
4358pound it was, and mind ye, if--"
4359
4360"Come, come, Captain Bildad; stop palavering,--away!" and with that,
4361Peleg hurried him over the side, and both dropt into the boat.
4362
4363Ship and boat diverged; the cold, damp night breeze blew between; a
4364screaming gull flew overhead; the two hulls wildly rolled; we gave
4365three heavy-hearted cheers, and blindly plunged like fate into the lone
4366Atlantic.
4367
4368
4369
4370CHAPTER 23. The Lee Shore.
4371
4372
4373Some chapters back, one Bulkington was spoken of, a tall, newlanded
4374mariner, encountered in New Bedford at the inn.
4375
4376When on that shivering winter's night, the Pequod thrust her vindictive
4377bows into the cold malicious waves, who should I see standing at her
4378helm but Bulkington! I looked with sympathetic awe and fearfulness upon
4379the man, who in mid-winter just landed from a four years' dangerous
4380voyage, could so unrestingly push off again for still another
4381tempestuous term. The land seemed scorching to his feet. Wonderfullest
4382things are ever the unmentionable; deep memories yield no epitaphs; this
4383six-inch chapter is the stoneless grave of Bulkington. Let me only say
4384that it fared with him as with the storm-tossed ship, that miserably
4385drives along the leeward land. The port would fain give succor; the port
4386is pitiful; in the port is safety, comfort, hearthstone, supper, warm
4387blankets, friends, all that's kind to our mortalities. But in that gale,
4388the port, the land, is that ship's direst jeopardy; she must fly all
4389hospitality; one touch of land, though it but graze the keel, would make
4390her shudder through and through. With all her might she crowds all sail
4391off shore; in so doing, fights 'gainst the very winds that fain would
4392blow her homeward; seeks all the lashed sea's landlessness again;
4393for refuge's sake forlornly rushing into peril; her only friend her
4394bitterest foe!
4395
4396Know ye now, Bulkington? Glimpses do ye seem to see of that mortally
4397intolerable truth; that all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid
4398effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while
4399the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the
4400treacherous, slavish shore?
4401
4402But as in landlessness alone resides highest truth, shoreless,
4403indefinite as God--so, better is it to perish in that howling infinite,
4404than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee, even if that were safety!
4405For worm-like, then, oh! who would craven crawl to land! Terrors of
4406the terrible! is all this agony so vain? Take heart, take heart,
4407O Bulkington! Bear thee grimly, demigod! Up from the spray of thy
4408ocean-perishing--straight up, leaps thy apotheosis!
4409
4410
4411
4412CHAPTER 24. The Advocate.
4413
4414
4415As Queequeg and I are now fairly embarked in this business of whaling;
4416and as this business of whaling has somehow come to be regarded among
4417landsmen as a rather unpoetical and disreputable pursuit; therefore, I
4418am all anxiety to convince ye, ye landsmen, of the injustice hereby done
4419to us hunters of whales.
4420
4421In the first place, it may be deemed almost superfluous to establish
4422the fact, that among people at large, the business of whaling is not
4423accounted on a level with what are called the liberal professions. If a
4424stranger were introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitan society,
4425it would but slightly advance the general opinion of his merits, were
4426he presented to the company as a harpooneer, say; and if in emulation
4427of the naval officers he should append the initials S.W.F. (Sperm
4428Whale Fishery) to his visiting card, such a procedure would be deemed
4429pre-eminently presuming and ridiculous.
4430
4431Doubtless one leading reason why the world declines honouring us
4432whalemen, is this: they think that, at best, our vocation amounts to a
4433butchering sort of business; and that when actively engaged therein, we
4434are surrounded by all manner of defilements. Butchers we are, that is
4435true. But butchers, also, and butchers of the bloodiest badge have been
4436all Martial Commanders whom the world invariably delights to honour. And
4437as for the matter of the alleged uncleanliness of our business, ye shall
4438soon be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally unknown,
4439and which, upon the whole, will triumphantly plant the sperm whale-ship
4440at least among the cleanliest things of this tidy earth. But even
4441granting the charge in question to be true; what disordered slippery
4442decks of a whale-ship are comparable to the unspeakable carrion of those
4443battle-fields from which so many soldiers return to drink in all ladies'
4444plaudits? And if the idea of peril so much enhances the popular conceit
4445of the soldier's profession; let me assure ye that many a veteran
4446who has freely marched up to a battery, would quickly recoil at the
4447apparition of the sperm whale's vast tail, fanning into eddies the air
4448over his head. For what are the comprehensible terrors of man compared
4449with the interlinked terrors and wonders of God!
4450
4451But, though the world scouts at us whale hunters, yet does it
4452unwittingly pay us the profoundest homage; yea, an all-abounding
4453adoration! for almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn round
4454the globe, burn, as before so many shrines, to our glory!
4455
4456But look at this matter in other lights; weigh it in all sorts of
4457scales; see what we whalemen are, and have been.
4458
4459Why did the Dutch in De Witt's time have admirals of their whaling
4460fleets? Why did Louis XVI. of France, at his own personal expense, fit
4461out whaling ships from Dunkirk, and politely invite to that town some
4462score or two of families from our own island of Nantucket? Why did
4463Britain between the years 1750 and 1788 pay to her whalemen in bounties
4464upwards of L1,000,000? And lastly, how comes it that we whalemen of
4465America now outnumber all the rest of the banded whalemen in the world;
4466sail a navy of upwards of seven hundred vessels; manned by eighteen
4467thousand men; yearly consuming 4,000,000 of dollars; the ships worth,
4468at the time of sailing, $20,000,000! and every year importing into our
4469harbors a well reaped harvest of $7,000,000. How comes all this, if
4470there be not something puissant in whaling?
4471
4472But this is not the half; look again.
4473
4474I freely assert, that the cosmopolite philosopher cannot, for his life,
4475point out one single peaceful influence, which within the last sixty
4476years has operated more potentially upon the whole broad world, taken in
4477one aggregate, than the high and mighty business of whaling. One way
4478and another, it has begotten events so remarkable in themselves, and so
4479continuously momentous in their sequential issues, that whaling may
4480well be regarded as that Egyptian mother, who bore offspring themselves
4481pregnant from her womb. It would be a hopeless, endless task to
4482catalogue all these things. Let a handful suffice. For many years past
4483the whale-ship has been the pioneer in ferreting out the remotest and
4484least known parts of the earth. She has explored seas and archipelagoes
4485which had no chart, where no Cook or Vancouver had ever sailed. If
4486American and European men-of-war now peacefully ride in once savage
4487harbors, let them fire salutes to the honour and glory of the
4488whale-ship, which originally showed them the way, and first interpreted
4489between them and the savages. They may celebrate as they will the heroes
4490of Exploring Expeditions, your Cooks, your Krusensterns; but I say that
4491scores of anonymous Captains have sailed out of Nantucket, that were
4492as great, and greater than your Cook and your Krusenstern. For in their
4493succourless empty-handedness, they, in the heathenish sharked waters,
4494and by the beaches of unrecorded, javelin islands, battled with virgin
4495wonders and terrors that Cook with all his marines and muskets would
4496not willingly have dared. All that is made such a flourish of in the old
4497South Sea Voyages, those things were but the life-time commonplaces of
4498our heroic Nantucketers. Often, adventures which Vancouver dedicates
4499three chapters to, these men accounted unworthy of being set down in the
4500ship's common log. Ah, the world! Oh, the world!
4501
4502Until the whale fishery rounded Cape Horn, no commerce but colonial,
4503scarcely any intercourse but colonial, was carried on between Europe and
4504the long line of the opulent Spanish provinces on the Pacific coast.
4505It was the whaleman who first broke through the jealous policy of the
4506Spanish crown, touching those colonies; and, if space permitted, it
4507might be distinctly shown how from those whalemen at last eventuated the
4508liberation of Peru, Chili, and Bolivia from the yoke of Old Spain, and
4509the establishment of the eternal democracy in those parts.
4510
4511That great America on the other side of the sphere, Australia, was given
4512to the enlightened world by the whaleman. After its first blunder-born
4513discovery by a Dutchman, all other ships long shunned those shores
4514as pestiferously barbarous; but the whale-ship touched there. The
4515whale-ship is the true mother of that now mighty colony. Moreover,
4516in the infancy of the first Australian settlement, the emigrants were
4517several times saved from starvation by the benevolent biscuit of the
4518whale-ship luckily dropping an anchor in their waters. The uncounted
4519isles of all Polynesia confess the same truth, and do commercial homage
4520to the whale-ship, that cleared the way for the missionary and the
4521merchant, and in many cases carried the primitive missionaries to their
4522first destinations. If that double-bolted land, Japan, is ever to become
4523hospitable, it is the whale-ship alone to whom the credit will be due;
4524for already she is on the threshold.
4525
4526But if, in the face of all this, you still declare that whaling has no
4527aesthetically noble associations connected with it, then am I ready to
4528shiver fifty lances with you there, and unhorse you with a split helmet
4529every time.
4530
4531The whale has no famous author, and whaling no famous chronicler, you
4532will say.
4533
4534THE WHALE NO FAMOUS AUTHOR, AND WHALING NO FAMOUS CHRONICLER? Who wrote
4535the first account of our Leviathan? Who but mighty Job! And who composed
4536the first narrative of a whaling-voyage? Who, but no less a prince than
4537Alfred the Great, who, with his own royal pen, took down the words from
4538Other, the Norwegian whale-hunter of those times! And who pronounced our
4539glowing eulogy in Parliament? Who, but Edmund Burke!
4540
4541True enough, but then whalemen themselves are poor devils; they have no
4542good blood in their veins.
4543
4544NO GOOD BLOOD IN THEIR VEINS? They have something better than royal
4545blood there. The grandmother of Benjamin Franklin was Mary Morrel;
4546afterwards, by marriage, Mary Folger, one of the old settlers
4547of Nantucket, and the ancestress to a long line of Folgers and
4548harpooneers--all kith and kin to noble Benjamin--this day darting the
4549barbed iron from one side of the world to the other.
4550
4551Good again; but then all confess that somehow whaling is not
4552respectable.
4553
4554WHALING NOT RESPECTABLE? Whaling is imperial! By old English statutory
4555law, the whale is declared "a royal fish."*
4556
4557Oh, that's only nominal! The whale himself has never figured in any
4558grand imposing way.
4559
4560THE WHALE NEVER FIGURED IN ANY GRAND IMPOSING WAY? In one of the mighty
4561triumphs given to a Roman general upon his entering the world's capital,
4562the bones of a whale, brought all the way from the Syrian coast, were
4563the most conspicuous object in the cymballed procession.*
4564
4565
4566*See subsequent chapters for something more on this head.
4567
4568
4569Grant it, since you cite it; but, say what you will, there is no real
4570dignity in whaling.
4571
4572NO DIGNITY IN WHALING? The dignity of our calling the very heavens
4573attest. Cetus is a constellation in the South! No more! Drive down your
4574hat in presence of the Czar, and take it off to Queequeg! No more! I
4575know a man that, in his lifetime, has taken three hundred and fifty
4576whales. I account that man more honourable than that great captain of
4577antiquity who boasted of taking as many walled towns.
4578
4579And, as for me, if, by any possibility, there be any as yet undiscovered
4580prime thing in me; if I shall ever deserve any real repute in that small
4581but high hushed world which I might not be unreasonably ambitious of; if
4582hereafter I shall do anything that, upon the whole, a man might rather
4583have done than to have left undone; if, at my death, my executors, or
4584more properly my creditors, find any precious MSS. in my desk, then here
4585I prospectively ascribe all the honour and the glory to whaling; for a
4586whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.
4587
4588
4589
4590CHAPTER 25. Postscript.
4591
4592
4593In behalf of the dignity of whaling, I would fain advance naught but
4594substantiated facts. But after embattling his facts, an advocate who
4595should wholly suppress a not unreasonable surmise, which might
4596tell eloquently upon his cause--such an advocate, would he not be
4597blameworthy?
4598
4599It is well known that at the coronation of kings and queens, even modern
4600ones, a certain curious process of seasoning them for their functions is
4601gone through. There is a saltcellar of state, so called, and there
4602may be a castor of state. How they use the salt, precisely--who knows?
4603Certain I am, however, that a king's head is solemnly oiled at his
4604coronation, even as a head of salad. Can it be, though, that they
4605anoint it with a view of making its interior run well, as they anoint
4606machinery? Much might be ruminated here, concerning the essential
4607dignity of this regal process, because in common life we esteem but
4608meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints his hair, and palpably
4609smells of that anointing. In truth, a mature man who uses hair-oil,
4610unless medicinally, that man has probably got a quoggy spot in him
4611somewhere. As a general rule, he can't amount to much in his totality.
4612
4613But the only thing to be considered here, is this--what kind of oil is
4614used at coronations? Certainly it cannot be olive oil, nor macassar oil,
4615nor castor oil, nor bear's oil, nor train oil, nor cod-liver oil. What
4616then can it possibly be, but sperm oil in its unmanufactured, unpolluted
4617state, the sweetest of all oils?
4618
4619Think of that, ye loyal Britons! we whalemen supply your kings and
4620queens with coronation stuff!
4621
4622
4623
4624CHAPTER 26. Knights and Squires.
4625
4626
4627The chief mate of the Pequod was Starbuck, a native of Nantucket, and a
4628Quaker by descent. He was a long, earnest man, and though born on an icy
4629coast, seemed well adapted to endure hot latitudes, his flesh being hard
4630as twice-baked biscuit. Transported to the Indies, his live blood would
4631not spoil like bottled ale. He must have been born in some time of
4632general drought and famine, or upon one of those fast days for which
4633his state is famous. Only some thirty arid summers had he seen; those
4634summers had dried up all his physical superfluousness. But this, his
4635thinness, so to speak, seemed no more the token of wasting anxieties and
4636cares, than it seemed the indication of any bodily blight. It was merely
4637the condensation of the man. He was by no means ill-looking; quite the
4638contrary. His pure tight skin was an excellent fit; and closely wrapped
4639up in it, and embalmed with inner health and strength, like a revivified
4640Egyptian, this Starbuck seemed prepared to endure for long ages to come,
4641and to endure always, as now; for be it Polar snow or torrid sun, like
4642a patent chronometer, his interior vitality was warranted to do well
4643in all climates. Looking into his eyes, you seemed to see there the yet
4644lingering images of those thousand-fold perils he had calmly confronted
4645through life. A staid, steadfast man, whose life for the most part was a
4646telling pantomime of action, and not a tame chapter of sounds. Yet, for
4647all his hardy sobriety and fortitude, there were certain qualities
4648in him which at times affected, and in some cases seemed well nigh to
4649overbalance all the rest. Uncommonly conscientious for a seaman, and
4650endued with a deep natural reverence, the wild watery loneliness of his
4651life did therefore strongly incline him to superstition; but to that
4652sort of superstition, which in some organizations seems rather to
4653spring, somehow, from intelligence than from ignorance. Outward portents
4654and inward presentiments were his. And if at times these things bent the
4655welded iron of his soul, much more did his far-away domestic memories
4656of his young Cape wife and child, tend to bend him still more from the
4657original ruggedness of his nature, and open him still further to those
4658latent influences which, in some honest-hearted men, restrain the gush
4659of dare-devil daring, so often evinced by others in the more perilous
4660vicissitudes of the fishery. "I will have no man in my boat," said
4661Starbuck, "who is not afraid of a whale." By this, he seemed to mean,
4662not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises
4663from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly
4664fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.
4665
4666"Aye, aye," said Stubb, the second mate, "Starbuck, there, is as careful
4667a man as you'll find anywhere in this fishery." But we shall ere long
4668see what that word "careful" precisely means when used by a man like
4669Stubb, or almost any other whale hunter.
4670
4671Starbuck was no crusader after perils; in him courage was not a
4672sentiment; but a thing simply useful to him, and always at hand upon all
4673mortally practical occasions. Besides, he thought, perhaps, that in this
4674business of whaling, courage was one of the great staple outfits of
4675the ship, like her beef and her bread, and not to be foolishly wasted.
4676Wherefore he had no fancy for lowering for whales after sun-down; nor
4677for persisting in fighting a fish that too much persisted in fighting
4678him. For, thought Starbuck, I am here in this critical ocean to kill
4679whales for my living, and not to be killed by them for theirs; and that
4680hundreds of men had been so killed Starbuck well knew. What doom was
4681his own father's? Where, in the bottomless deeps, could he find the torn
4682limbs of his brother?
4683
4684With memories like these in him, and, moreover, given to a certain
4685superstitiousness, as has been said; the courage of this Starbuck which
4686could, nevertheless, still flourish, must indeed have been extreme. But
4687it was not in reasonable nature that a man so organized, and with such
4688terrible experiences and remembrances as he had; it was not in nature
4689that these things should fail in latently engendering an element in
4690him, which, under suitable circumstances, would break out from its
4691confinement, and burn all his courage up. And brave as he might be, it
4692was that sort of bravery chiefly, visible in some intrepid men, which,
4693while generally abiding firm in the conflict with seas, or winds, or
4694whales, or any of the ordinary irrational horrors of the world, yet
4695cannot withstand those more terrific, because more spiritual terrors,
4696which sometimes menace you from the concentrating brow of an enraged and
4697mighty man.
4698
4699But were the coming narrative to reveal in any instance, the complete
4700abasement of poor Starbuck's fortitude, scarce might I have the heart to
4701write it; for it is a thing most sorrowful, nay shocking, to expose
4702the fall of valour in the soul. Men may seem detestable as joint
4703stock-companies and nations; knaves, fools, and murderers there may be;
4704men may have mean and meagre faces; but man, in the ideal, is so noble
4705and so sparkling, such a grand and glowing creature, that over any
4706ignominious blemish in him all his fellows should run to throw their
4707costliest robes. That immaculate manliness we feel within ourselves,
4708so far within us, that it remains intact though all the outer character
4709seem gone; bleeds with keenest anguish at the undraped spectacle of
4710a valor-ruined man. Nor can piety itself, at such a shameful sight,
4711completely stifle her upbraidings against the permitting stars. But this
4712august dignity I treat of, is not the dignity of kings and robes, but
4713that abounding dignity which has no robed investiture. Thou shalt see it
4714shining in the arm that wields a pick or drives a spike; that democratic
4715dignity which, on all hands, radiates without end from God; Himself! The
4716great God absolute! The centre and circumference of all democracy! His
4717omnipresence, our divine equality!
4718
4719If, then, to meanest mariners, and renegades and castaways, I shall
4720hereafter ascribe high qualities, though dark; weave round them tragic
4721graces; if even the most mournful, perchance the most abased, among them
4722all, shall at times lift himself to the exalted mounts; if I shall touch
4723that workman's arm with some ethereal light; if I shall spread a rainbow
4724over his disastrous set of sun; then against all mortal critics bear
4725me out in it, thou Just Spirit of Equality, which hast spread one royal
4726mantle of humanity over all my kind! Bear me out in it, thou great
4727democratic God! who didst not refuse to the swart convict, Bunyan, the
4728pale, poetic pearl; Thou who didst clothe with doubly hammered leaves
4729of finest gold, the stumped and paupered arm of old Cervantes; Thou who
4730didst pick up Andrew Jackson from the pebbles; who didst hurl him upon a
4731war-horse; who didst thunder him higher than a throne! Thou who, in all
4732Thy mighty, earthly marchings, ever cullest Thy selectest champions from
4733the kingly commons; bear me out in it, O God!
4734
4735
4736
4737CHAPTER 27. Knights and Squires.
4738
4739
4740Stubb was the second mate. He was a native of Cape Cod; and hence,
4741according to local usage, was called a Cape-Cod-man. A happy-go-lucky;
4742neither craven nor valiant; taking perils as they came with an
4743indifferent air; and while engaged in the most imminent crisis of the
4744chase, toiling away, calm and collected as a journeyman joiner engaged
4745for the year. Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his
4746whale-boat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his
4747crew all invited guests. He was as particular about the comfortable
4748arrangement of his part of the boat, as an old stage-driver is about the
4749snugness of his box. When close to the whale, in the very death-lock of
4750the fight, he handled his unpitying lance coolly and off-handedly, as
4751a whistling tinker his hammer. He would hum over his old rigadig tunes
4752while flank and flank with the most exasperated monster. Long usage had,
4753for this Stubb, converted the jaws of death into an easy chair. What he
4754thought of death itself, there is no telling. Whether he ever thought of
4755it at all, might be a question; but, if he ever did chance to cast his
4756mind that way after a comfortable dinner, no doubt, like a good sailor,
4757he took it to be a sort of call of the watch to tumble aloft, and bestir
4758themselves there, about something which he would find out when he obeyed
4759the order, and not sooner.
4760
4761What, perhaps, with other things, made Stubb such an easy-going,
4762unfearing man, so cheerily trudging off with the burden of life in a
4763world full of grave pedlars, all bowed to the ground with their packs;
4764what helped to bring about that almost impious good-humor of his; that
4765thing must have been his pipe. For, like his nose, his short, black
4766little pipe was one of the regular features of his face. You would
4767almost as soon have expected him to turn out of his bunk without his
4768nose as without his pipe. He kept a whole row of pipes there ready
4769loaded, stuck in a rack, within easy reach of his hand; and, whenever he
4770turned in, he smoked them all out in succession, lighting one from
4771the other to the end of the chapter; then loading them again to be in
4772readiness anew. For, when Stubb dressed, instead of first putting his
4773legs into his trowsers, he put his pipe into his mouth.
4774
4775I say this continual smoking must have been one cause, at least, of his
4776peculiar disposition; for every one knows that this earthly air, whether
4777ashore or afloat, is terribly infected with the nameless miseries of
4778the numberless mortals who have died exhaling it; and as in time of the
4779cholera, some people go about with a camphorated handkerchief to their
4780mouths; so, likewise, against all mortal tribulations, Stubb's tobacco
4781smoke might have operated as a sort of disinfecting agent.
4782
4783The third mate was Flask, a native of Tisbury, in Martha's Vineyard. A
4784short, stout, ruddy young fellow, very pugnacious concerning whales,
4785who somehow seemed to think that the great leviathans had personally
4786and hereditarily affronted him; and therefore it was a sort of point of
4787honour with him, to destroy them whenever encountered. So utterly lost
4788was he to all sense of reverence for the many marvels of their majestic
4789bulk and mystic ways; and so dead to anything like an apprehension of
4790any possible danger from encountering them; that in his poor opinion,
4791the wondrous whale was but a species of magnified mouse, or at least
4792water-rat, requiring only a little circumvention and some small
4793application of time and trouble in order to kill and boil. This
4794ignorant, unconscious fearlessness of his made him a little waggish in
4795the matter of whales; he followed these fish for the fun of it; and a
4796three years' voyage round Cape Horn was only a jolly joke that lasted
4797that length of time. As a carpenter's nails are divided into wrought
4798nails and cut nails; so mankind may be similarly divided. Little Flask
4799was one of the wrought ones; made to clinch tight and last long. They
4800called him King-Post on board of the Pequod; because, in form, he could
4801be well likened to the short, square timber known by that name in Arctic
4802whalers; and which by the means of many radiating side timbers inserted
4803into it, serves to brace the ship against the icy concussions of those
4804battering seas.
4805
4806Now these three mates--Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask, were momentous
4807men. They it was who by universal prescription commanded three of the
4808Pequod's boats as headsmen. In that grand order of battle in which
4809Captain Ahab would probably marshal his forces to descend on the whales,
4810these three headsmen were as captains of companies. Or, being armed with
4811their long keen whaling spears, they were as a picked trio of lancers;
4812even as the harpooneers were flingers of javelins.
4813
4814And since in this famous fishery, each mate or headsman, like a Gothic
4815Knight of old, is always accompanied by his boat-steerer or harpooneer,
4816who in certain conjunctures provides him with a fresh lance, when
4817the former one has been badly twisted, or elbowed in the assault; and
4818moreover, as there generally subsists between the two, a close intimacy
4819and friendliness; it is therefore but meet, that in this place we set
4820down who the Pequod's harpooneers were, and to what headsman each of
4821them belonged.
4822
4823First of all was Queequeg, whom Starbuck, the chief mate, had selected
4824for his squire. But Queequeg is already known.
4825
4826Next was Tashtego, an unmixed Indian from Gay Head, the most westerly
4827promontory of Martha's Vineyard, where there still exists the last
4828remnant of a village of red men, which has long supplied the neighboring
4829island of Nantucket with many of her most daring harpooneers. In the
4830fishery, they usually go by the generic name of Gay-Headers. Tashtego's
4831long, lean, sable hair, his high cheek bones, and black rounding
4832eyes--for an Indian, Oriental in their largeness, but Antarctic in their
4833glittering expression--all this sufficiently proclaimed him an inheritor
4834of the unvitiated blood of those proud warrior hunters, who, in quest
4835of the great New England moose, had scoured, bow in hand, the aboriginal
4836forests of the main. But no longer snuffing in the trail of the wild
4837beasts of the woodland, Tashtego now hunted in the wake of the great
4838whales of the sea; the unerring harpoon of the son fitly replacing the
4839infallible arrow of the sires. To look at the tawny brawn of his lithe
4840snaky limbs, you would almost have credited the superstitions of some of
4841the earlier Puritans, and half-believed this wild Indian to be a son
4842of the Prince of the Powers of the Air. Tashtego was Stubb the second
4843mate's squire.
4844
4845Third among the harpooneers was Daggoo, a gigantic, coal-black
4846negro-savage, with a lion-like tread--an Ahasuerus to behold. Suspended
4847from his ears were two golden hoops, so large that the sailors called
4848them ring-bolts, and would talk of securing the top-sail halyards to
4849them. In his youth Daggoo had voluntarily shipped on board of a whaler,
4850lying in a lonely bay on his native coast. And never having been
4851anywhere in the world but in Africa, Nantucket, and the pagan harbors
4852most frequented by whalemen; and having now led for many years the bold
4853life of the fishery in the ships of owners uncommonly heedful of what
4854manner of men they shipped; Daggoo retained all his barbaric virtues,
4855and erect as a giraffe, moved about the decks in all the pomp of six
4856feet five in his socks. There was a corporeal humility in looking up at
4857him; and a white man standing before him seemed a white flag come to
4858beg truce of a fortress. Curious to tell, this imperial negro, Ahasuerus
4859Daggoo, was the Squire of little Flask, who looked like a chess-man
4860beside him. As for the residue of the Pequod's company, be it said, that
4861at the present day not one in two of the many thousand men before the
4862mast employed in the American whale fishery, are Americans born, though
4863pretty nearly all the officers are. Herein it is the same with the
4864American whale fishery as with the American army and military and
4865merchant navies, and the engineering forces employed in the construction
4866of the American Canals and Railroads. The same, I say, because in all
4867these cases the native American liberally provides the brains, the rest
4868of the world as generously supplying the muscles. No small number of
4869these whaling seamen belong to the Azores, where the outward bound
4870Nantucket whalers frequently touch to augment their crews from the hardy
4871peasants of those rocky shores. In like manner, the Greenland whalers
4872sailing out of Hull or London, put in at the Shetland Islands, to
4873receive the full complement of their crew. Upon the passage homewards,
4874they drop them there again. How it is, there is no telling, but
4875Islanders seem to make the best whalemen. They were nearly all Islanders
4876in the Pequod, ISOLATOES too, I call such, not acknowledging the common
4877continent of men, but each ISOLATO living on a separate continent of his
4878own. Yet now, federated along one keel, what a set these Isolatoes were!
4879An Anacharsis Clootz deputation from all the isles of the sea, and all
4880the ends of the earth, accompanying Old Ahab in the Pequod to lay the
4881world's grievances before that bar from which not very many of them ever
4882come back. Black Little Pip--he never did--oh, no! he went before. Poor
4883Alabama boy! On the grim Pequod's forecastle, ye shall ere long see him,
4884beating his tambourine; prelusive of the eternal time, when sent for,
4885to the great quarter-deck on high, he was bid strike in with angels, and
4886beat his tambourine in glory; called a coward here, hailed a hero there!
4887
4888
4889
4890CHAPTER 28. Ahab.
4891
4892
4893For several days after leaving Nantucket, nothing above hatches was seen
4894of Captain Ahab. The mates regularly relieved each other at the watches,
4895and for aught that could be seen to the contrary, they seemed to be the
4896only commanders of the ship; only they sometimes issued from the cabin
4897with orders so sudden and peremptory, that after all it was plain they
4898but commanded vicariously. Yes, their supreme lord and dictator was
4899there, though hitherto unseen by any eyes not permitted to penetrate
4900into the now sacred retreat of the cabin.
4901
4902Every time I ascended to the deck from my watches below, I instantly
4903gazed aft to mark if any strange face were visible; for my first vague
4904disquietude touching the unknown captain, now in the seclusion of the
4905sea, became almost a perturbation. This was strangely heightened
4906at times by the ragged Elijah's diabolical incoherences uninvitedly
4907recurring to me, with a subtle energy I could not have before conceived
4908of. But poorly could I withstand them, much as in other moods I was
4909almost ready to smile at the solemn whimsicalities of that outlandish
4910prophet of the wharves. But whatever it was of apprehensiveness or
4911uneasiness--to call it so--which I felt, yet whenever I came to look
4912about me in the ship, it seemed against all warrantry to cherish such
4913emotions. For though the harpooneers, with the great body of the crew,
4914were a far more barbaric, heathenish, and motley set than any of the
4915tame merchant-ship companies which my previous experiences had made me
4916acquainted with, still I ascribed this--and rightly ascribed it--to the
4917fierce uniqueness of the very nature of that wild Scandinavian vocation
4918in which I had so abandonedly embarked. But it was especially the aspect
4919of the three chief officers of the ship, the mates, which was most
4920forcibly calculated to allay these colourless misgivings, and induce
4921confidence and cheerfulness in every presentment of the voyage. Three
4922better, more likely sea-officers and men, each in his own different way,
4923could not readily be found, and they were every one of them Americans; a
4924Nantucketer, a Vineyarder, a Cape man. Now, it being Christmas when the
4925ship shot from out her harbor, for a space we had biting Polar weather,
4926though all the time running away from it to the southward; and by every
4927degree and minute of latitude which we sailed, gradually leaving that
4928merciless winter, and all its intolerable weather behind us. It was one
4929of those less lowering, but still grey and gloomy enough mornings of the
4930transition, when with a fair wind the ship was rushing through the water
4931with a vindictive sort of leaping and melancholy rapidity, that as I
4932mounted to the deck at the call of the forenoon watch, so soon as I
4933levelled my glance towards the taffrail, foreboding shivers ran over me.
4934Reality outran apprehension; Captain Ahab stood upon his quarter-deck.
4935
4936There seemed no sign of common bodily illness about him, nor of the
4937recovery from any. He looked like a man cut away from the stake, when
4938the fire has overrunningly wasted all the limbs without consuming them,
4939or taking away one particle from their compacted aged robustness. His
4940whole high, broad form, seemed made of solid bronze, and shaped in an
4941unalterable mould, like Cellini's cast Perseus. Threading its way out
4942from among his grey hairs, and continuing right down one side of his
4943tawny scorched face and neck, till it disappeared in his clothing,
4944you saw a slender rod-like mark, lividly whitish. It resembled that
4945perpendicular seam sometimes made in the straight, lofty trunk of
4946a great tree, when the upper lightning tearingly darts down it, and
4947without wrenching a single twig, peels and grooves out the bark from top
4948to bottom, ere running off into the soil, leaving the tree still greenly
4949alive, but branded. Whether that mark was born with him, or whether it
4950was the scar left by some desperate wound, no one could certainly say.
4951By some tacit consent, throughout the voyage little or no allusion was
4952made to it, especially by the mates. But once Tashtego's senior, an old
4953Gay-Head Indian among the crew, superstitiously asserted that not till
4954he was full forty years old did Ahab become that way branded, and
4955then it came upon him, not in the fury of any mortal fray, but in
4956an elemental strife at sea. Yet, this wild hint seemed inferentially
4957negatived, by what a grey Manxman insinuated, an old sepulchral man,
4958who, having never before sailed out of Nantucket, had never ere this
4959laid eye upon wild Ahab. Nevertheless, the old sea-traditions, the
4960immemorial credulities, popularly invested this old Manxman with
4961preternatural powers of discernment. So that no white sailor seriously
4962contradicted him when he said that if ever Captain Ahab should
4963be tranquilly laid out--which might hardly come to pass, so he
4964muttered--then, whoever should do that last office for the dead, would
4965find a birth-mark on him from crown to sole.
4966
4967So powerfully did the whole grim aspect of Ahab affect me, and the livid
4968brand which streaked it, that for the first few moments I hardly noted
4969that not a little of this overbearing grimness was owing to the barbaric
4970white leg upon which he partly stood. It had previously come to me that
4971this ivory leg had at sea been fashioned from the polished bone of
4972the sperm whale's jaw. "Aye, he was dismasted off Japan," said the old
4973Gay-Head Indian once; "but like his dismasted craft, he shipped another
4974mast without coming home for it. He has a quiver of 'em."
4975
4976I was struck with the singular posture he maintained. Upon each side of
4977the Pequod's quarter deck, and pretty close to the mizzen shrouds, there
4978was an auger hole, bored about half an inch or so, into the plank.
4979His bone leg steadied in that hole; one arm elevated, and holding by a
4980shroud; Captain Ahab stood erect, looking straight out beyond the
4981ship's ever-pitching prow. There was an infinity of firmest fortitude,
4982a determinate, unsurrenderable wilfulness, in the fixed and fearless,
4983forward dedication of that glance. Not a word he spoke; nor did his
4984officers say aught to him; though by all their minutest gestures
4985and expressions, they plainly showed the uneasy, if not painful,
4986consciousness of being under a troubled master-eye. And not only that,
4987but moody stricken Ahab stood before them with a crucifixion in his
4988face; in all the nameless regal overbearing dignity of some mighty woe.
4989
4990Ere long, from his first visit in the air, he withdrew into his cabin.
4991But after that morning, he was every day visible to the crew; either
4992standing in his pivot-hole, or seated upon an ivory stool he had; or
4993heavily walking the deck. As the sky grew less gloomy; indeed, began to
4994grow a little genial, he became still less and less a recluse; as
4995if, when the ship had sailed from home, nothing but the dead wintry
4996bleakness of the sea had then kept him so secluded. And, by and by, it
4997came to pass, that he was almost continually in the air; but, as yet,
4998for all that he said, or perceptibly did, on the at last sunny deck,
4999he seemed as unnecessary there as another mast. But the Pequod was
5000only making a passage now; not regularly cruising; nearly all whaling
5001preparatives needing supervision the mates were fully competent to, so
5002that there was little or nothing, out of himself, to employ or excite
5003Ahab, now; and thus chase away, for that one interval, the clouds that
5004layer upon layer were piled upon his brow, as ever all clouds choose the
5005loftiest peaks to pile themselves upon.
5006
5007Nevertheless, ere long, the warm, warbling persuasiveness of the
5008pleasant, holiday weather we came to, seemed gradually to charm him from
5009his mood. For, as when the red-cheeked, dancing girls, April and May,
5010trip home to the wintry, misanthropic woods; even the barest, ruggedest,
5011most thunder-cloven old oak will at least send forth some few green
5012sprouts, to welcome such glad-hearted visitants; so Ahab did, in the
5013end, a little respond to the playful allurings of that girlish air. More
5014than once did he put forth the faint blossom of a look, which, in any
5015other man, would have soon flowered out in a smile.
5016
5017
5018
5019CHAPTER 29. Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb.
5020
5021
5022Some days elapsed, and ice and icebergs all astern, the Pequod now
5023went rolling through the bright Quito spring, which, at sea, almost
5024perpetually reigns on the threshold of the eternal August of the Tropic.
5025The warmly cool, clear, ringing, perfumed, overflowing, redundant days,
5026were as crystal goblets of Persian sherbet, heaped up--flaked up, with
5027rose-water snow. The starred and stately nights seemed haughty dames in
5028jewelled velvets, nursing at home in lonely pride, the memory of their
5029absent conquering Earls, the golden helmeted suns! For sleeping man,
5030'twas hard to choose between such winsome days and such seducing nights.
5031But all the witcheries of that unwaning weather did not merely lend new
5032spells and potencies to the outward world. Inward they turned upon the
5033soul, especially when the still mild hours of eve came on; then, memory
5034shot her crystals as the clear ice most forms of noiseless twilights.
5035And all these subtle agencies, more and more they wrought on Ahab's
5036texture.
5037
5038Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less
5039man has to do with aught that looks like death. Among sea-commanders,
5040the old greybeards will oftenest leave their berths to visit the
5041night-cloaked deck. It was so with Ahab; only that now, of late, he
5042seemed so much to live in the open air, that truly speaking, his visits
5043were more to the cabin, than from the cabin to the planks. "It feels
5044like going down into one's tomb,"--he would mutter to himself--"for an
5045old captain like me to be descending this narrow scuttle, to go to my
5046grave-dug berth."
5047
5048So, almost every twenty-four hours, when the watches of the night were
5049set, and the band on deck sentinelled the slumbers of the band below;
5050and when if a rope was to be hauled upon the forecastle, the sailors
5051flung it not rudely down, as by day, but with some cautiousness dropt
5052it to its place for fear of disturbing their slumbering shipmates; when
5053this sort of steady quietude would begin to prevail, habitually, the
5054silent steersman would watch the cabin-scuttle; and ere long the old man
5055would emerge, gripping at the iron banister, to help his crippled way.
5056Some considering touch of humanity was in him; for at times like these,
5057he usually abstained from patrolling the quarter-deck; because to his
5058wearied mates, seeking repose within six inches of his ivory heel, such
5059would have been the reverberating crack and din of that bony step, that
5060their dreams would have been on the crunching teeth of sharks. But once,
5061the mood was on him too deep for common regardings; and as with heavy,
5062lumber-like pace he was measuring the ship from taffrail to mainmast,
5063Stubb, the old second mate, came up from below, with a certain
5064unassured, deprecating humorousness, hinted that if Captain Ahab was
5065pleased to walk the planks, then, no one could say nay; but there might
5066be some way of muffling the noise; hinting something indistinctly and
5067hesitatingly about a globe of tow, and the insertion into it, of the
5068ivory heel. Ah! Stubb, thou didst not know Ahab then.
5069
5070"Am I a cannon-ball, Stubb," said Ahab, "that thou wouldst wad me that
5071fashion? But go thy ways; I had forgot. Below to thy nightly grave;
5072where such as ye sleep between shrouds, to use ye to the filling one at
5073last.--Down, dog, and kennel!"
5074
5075Starting at the unforseen concluding exclamation of the so suddenly
5076scornful old man, Stubb was speechless a moment; then said excitedly, "I
5077am not used to be spoken to that way, sir; I do but less than half like
5078it, sir."
5079
5080"Avast! gritted Ahab between his set teeth, and violently moving away,
5081as if to avoid some passionate temptation.
5082
5083"No, sir; not yet," said Stubb, emboldened, "I will not tamely be called
5084a dog, sir."
5085
5086"Then be called ten times a donkey, and a mule, and an ass, and begone,
5087or I'll clear the world of thee!"
5088
5089As he said this, Ahab advanced upon him with such overbearing terrors in
5090his aspect, that Stubb involuntarily retreated.
5091
5092"I was never served so before without giving a hard blow for it,"
5093muttered Stubb, as he found himself descending the cabin-scuttle. "It's
5094very queer. Stop, Stubb; somehow, now, I don't well know whether to go
5095back and strike him, or--what's that?--down here on my knees and pray
5096for him? Yes, that was the thought coming up in me; but it would be the
5097first time I ever DID pray. It's queer; very queer; and he's queer too;
5098aye, take him fore and aft, he's about the queerest old man Stubb ever
5099sailed with. How he flashed at me!--his eyes like powder-pans! is he
5100mad? Anyway there's something on his mind, as sure as there must be
5101something on a deck when it cracks. He aint in his bed now, either, more
5102than three hours out of the twenty-four; and he don't sleep then. Didn't
5103that Dough-Boy, the steward, tell me that of a morning he always finds
5104the old man's hammock clothes all rumpled and tumbled, and the sheets
5105down at the foot, and the coverlid almost tied into knots, and the
5106pillow a sort of frightful hot, as though a baked brick had been on
5107it? A hot old man! I guess he's got what some folks ashore call
5108a conscience; it's a kind of Tic-Dolly-row they say--worse nor a
5109toothache. Well, well; I don't know what it is, but the Lord keep me
5110from catching it. He's full of riddles; I wonder what he goes into the
5111after hold for, every night, as Dough-Boy tells me he suspects; what's
5112that for, I should like to know? Who's made appointments with him in
5113the hold? Ain't that queer, now? But there's no telling, it's the old
5114game--Here goes for a snooze. Damn me, it's worth a fellow's while to be
5115born into the world, if only to fall right asleep. And now that I think
5116of it, that's about the first thing babies do, and that's a sort of
5117queer, too. Damn me, but all things are queer, come to think of 'em. But
5118that's against my principles. Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and
5119sleep when you can, is my twelfth--So here goes again. But how's that?
5120didn't he call me a dog? blazes! he called me ten times a donkey, and
5121piled a lot of jackasses on top of THAT! He might as well have kicked
5122me, and done with it. Maybe he DID kick me, and I didn't observe it,
5123I was so taken all aback with his brow, somehow. It flashed like a
5124bleached bone. What the devil's the matter with me? I don't stand right
5125on my legs. Coming afoul of that old man has a sort of turned me wrong
5126side out. By the Lord, I must have been dreaming, though--How? how?
5127how?--but the only way's to stash it; so here goes to hammock again;
5128and in the morning, I'll see how this plaguey juggling thinks over by
5129daylight."
5130
5131
5132
5133CHAPTER 30. The Pipe.
5134
5135
5136When Stubb had departed, Ahab stood for a while leaning over the
5137bulwarks; and then, as had been usual with him of late, calling a sailor
5138of the watch, he sent him below for his ivory stool, and also his pipe.
5139Lighting the pipe at the binnacle lamp and planting the stool on the
5140weather side of the deck, he sat and smoked.
5141
5142In old Norse times, the thrones of the sea-loving Danish kings were
5143fabricated, saith tradition, of the tusks of the narwhale. How could one
5144look at Ahab then, seated on that tripod of bones, without bethinking
5145him of the royalty it symbolized? For a Khan of the plank, and a king of
5146the sea, and a great lord of Leviathans was Ahab.
5147
5148Some moments passed, during which the thick vapour came from his mouth
5149in quick and constant puffs, which blew back again into his face. "How
5150now," he soliloquized at last, withdrawing the tube, "this smoking no
5151longer soothes. Oh, my pipe! hard must it go with me if thy charm be
5152gone! Here have I been unconsciously toiling, not pleasuring--aye, and
5153ignorantly smoking to windward all the while; to windward, and with
5154such nervous whiffs, as if, like the dying whale, my final jets were the
5155strongest and fullest of trouble. What business have I with this pipe?
5156This thing that is meant for sereneness, to send up mild white vapours
5157among mild white hairs, not among torn iron-grey locks like mine. I'll
5158smoke no more--"
5159
5160He tossed the still lighted pipe into the sea. The fire hissed in the
5161waves; the same instant the ship shot by the bubble the sinking pipe
5162made. With slouched hat, Ahab lurchingly paced the planks.
5163
5164
5165
5166CHAPTER 31. Queen Mab.
5167
5168
5169Next morning Stubb accosted Flask.
5170
5171"Such a queer dream, King-Post, I never had. You know the old man's
5172ivory leg, well I dreamed he kicked me with it; and when I tried to kick
5173back, upon my soul, my little man, I kicked my leg right off! And then,
5174presto! Ahab seemed a pyramid, and I, like a blazing fool, kept kicking
5175at it. But what was still more curious, Flask--you know how curious all
5176dreams are--through all this rage that I was in, I somehow seemed to be
5177thinking to myself, that after all, it was not much of an insult, that
5178kick from Ahab. 'Why,' thinks I, 'what's the row? It's not a real leg,
5179only a false leg.' And there's a mighty difference between a living
5180thump and a dead thump. That's what makes a blow from the hand, Flask,
5181fifty times more savage to bear than a blow from a cane. The living
5182member--that makes the living insult, my little man. And thinks I to
5183myself all the while, mind, while I was stubbing my silly toes against
5184that cursed pyramid--so confoundedly contradictory was it all, all
5185the while, I say, I was thinking to myself, 'what's his leg now, but
5186a cane--a whalebone cane. Yes,' thinks I, 'it was only a playful
5187cudgelling--in fact, only a whaleboning that he gave me--not a base
5188kick. Besides,' thinks I, 'look at it once; why, the end of it--the foot
5189part--what a small sort of end it is; whereas, if a broad footed farmer
5190kicked me, THERE'S a devilish broad insult. But this insult is whittled
5191down to a point only.' But now comes the greatest joke of the
5192dream, Flask. While I was battering away at the pyramid, a sort of
5193badger-haired old merman, with a hump on his back, takes me by the
5194shoulders, and slews me round. 'What are you 'bout?' says he. Slid! man,
5195but I was frightened. Such a phiz! But, somehow, next moment I was over
5196the fright. 'What am I about?' says I at last. 'And what business is
5197that of yours, I should like to know, Mr. Humpback? Do YOU want a kick?'
5198By the lord, Flask, I had no sooner said that, than he turned round his
5199stern to me, bent over, and dragging up a lot of seaweed he had for a
5200clout--what do you think, I saw?--why thunder alive, man, his stern
5201was stuck full of marlinspikes, with the points out. Says I, on second
5202thoughts, 'I guess I won't kick you, old fellow.' 'Wise Stubb,' said he,
5203'wise Stubb;' and kept muttering it all the time, a sort of eating of
5204his own gums like a chimney hag. Seeing he wasn't going to stop saying
5205over his 'wise Stubb, wise Stubb,' I thought I might as well fall to
5206kicking the pyramid again. But I had only just lifted my foot for it,
5207when he roared out, 'Stop that kicking!' 'Halloa,' says I, 'what's
5208the matter now, old fellow?' 'Look ye here,' says he; 'let's argue
5209the insult. Captain Ahab kicked ye, didn't he?' 'Yes, he did,' says
5210I--'right HERE it was.' 'Very good,' says he--'he used his ivory leg,
5211didn't he?' 'Yes, he did,' says I. 'Well then,' says he, 'wise Stubb,
5212what have you to complain of? Didn't he kick with right good will? it
5213wasn't a common pitch pine leg he kicked with, was it? No, you were
5214kicked by a great man, and with a beautiful ivory leg, Stubb. It's an
5215honour; I consider it an honour. Listen, wise Stubb. In old England the
5216greatest lords think it great glory to be slapped by a queen, and made
5217garter-knights of; but, be YOUR boast, Stubb, that ye were kicked by
5218old Ahab, and made a wise man of. Remember what I say; BE kicked by him;
5219account his kicks honours; and on no account kick back; for you can't
5220help yourself, wise Stubb. Don't you see that pyramid?' With that, he
5221all of a sudden seemed somehow, in some queer fashion, to swim off into
5222the air. I snored; rolled over; and there I was in my hammock! Now, what
5223do you think of that dream, Flask?"
5224
5225"I don't know; it seems a sort of foolish to me, tho.'"
5226
5227"May be; may be. But it's made a wise man of me, Flask. D'ye see Ahab
5228standing there, sideways looking over the stern? Well, the best thing
5229you can do, Flask, is to let the old man alone; never speak to him,
5230whatever he says. Halloa! What's that he shouts? Hark!"
5231
5232"Mast-head, there! Look sharp, all of ye! There are whales hereabouts!
5233
5234"If ye see a white one, split your lungs for him!
5235
5236"What do you think of that now, Flask? ain't there a small drop of
5237something queer about that, eh? A white whale--did ye mark that, man?
5238Look ye--there's something special in the wind. Stand by for it, Flask.
5239Ahab has that that's bloody on his mind. But, mum; he comes this way."
5240
5241
5242
5243CHAPTER 32. Cetology.
5244
5245
5246Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost
5247in its unshored, harbourless immensities. Ere that come to pass; ere the
5248Pequod's weedy hull rolls side by side with the barnacled hulls of the
5249leviathan; at the outset it is but well to attend to a matter almost
5250indispensable to a thorough appreciative understanding of the more
5251special leviathanic revelations and allusions of all sorts which are to
5252follow.
5253
5254It is some systematized exhibition of the whale in his broad genera,
5255that I would now fain put before you. Yet is it no easy task. The
5256classification of the constituents of a chaos, nothing less is here
5257essayed. Listen to what the best and latest authorities have laid down.
5258
5259"No branch of Zoology is so much involved as that which is entitled
5260Cetology," says Captain Scoresby, A.D. 1820.
5261
5262"It is not my intention, were it in my power, to enter into the
5263inquiry as to the true method of dividing the cetacea into groups and
5264families.... Utter confusion exists among the historians of this animal"
5265(sperm whale), says Surgeon Beale, A.D. 1839.
5266
5267"Unfitness to pursue our research in the unfathomable waters."
5268"Impenetrable veil covering our knowledge of the cetacea." "A field
5269strewn with thorns." "All these incomplete indications but serve to
5270torture us naturalists."
5271
5272Thus speak of the whale, the great Cuvier, and John Hunter, and Lesson,
5273those lights of zoology and anatomy. Nevertheless, though of real
5274knowledge there be little, yet of books there are a plenty; and so in
5275some small degree, with cetology, or the science of whales. Many are
5276the men, small and great, old and new, landsmen and seamen, who have at
5277large or in little, written of the whale. Run over a few:--The Authors
5278of the Bible; Aristotle; Pliny; Aldrovandi; Sir Thomas Browne; Gesner;
5279Ray; Linnaeus; Rondeletius; Willoughby; Green; Artedi; Sibbald; Brisson;
5280Marten; Lacepede; Bonneterre; Desmarest; Baron Cuvier; Frederick Cuvier;
5281John Hunter; Owen; Scoresby; Beale; Bennett; J. Ross Browne; the
5282Author of Miriam Coffin; Olmstead; and the Rev. T. Cheever. But to what
5283ultimate generalizing purpose all these have written, the above cited
5284extracts will show.
5285
5286Of the names in this list of whale authors, only those following Owen
5287ever saw living whales; and but one of them was a real professional
5288harpooneer and whaleman. I mean Captain Scoresby. On the separate
5289subject of the Greenland or right-whale, he is the best existing
5290authority. But Scoresby knew nothing and says nothing of the great
5291sperm whale, compared with which the Greenland whale is almost unworthy
5292mentioning. And here be it said, that the Greenland whale is an usurper
5293upon the throne of the seas. He is not even by any means the largest
5294of the whales. Yet, owing to the long priority of his claims, and the
5295profound ignorance which, till some seventy years back, invested the
5296then fabulous or utterly unknown sperm-whale, and which ignorance to
5297this present day still reigns in all but some few scientific retreats
5298and whale-ports; this usurpation has been every way complete. Reference
5299to nearly all the leviathanic allusions in the great poets of past days,
5300will satisfy you that the Greenland whale, without one rival, was to
5301them the monarch of the seas. But the time has at last come for a new
5302proclamation. This is Charing Cross; hear ye! good people all,--the
5303Greenland whale is deposed,--the great sperm whale now reigneth!
5304
5305There are only two books in being which at all pretend to put the living
5306sperm whale before you, and at the same time, in the remotest degree
5307succeed in the attempt. Those books are Beale's and Bennett's; both in
5308their time surgeons to English South-Sea whale-ships, and both exact and
5309reliable men. The original matter touching the sperm whale to be found
5310in their volumes is necessarily small; but so far as it goes, it is of
5311excellent quality, though mostly confined to scientific description. As
5312yet, however, the sperm whale, scientific or poetic, lives not complete
5313in any literature. Far above all other hunted whales, his is an
5314unwritten life.
5315
5316Now the various species of whales need some sort of popular
5317comprehensive classification, if only an easy outline one for the
5318present, hereafter to be filled in all its departments by subsequent
5319laborers. As no better man advances to take this matter in hand, I
5320hereupon offer my own poor endeavors. I promise nothing complete;
5321because any human thing supposed to be complete, must for that very
5322reason infallibly be faulty. I shall not pretend to a minute anatomical
5323description of the various species, or--in this place at least--to much
5324of any description. My object here is simply to project the draught of a
5325systematization of cetology. I am the architect, not the builder.
5326
5327But it is a ponderous task; no ordinary letter-sorter in the Post-Office
5328is equal to it. To grope down into the bottom of the sea after them;
5329to have one's hands among the unspeakable foundations, ribs, and very
5330pelvis of the world; this is a fearful thing. What am I that I should
5331essay to hook the nose of this leviathan! The awful tauntings in Job
5332might well appal me. Will he (the leviathan) make a covenant with thee?
5333Behold the hope of him is vain! But I have swam through libraries and
5334sailed through oceans; I have had to do with whales with these visible
5335hands; I am in earnest; and I will try. There are some preliminaries to
5336settle.
5337
5338First: The uncertain, unsettled condition of this science of Cetology
5339is in the very vestibule attested by the fact, that in some quarters it
5340still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish. In his System of
5341Nature, A.D. 1776, Linnaeus declares, "I hereby separate the whales from
5342the fish." But of my own knowledge, I know that down to the year 1850,
5343sharks and shad, alewives and herring, against Linnaeus's express edict,
5344were still found dividing the possession of the same seas with the
5345Leviathan.
5346
5347The grounds upon which Linnaeus would fain have banished the whales from
5348the waters, he states as follows: "On account of their warm bilocular
5349heart, their lungs, their movable eyelids, their hollow ears, penem
5350intrantem feminam mammis lactantem," and finally, "ex lege naturae jure
5351meritoque." I submitted all this to my friends Simeon Macey and Charley
5352Coffin, of Nantucket, both messmates of mine in a certain voyage, and
5353they united in the opinion that the reasons set forth were altogether
5354insufficient. Charley profanely hinted they were humbug.
5355
5356Be it known that, waiving all argument, I take the good old fashioned
5357ground that the whale is a fish, and call upon holy Jonah to back me.
5358This fundamental thing settled, the next point is, in what internal
5359respect does the whale differ from other fish. Above, Linnaeus has given
5360you those items. But in brief, they are these: lungs and warm blood;
5361whereas, all other fish are lungless and cold blooded.
5362
5363Next: how shall we define the whale, by his obvious externals, so as
5364conspicuously to label him for all time to come? To be short, then, a
5365whale is A SPOUTING FISH WITH A HORIZONTAL TAIL. There you have
5366him. However contracted, that definition is the result of expanded
5367meditation. A walrus spouts much like a whale, but the walrus is not a
5368fish, because he is amphibious. But the last term of the definition is
5369still more cogent, as coupled with the first. Almost any one must have
5370noticed that all the fish familiar to landsmen have not a flat, but a
5371vertical, or up-and-down tail. Whereas, among spouting fish the tail,
5372though it may be similarly shaped, invariably assumes a horizontal
5373position.
5374
5375By the above definition of what a whale is, I do by no means exclude
5376from the leviathanic brotherhood any sea creature hitherto identified
5377with the whale by the best informed Nantucketers; nor, on the other
5378hand, link with it any fish hitherto authoritatively regarded as alien.*
5379Hence, all the smaller, spouting, and horizontal tailed fish must be
5380included in this ground-plan of Cetology. Now, then, come the grand
5381divisions of the entire whale host.
5382
5383
5384*I am aware that down to the present time, the fish styled Lamatins and
5385Dugongs (Pig-fish and Sow-fish of the Coffins of Nantucket) are included
5386by many naturalists among the whales. But as these pig-fish are a noisy,
5387contemptible set, mostly lurking in the mouths of rivers, and feeding on
5388wet hay, and especially as they do not spout, I deny their credentials
5389as whales; and have presented them with their passports to quit the
5390Kingdom of Cetology.
5391
5392
5393First: According to magnitude I divide the whales into three primary
5394BOOKS (subdivisible into CHAPTERS), and these shall comprehend them all,
5395both small and large.
5396
5397I. THE FOLIO WHALE; II. the OCTAVO WHALE; III. the DUODECIMO WHALE.
5398
5399As the type of the FOLIO I present the SPERM WHALE; of the OCTAVO, the
5400GRAMPUS; of the DUODECIMO, the PORPOISE.
5401
5402FOLIOS. Among these I here include the following chapters:--I. The SPERM
5403WHALE; II. the RIGHT WHALE; III. the FIN-BACK WHALE; IV. the HUMP-BACKED
5404WHALE; V. the RAZOR-BACK WHALE; VI. the SULPHUR-BOTTOM WHALE.
5405
5406BOOK I. (FOLIO), CHAPTER I. (SPERM WHALE).--This whale, among the
5407English of old vaguely known as the Trumpa whale, and the Physeter
5408whale, and the Anvil Headed whale, is the present Cachalot of the
5409French, and the Pottsfich of the Germans, and the Macrocephalus of the
5410Long Words. He is, without doubt, the largest inhabitant of the globe;
5411the most formidable of all whales to encounter; the most majestic in
5412aspect; and lastly, by far the most valuable in commerce; he being
5413the only creature from which that valuable substance, spermaceti, is
5414obtained. All his peculiarities will, in many other places, be enlarged
5415upon. It is chiefly with his name that I now have to do. Philologically
5416considered, it is absurd. Some centuries ago, when the Sperm whale was
5417almost wholly unknown in his own proper individuality, and when his oil
5418was only accidentally obtained from the stranded fish; in those days
5419spermaceti, it would seem, was popularly supposed to be derived from a
5420creature identical with the one then known in England as the Greenland
5421or Right Whale. It was the idea also, that this same spermaceti was that
5422quickening humor of the Greenland Whale which the first syllable of
5423the word literally expresses. In those times, also, spermaceti was
5424exceedingly scarce, not being used for light, but only as an ointment
5425and medicament. It was only to be had from the druggists as you nowadays
5426buy an ounce of rhubarb. When, as I opine, in the course of time, the
5427true nature of spermaceti became known, its original name was still
5428retained by the dealers; no doubt to enhance its value by a notion so
5429strangely significant of its scarcity. And so the appellation must at
5430last have come to be bestowed upon the whale from which this spermaceti
5431was really derived.
5432
5433BOOK I. (FOLIO), CHAPTER II. (RIGHT WHALE).--In one respect this is the
5434most venerable of the leviathans, being the one first regularly hunted
5435by man. It yields the article commonly known as whalebone or baleen; and
5436the oil specially known as "whale oil," an inferior article in commerce.
5437Among the fishermen, he is indiscriminately designated by all the
5438following titles: The Whale; the Greenland Whale; the Black Whale;
5439the Great Whale; the True Whale; the Right Whale. There is a deal of
5440obscurity concerning the identity of the species thus multitudinously
5441baptised. What then is the whale, which I include in the second species
5442of my Folios? It is the Great Mysticetus of the English naturalists; the
5443Greenland Whale of the English whalemen; the Baleine Ordinaire of the
5444French whalemen; the Growlands Walfish of the Swedes. It is the whale
5445which for more than two centuries past has been hunted by the Dutch and
5446English in the Arctic seas; it is the whale which the American fishermen
5447have long pursued in the Indian ocean, on the Brazil Banks, on the Nor'
5448West Coast, and various other parts of the world, designated by them
5449Right Whale Cruising Grounds.
5450
5451Some pretend to see a difference between the Greenland whale of the
5452English and the right whale of the Americans. But they precisely agree
5453in all their grand features; nor has there yet been presented a single
5454determinate fact upon which to ground a radical distinction. It is by
5455endless subdivisions based upon the most inconclusive differences, that
5456some departments of natural history become so repellingly intricate. The
5457right whale will be elsewhere treated of at some length, with reference
5458to elucidating the sperm whale.
5459
5460BOOK I. (FOLIO), CHAPTER III. (FIN-BACK).--Under this head I reckon
5461a monster which, by the various names of Fin-Back, Tall-Spout, and
5462Long-John, has been seen almost in every sea and is commonly the whale
5463whose distant jet is so often descried by passengers crossing the
5464Atlantic, in the New York packet-tracks. In the length he attains, and
5465in his baleen, the Fin-back resembles the right whale, but is of a less
5466portly girth, and a lighter colour, approaching to olive. His great lips
5467present a cable-like aspect, formed by the intertwisting, slanting folds
5468of large wrinkles. His grand distinguishing feature, the fin, from which
5469he derives his name, is often a conspicuous object. This fin is some
5470three or four feet long, growing vertically from the hinder part of the
5471back, of an angular shape, and with a very sharp pointed end. Even if
5472not the slightest other part of the creature be visible, this isolated
5473fin will, at times, be seen plainly projecting from the surface. When
5474the sea is moderately calm, and slightly marked with spherical ripples,
5475and this gnomon-like fin stands up and casts shadows upon the wrinkled
5476surface, it may well be supposed that the watery circle surrounding it
5477somewhat resembles a dial, with its style and wavy hour-lines graved on
5478it. On that Ahaz-dial the shadow often goes back. The Fin-Back is not
5479gregarious. He seems a whale-hater, as some men are man-haters. Very
5480shy; always going solitary; unexpectedly rising to the surface in the
5481remotest and most sullen waters; his straight and single lofty jet
5482rising like a tall misanthropic spear upon a barren plain; gifted with
5483such wondrous power and velocity in swimming, as to defy all present
5484pursuit from man; this leviathan seems the banished and unconquerable
5485Cain of his race, bearing for his mark that style upon his back. From
5486having the baleen in his mouth, the Fin-Back is sometimes included with
5487the right whale, among a theoretic species denominated WHALEBONE WHALES,
5488that is, whales with baleen. Of these so called Whalebone whales, there
5489would seem to be several varieties, most of which, however, are little
5490known. Broad-nosed whales and beaked whales; pike-headed whales; bunched
5491whales; under-jawed whales and rostrated whales, are the fishermen's
5492names for a few sorts.
5493
5494In connection with this appellative of "Whalebone whales," it is of
5495great importance to mention, that however such a nomenclature may be
5496convenient in facilitating allusions to some kind of whales, yet it is
5497in vain to attempt a clear classification of the Leviathan, founded upon
5498either his baleen, or hump, or fin, or teeth; notwithstanding that those
5499marked parts or features very obviously seem better adapted to afford
5500the basis for a regular system of Cetology than any other detached
5501bodily distinctions, which the whale, in his kinds, presents. How
5502then? The baleen, hump, back-fin, and teeth; these are things whose
5503peculiarities are indiscriminately dispersed among all sorts of whales,
5504without any regard to what may be the nature of their structure in other
5505and more essential particulars. Thus, the sperm whale and the humpbacked
5506whale, each has a hump; but there the similitude ceases. Then, this same
5507humpbacked whale and the Greenland whale, each of these has baleen;
5508but there again the similitude ceases. And it is just the same with the
5509other parts above mentioned. In various sorts of whales, they form such
5510irregular combinations; or, in the case of any one of them detached,
5511such an irregular isolation; as utterly to defy all general
5512methodization formed upon such a basis. On this rock every one of the
5513whale-naturalists has split.
5514
5515But it may possibly be conceived that, in the internal parts of the
5516whale, in his anatomy--there, at least, we shall be able to hit the
5517right classification. Nay; what thing, for example, is there in the
5518Greenland whale's anatomy more striking than his baleen? Yet we have
5519seen that by his baleen it is impossible correctly to classify the
5520Greenland whale. And if you descend into the bowels of the various
5521leviathans, why there you will not find distinctions a fiftieth part as
5522available to the systematizer as those external ones already enumerated.
5523What then remains? nothing but to take hold of the whales bodily, in
5524their entire liberal volume, and boldly sort them that way. And this is
5525the Bibliographical system here adopted; and it is the only one that can
5526possibly succeed, for it alone is practicable. To proceed.
5527
5528BOOK I. (FOLIO) CHAPTER IV. (HUMP-BACK).--This whale is often seen on
5529the northern American coast. He has been frequently captured there, and
5530towed into harbor. He has a great pack on him like a peddler; or you
5531might call him the Elephant and Castle whale. At any rate, the popular
5532name for him does not sufficiently distinguish him, since the sperm
5533whale also has a hump though a smaller one. His oil is not very
5534valuable. He has baleen. He is the most gamesome and light-hearted of
5535all the whales, making more gay foam and white water generally than any
5536other of them.
5537
5538BOOK I. (FOLIO), CHAPTER V. (RAZOR-BACK).--Of this whale little is known
5539but his name. I have seen him at a distance off Cape Horn. Of a retiring
5540nature, he eludes both hunters and philosophers. Though no coward, he
5541has never yet shown any part of him but his back, which rises in a long
5542sharp ridge. Let him go. I know little more of him, nor does anybody
5543else.
5544
5545BOOK I. (FOLIO), CHAPTER VI. (SULPHUR-BOTTOM).--Another retiring
5546gentleman, with a brimstone belly, doubtless got by scraping along the
5547Tartarian tiles in some of his profounder divings. He is seldom seen;
5548at least I have never seen him except in the remoter southern seas,
5549and then always at too great a distance to study his countenance. He is
5550never chased; he would run away with rope-walks of line. Prodigies are
5551told of him. Adieu, Sulphur Bottom! I can say nothing more that is true
5552of ye, nor can the oldest Nantucketer.
5553
5554Thus ends BOOK I. (FOLIO), and now begins BOOK II. (OCTAVO).
5555
5556OCTAVOES.*--These embrace the whales of middling magnitude, among which
5557present may be numbered:--I., the GRAMPUS; II., the BLACK FISH; III.,
5558the NARWHALE; IV., the THRASHER; V., the KILLER.
5559
5560
5561*Why this book of whales is not denominated the Quarto is very plain.
5562Because, while the whales of this order, though smaller than those of
5563the former order, nevertheless retain a proportionate likeness to them
5564in figure, yet the bookbinder's Quarto volume in its dimensioned form
5565does not preserve the shape of the Folio volume, but the Octavo volume
5566does.
5567
5568
5569BOOK II. (OCTAVO), CHAPTER I. (GRAMPUS).--Though this fish, whose
5570loud sonorous breathing, or rather blowing, has furnished a proverb
5571to landsmen, is so well known a denizen of the deep, yet is he not
5572popularly classed among whales. But possessing all the grand distinctive
5573features of the leviathan, most naturalists have recognised him for one.
5574He is of moderate octavo size, varying from fifteen to twenty-five feet
5575in length, and of corresponding dimensions round the waist. He swims in
5576herds; he is never regularly hunted, though his oil is considerable in
5577quantity, and pretty good for light. By some fishermen his approach is
5578regarded as premonitory of the advance of the great sperm whale.
5579
5580BOOK II. (OCTAVO), CHAPTER II. (BLACK FISH).--I give the popular
5581fishermen's names for all these fish, for generally they are the best.
5582Where any name happens to be vague or inexpressive, I shall say so,
5583and suggest another. I do so now, touching the Black Fish, so-called,
5584because blackness is the rule among almost all whales. So, call him the
5585Hyena Whale, if you please. His voracity is well known, and from the
5586circumstance that the inner angles of his lips are curved upwards, he
5587carries an everlasting Mephistophelean grin on his face. This whale
5588averages some sixteen or eighteen feet in length. He is found in almost
5589all latitudes. He has a peculiar way of showing his dorsal hooked fin
5590in swimming, which looks something like a Roman nose. When not more
5591profitably employed, the sperm whale hunters sometimes capture the Hyena
5592whale, to keep up the supply of cheap oil for domestic employment--as
5593some frugal housekeepers, in the absence of company, and quite alone by
5594themselves, burn unsavory tallow instead of odorous wax. Though their
5595blubber is very thin, some of these whales will yield you upwards of
5596thirty gallons of oil.
5597
5598BOOK II. (OCTAVO), CHAPTER III. (NARWHALE), that is, NOSTRIL
5599WHALE.--Another instance of a curiously named whale, so named I suppose
5600from his peculiar horn being originally mistaken for a peaked nose. The
5601creature is some sixteen feet in length, while its horn averages five
5602feet, though some exceed ten, and even attain to fifteen feet. Strictly
5603speaking, this horn is but a lengthened tusk, growing out from the jaw
5604in a line a little depressed from the horizontal. But it is only
5605found on the sinister side, which has an ill effect, giving its owner
5606something analogous to the aspect of a clumsy left-handed man. What
5607precise purpose this ivory horn or lance answers, it would be hard to
5608say. It does not seem to be used like the blade of the sword-fish and
5609bill-fish; though some sailors tell me that the Narwhale employs it for
5610a rake in turning over the bottom of the sea for food. Charley Coffin
5611said it was used for an ice-piercer; for the Narwhale, rising to the
5612surface of the Polar Sea, and finding it sheeted with ice, thrusts his
5613horn up, and so breaks through. But you cannot prove either of these
5614surmises to be correct. My own opinion is, that however this one-sided
5615horn may really be used by the Narwhale--however that may be--it would
5616certainly be very convenient to him for a folder in reading pamphlets.
5617The Narwhale I have heard called the Tusked whale, the Horned whale, and
5618the Unicorn whale. He is certainly a curious example of the Unicornism
5619to be found in almost every kingdom of animated nature. From certain
5620cloistered old authors I have gathered that this same sea-unicorn's horn
5621was in ancient days regarded as the great antidote against poison,
5622and as such, preparations of it brought immense prices. It was also
5623distilled to a volatile salts for fainting ladies, the same way that the
5624horns of the male deer are manufactured into hartshorn. Originally it
5625was in itself accounted an object of great curiosity. Black Letter tells
5626me that Sir Martin Frobisher on his return from that voyage, when
5627Queen Bess did gallantly wave her jewelled hand to him from a window
5628of Greenwich Palace, as his bold ship sailed down the Thames; "when Sir
5629Martin returned from that voyage," saith Black Letter, "on bended knees
5630he presented to her highness a prodigious long horn of the Narwhale,
5631which for a long period after hung in the castle at Windsor." An Irish
5632author avers that the Earl of Leicester, on bended knees, did likewise
5633present to her highness another horn, pertaining to a land beast of the
5634unicorn nature.
5635
5636The Narwhale has a very picturesque, leopard-like look, being of a
5637milk-white ground colour, dotted with round and oblong spots of black.
5638His oil is very superior, clear and fine; but there is little of it, and
5639he is seldom hunted. He is mostly found in the circumpolar seas.
5640
5641BOOK II. (OCTAVO), CHAPTER IV. (KILLER).--Of this whale little is
5642precisely known to the Nantucketer, and nothing at all to the professed
5643naturalist. From what I have seen of him at a distance, I should say
5644that he was about the bigness of a grampus. He is very savage--a sort of
5645Feegee fish. He sometimes takes the great Folio whales by the lip, and
5646hangs there like a leech, till the mighty brute is worried to death. The
5647Killer is never hunted. I never heard what sort of oil he has. Exception
5648might be taken to the name bestowed upon this whale, on the ground
5649of its indistinctness. For we are all killers, on land and on sea;
5650Bonapartes and Sharks included.
5651
5652BOOK II. (OCTAVO), CHAPTER V. (THRASHER).--This gentleman is famous for
5653his tail, which he uses for a ferule in thrashing his foes. He mounts
5654the Folio whale's back, and as he swims, he works his passage by
5655flogging him; as some schoolmasters get along in the world by a similar
5656process. Still less is known of the Thrasher than of the Killer. Both
5657are outlaws, even in the lawless seas.
5658
5659Thus ends BOOK II. (OCTAVO), and begins BOOK III. (DUODECIMO).
5660
5661DUODECIMOES.--These include the smaller whales. I. The Huzza Porpoise.
5662II. The Algerine Porpoise. III. The Mealy-mouthed Porpoise.
5663
5664To those who have not chanced specially to study the subject, it may
5665possibly seem strange, that fishes not commonly exceeding four or five
5666feet should be marshalled among WHALES--a word, which, in the popular
5667sense, always conveys an idea of hugeness. But the creatures set
5668down above as Duodecimoes are infallibly whales, by the terms of my
5669definition of what a whale is--i.e. a spouting fish, with a horizontal
5670tail.
5671
5672BOOK III. (DUODECIMO), CHAPTER 1. (HUZZA PORPOISE).--This is the
5673common porpoise found almost all over the globe. The name is of my own
5674bestowal; for there are more than one sort of porpoises, and something
5675must be done to distinguish them. I call him thus, because he always
5676swims in hilarious shoals, which upon the broad sea keep tossing
5677themselves to heaven like caps in a Fourth-of-July crowd. Their
5678appearance is generally hailed with delight by the mariner. Full of fine
5679spirits, they invariably come from the breezy billows to windward. They
5680are the lads that always live before the wind. They are accounted a
5681lucky omen. If you yourself can withstand three cheers at beholding
5682these vivacious fish, then heaven help ye; the spirit of godly
5683gamesomeness is not in ye. A well-fed, plump Huzza Porpoise will
5684yield you one good gallon of good oil. But the fine and delicate fluid
5685extracted from his jaws is exceedingly valuable. It is in request among
5686jewellers and watchmakers. Sailors put it on their hones. Porpoise
5687meat is good eating, you know. It may never have occurred to you that
5688a porpoise spouts. Indeed, his spout is so small that it is not very
5689readily discernible. But the next time you have a chance, watch him; and
5690you will then see the great Sperm whale himself in miniature.
5691
5692BOOK III. (DUODECIMO), CHAPTER II. (ALGERINE PORPOISE).--A pirate. Very
5693savage. He is only found, I think, in the Pacific. He is somewhat larger
5694than the Huzza Porpoise, but much of the same general make. Provoke him,
5695and he will buckle to a shark. I have lowered for him many times, but
5696never yet saw him captured.
5697
5698BOOK III. (DUODECIMO), CHAPTER III. (MEALY-MOUTHED PORPOISE).--The
5699largest kind of Porpoise; and only found in the Pacific, so far as it is
5700known. The only English name, by which he has hitherto been designated,
5701is that of the fishers--Right-Whale Porpoise, from the circumstance that
5702he is chiefly found in the vicinity of that Folio. In shape, he differs
5703in some degree from the Huzza Porpoise, being of a less rotund and jolly
5704girth; indeed, he is of quite a neat and gentleman-like figure. He has
5705no fins on his back (most other porpoises have), he has a lovely tail,
5706and sentimental Indian eyes of a hazel hue. But his mealy-mouth spoils
5707all. Though his entire back down to his side fins is of a deep sable,
5708yet a boundary line, distinct as the mark in a ship's hull, called
5709the "bright waist," that line streaks him from stem to stern, with two
5710separate colours, black above and white below. The white comprises part
5711of his head, and the whole of his mouth, which makes him look as if he
5712had just escaped from a felonious visit to a meal-bag. A most mean and
5713mealy aspect! His oil is much like that of the common porpoise.
5714
5715
5716Beyond the DUODECIMO, this system does not proceed, inasmuch as
5717the Porpoise is the smallest of the whales. Above, you have all the
5718Leviathans of note. But there are a rabble of uncertain, fugitive,
5719half-fabulous whales, which, as an American whaleman, I know by
5720reputation, but not personally. I shall enumerate them by their
5721fore-castle appellations; for possibly such a list may be valuable to
5722future investigators, who may complete what I have here but begun. If
5723any of the following whales, shall hereafter be caught and marked, then
5724he can readily be incorporated into this System, according to his Folio,
5725Octavo, or Duodecimo magnitude:--The Bottle-Nose Whale; the Junk Whale;
5726the Pudding-Headed Whale; the Cape Whale; the Leading Whale; the Cannon
5727Whale; the Scragg Whale; the Coppered Whale; the Elephant Whale; the
5728Iceberg Whale; the Quog Whale; the Blue Whale; etc. From Icelandic,
5729Dutch, and old English authorities, there might be quoted other lists of
5730uncertain whales, blessed with all manner of uncouth names. But I omit
5731them as altogether obsolete; and can hardly help suspecting them for
5732mere sounds, full of Leviathanism, but signifying nothing.
5733
5734Finally: It was stated at the outset, that this system would not be
5735here, and at once, perfected. You cannot but plainly see that I have
5736kept my word. But I now leave my cetological System standing thus
5737unfinished, even as the great Cathedral of Cologne was left, with the
5738crane still standing upon the top of the uncompleted tower. For small
5739erections may be finished by their first architects; grand ones, true
5740ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity. God keep me from ever
5741completing anything. This whole book is but a draught--nay, but the
5742draught of a draught. Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience!
5743
5744
5745
5746CHAPTER 33. The Specksynder.
5747
5748
5749Concerning the officers of the whale-craft, this seems as good a place
5750as any to set down a little domestic peculiarity on ship-board, arising
5751from the existence of the harpooneer class of officers, a class unknown
5752of course in any other marine than the whale-fleet.
5753
5754The large importance attached to the harpooneer's vocation is evinced
5755by the fact, that originally in the old Dutch Fishery, two centuries
5756and more ago, the command of a whale ship was not wholly lodged in
5757the person now called the captain, but was divided between him and an
5758officer called the Specksynder. Literally this word means Fat-Cutter;
5759usage, however, in time made it equivalent to Chief Harpooneer. In
5760those days, the captain's authority was restricted to the navigation
5761and general management of the vessel; while over the whale-hunting
5762department and all its concerns, the Specksynder or Chief Harpooneer
5763reigned supreme. In the British Greenland Fishery, under the corrupted
5764title of Specksioneer, this old Dutch official is still retained, but
5765his former dignity is sadly abridged. At present he ranks simply
5766as senior Harpooneer; and as such, is but one of the captain's more
5767inferior subalterns. Nevertheless, as upon the good conduct of the
5768harpooneers the success of a whaling voyage largely depends, and since
5769in the American Fishery he is not only an important officer in the boat,
5770but under certain circumstances (night watches on a whaling ground) the
5771command of the ship's deck is also his; therefore the grand political
5772maxim of the sea demands, that he should nominally live apart from
5773the men before the mast, and be in some way distinguished as their
5774professional superior; though always, by them, familiarly regarded as
5775their social equal.
5776
5777Now, the grand distinction drawn between officer and man at sea, is
5778this--the first lives aft, the last forward. Hence, in whale-ships and
5779merchantmen alike, the mates have their quarters with the captain; and
5780so, too, in most of the American whalers the harpooneers are lodged in
5781the after part of the ship. That is to say, they take their meals in the
5782captain's cabin, and sleep in a place indirectly communicating with it.
5783
5784Though the long period of a Southern whaling voyage (by far the longest
5785of all voyages now or ever made by man), the peculiar perils of it, and
5786the community of interest prevailing among a company, all of whom, high
5787or low, depend for their profits, not upon fixed wages, but upon their
5788common luck, together with their common vigilance, intrepidity, and
5789hard work; though all these things do in some cases tend to beget a less
5790rigorous discipline than in merchantmen generally; yet, never mind
5791how much like an old Mesopotamian family these whalemen may, in some
5792primitive instances, live together; for all that, the punctilious
5793externals, at least, of the quarter-deck are seldom materially relaxed,
5794and in no instance done away. Indeed, many are the Nantucket ships in
5795which you will see the skipper parading his quarter-deck with an elated
5796grandeur not surpassed in any military navy; nay, extorting almost
5797as much outward homage as if he wore the imperial purple, and not the
5798shabbiest of pilot-cloth.
5799
5800And though of all men the moody captain of the Pequod was the least
5801given to that sort of shallowest assumption; and though the only homage
5802he ever exacted, was implicit, instantaneous obedience; though he
5803required no man to remove the shoes from his feet ere stepping upon
5804the quarter-deck; and though there were times when, owing to peculiar
5805circumstances connected with events hereafter to be detailed, he
5806addressed them in unusual terms, whether of condescension or IN
5807TERROREM, or otherwise; yet even Captain Ahab was by no means
5808unobservant of the paramount forms and usages of the sea.
5809
5810Nor, perhaps, will it fail to be eventually perceived, that behind those
5811forms and usages, as it were, he sometimes masked himself; incidentally
5812making use of them for other and more private ends than they were
5813legitimately intended to subserve. That certain sultanism of his brain,
5814which had otherwise in a good degree remained unmanifested; through
5815those forms that same sultanism became incarnate in an irresistible
5816dictatorship. For be a man's intellectual superiority what it will,
5817it can never assume the practical, available supremacy over other men,
5818without the aid of some sort of external arts and entrenchments, always,
5819in themselves, more or less paltry and base. This it is, that for ever
5820keeps God's true princes of the Empire from the world's hustings; and
5821leaves the highest honours that this air can give, to those men who
5822become famous more through their infinite inferiority to the choice
5823hidden handful of the Divine Inert, than through their undoubted
5824superiority over the dead level of the mass. Such large virtue lurks
5825in these small things when extreme political superstitions invest them,
5826that in some royal instances even to idiot imbecility they have imparted
5827potency. But when, as in the case of Nicholas the Czar, the ringed crown
5828of geographical empire encircles an imperial brain; then, the plebeian
5829herds crouch abased before the tremendous centralization. Nor, will the
5830tragic dramatist who would depict mortal indomitableness in its fullest
5831sweep and direct swing, ever forget a hint, incidentally so important in
5832his art, as the one now alluded to.
5833
5834But Ahab, my Captain, still moves before me in all his Nantucket
5835grimness and shagginess; and in this episode touching Emperors and
5836Kings, I must not conceal that I have only to do with a poor old
5837whale-hunter like him; and, therefore, all outward majestical trappings
5838and housings are denied me. Oh, Ahab! what shall be grand in thee, it
5839must needs be plucked at from the skies, and dived for in the deep, and
5840featured in the unbodied air!
5841
5842
5843
5844CHAPTER 34. The Cabin-Table.
5845
5846
5847It is noon; and Dough-Boy, the steward, thrusting his pale loaf-of-bread
5848face from the cabin-scuttle, announces dinner to his lord and
5849master; who, sitting in the lee quarter-boat, has just been taking an
5850observation of the sun; and is now mutely reckoning the latitude on the
5851smooth, medallion-shaped tablet, reserved for that daily purpose on
5852the upper part of his ivory leg. From his complete inattention to the
5853tidings, you would think that moody Ahab had not heard his menial. But
5854presently, catching hold of the mizen shrouds, he swings himself to
5855the deck, and in an even, unexhilarated voice, saying, "Dinner, Mr.
5856Starbuck," disappears into the cabin.
5857
5858When the last echo of his sultan's step has died away, and Starbuck, the
5859first Emir, has every reason to suppose that he is seated, then Starbuck
5860rouses from his quietude, takes a few turns along the planks, and, after
5861a grave peep into the binnacle, says, with some touch of pleasantness,
5862"Dinner, Mr. Stubb," and descends the scuttle. The second Emir lounges
5863about the rigging awhile, and then slightly shaking the main brace, to
5864see whether it will be all right with that important rope, he likewise
5865takes up the old burden, and with a rapid "Dinner, Mr. Flask," follows
5866after his predecessors.
5867
5868But the third Emir, now seeing himself all alone on the quarter-deck,
5869seems to feel relieved from some curious restraint; for, tipping all
5870sorts of knowing winks in all sorts of directions, and kicking off his
5871shoes, he strikes into a sharp but noiseless squall of a hornpipe right
5872over the Grand Turk's head; and then, by a dexterous sleight, pitching
5873his cap up into the mizentop for a shelf, he goes down rollicking so
5874far at least as he remains visible from the deck, reversing all other
5875processions, by bringing up the rear with music. But ere stepping into
5876the cabin doorway below, he pauses, ships a new face altogether, and,
5877then, independent, hilarious little Flask enters King Ahab's presence,
5878in the character of Abjectus, or the Slave.
5879
5880It is not the least among the strange things bred by the intense
5881artificialness of sea-usages, that while in the open air of the deck
5882some officers will, upon provocation, bear themselves boldly and
5883defyingly enough towards their commander; yet, ten to one, let those
5884very officers the next moment go down to their customary dinner in that
5885same commander's cabin, and straightway their inoffensive, not to say
5886deprecatory and humble air towards him, as he sits at the head of
5887the table; this is marvellous, sometimes most comical. Wherefore this
5888difference? A problem? Perhaps not. To have been Belshazzar, King of
5889Babylon; and to have been Belshazzar, not haughtily but courteously,
5890therein certainly must have been some touch of mundane grandeur. But he
5891who in the rightly regal and intelligent spirit presides over his own
5892private dinner-table of invited guests, that man's unchallenged power
5893and dominion of individual influence for the time; that man's royalty of
5894state transcends Belshazzar's, for Belshazzar was not the greatest. Who
5895has but once dined his friends, has tasted what it is to be Caesar. It
5896is a witchery of social czarship which there is no withstanding. Now,
5897if to this consideration you superadd the official supremacy of a
5898ship-master, then, by inference, you will derive the cause of that
5899peculiarity of sea-life just mentioned.
5900
5901Over his ivory-inlaid table, Ahab presided like a mute, maned
5902sea-lion on the white coral beach, surrounded by his warlike but still
5903deferential cubs. In his own proper turn, each officer waited to be
5904served. They were as little children before Ahab; and yet, in Ahab,
5905there seemed not to lurk the smallest social arrogance. With one mind,
5906their intent eyes all fastened upon the old man's knife, as he carved
5907the chief dish before him. I do not suppose that for the world they
5908would have profaned that moment with the slightest observation, even
5909upon so neutral a topic as the weather. No! And when reaching out his
5910knife and fork, between which the slice of beef was locked, Ahab thereby
5911motioned Starbuck's plate towards him, the mate received his meat as
5912though receiving alms; and cut it tenderly; and a little started
5913if, perchance, the knife grazed against the plate; and chewed it
5914noiselessly; and swallowed it, not without circumspection. For, like
5915the Coronation banquet at Frankfort, where the German Emperor profoundly
5916dines with the seven Imperial Electors, so these cabin meals were
5917somehow solemn meals, eaten in awful silence; and yet at table old Ahab
5918forbade not conversation; only he himself was dumb. What a relief it was
5919to choking Stubb, when a rat made a sudden racket in the hold below. And
5920poor little Flask, he was the youngest son, and little boy of this weary
5921family party. His were the shinbones of the saline beef; his would have
5922been the drumsticks. For Flask to have presumed to help himself, this
5923must have seemed to him tantamount to larceny in the first degree. Had
5924he helped himself at that table, doubtless, never more would he have
5925been able to hold his head up in this honest world; nevertheless,
5926strange to say, Ahab never forbade him. And had Flask helped himself,
5927the chances were Ahab had never so much as noticed it. Least of all, did
5928Flask presume to help himself to butter. Whether he thought the owners
5929of the ship denied it to him, on account of its clotting his clear,
5930sunny complexion; or whether he deemed that, on so long a voyage in such
5931marketless waters, butter was at a premium, and therefore was not for
5932him, a subaltern; however it was, Flask, alas! was a butterless man!
5933
5934Another thing. Flask was the last person down at the dinner, and Flask
5935is the first man up. Consider! For hereby Flask's dinner was badly
5936jammed in point of time. Starbuck and Stubb both had the start of him;
5937and yet they also have the privilege of lounging in the rear. If Stubb
5938even, who is but a peg higher than Flask, happens to have but a small
5939appetite, and soon shows symptoms of concluding his repast, then Flask
5940must bestir himself, he will not get more than three mouthfuls that day;
5941for it is against holy usage for Stubb to precede Flask to the deck.
5942Therefore it was that Flask once admitted in private, that ever since he
5943had arisen to the dignity of an officer, from that moment he had never
5944known what it was to be otherwise than hungry, more or less. For what
5945he ate did not so much relieve his hunger, as keep it immortal in him.
5946Peace and satisfaction, thought Flask, have for ever departed from
5947my stomach. I am an officer; but, how I wish I could fish a bit of
5948old-fashioned beef in the forecastle, as I used to when I was before the
5949mast. There's the fruits of promotion now; there's the vanity of glory:
5950there's the insanity of life! Besides, if it were so that any mere
5951sailor of the Pequod had a grudge against Flask in Flask's official
5952capacity, all that sailor had to do, in order to obtain ample vengeance,
5953was to go aft at dinner-time, and get a peep at Flask through the cabin
5954sky-light, sitting silly and dumfoundered before awful Ahab.
5955
5956Now, Ahab and his three mates formed what may be called the first table
5957in the Pequod's cabin. After their departure, taking place in inverted
5958order to their arrival, the canvas cloth was cleared, or rather was
5959restored to some hurried order by the pallid steward. And then the three
5960harpooneers were bidden to the feast, they being its residuary legatees.
5961They made a sort of temporary servants' hall of the high and mighty
5962cabin.
5963
5964In strange contrast to the hardly tolerable constraint and nameless
5965invisible domineerings of the captain's table, was the entire care-free
5966license and ease, the almost frantic democracy of those inferior fellows
5967the harpooneers. While their masters, the mates, seemed afraid of the
5968sound of the hinges of their own jaws, the harpooneers chewed their food
5969with such a relish that there was a report to it. They dined like lords;
5970they filled their bellies like Indian ships all day loading with spices.
5971Such portentous appetites had Queequeg and Tashtego, that to fill out
5972the vacancies made by the previous repast, often the pale Dough-Boy was
5973fain to bring on a great baron of salt-junk, seemingly quarried out of
5974the solid ox. And if he were not lively about it, if he did not go with
5975a nimble hop-skip-and-jump, then Tashtego had an ungentlemanly way of
5976accelerating him by darting a fork at his back, harpoon-wise. And once
5977Daggoo, seized with a sudden humor, assisted Dough-Boy's memory by
5978snatching him up bodily, and thrusting his head into a great empty
5979wooden trencher, while Tashtego, knife in hand, began laying out the
5980circle preliminary to scalping him. He was naturally a very nervous,
5981shuddering sort of little fellow, this bread-faced steward; the progeny
5982of a bankrupt baker and a hospital nurse. And what with the standing
5983spectacle of the black terrific Ahab, and the periodical tumultuous
5984visitations of these three savages, Dough-Boy's whole life was one
5985continual lip-quiver. Commonly, after seeing the harpooneers furnished
5986with all things they demanded, he would escape from their clutches into
5987his little pantry adjoining, and fearfully peep out at them through the
5988blinds of its door, till all was over.
5989
5990It was a sight to see Queequeg seated over against Tashtego, opposing
5991his filed teeth to the Indian's: crosswise to them, Daggoo seated on the
5992floor, for a bench would have brought his hearse-plumed head to the low
5993carlines; at every motion of his colossal limbs, making the low cabin
5994framework to shake, as when an African elephant goes passenger in a
5995ship. But for all this, the great negro was wonderfully abstemious,
5996not to say dainty. It seemed hardly possible that by such comparatively
5997small mouthfuls he could keep up the vitality diffused through so broad,
5998baronial, and superb a person. But, doubtless, this noble savage fed
5999strong and drank deep of the abounding element of air; and through his
6000dilated nostrils snuffed in the sublime life of the worlds. Not by
6001beef or by bread, are giants made or nourished. But Queequeg, he had a
6002mortal, barbaric smack of the lip in eating--an ugly sound enough--so
6003much so, that the trembling Dough-Boy almost looked to see whether
6004any marks of teeth lurked in his own lean arms. And when he would hear
6005Tashtego singing out for him to produce himself, that his bones might be
6006picked, the simple-witted steward all but shattered the crockery hanging
6007round him in the pantry, by his sudden fits of the palsy. Nor did the
6008whetstone which the harpooneers carried in their pockets, for their
6009lances and other weapons; and with which whetstones, at dinner, they
6010would ostentatiously sharpen their knives; that grating sound did not at
6011all tend to tranquillize poor Dough-Boy. How could he forget that in his
6012Island days, Queequeg, for one, must certainly have been guilty of some
6013murderous, convivial indiscretions. Alas! Dough-Boy! hard fares the
6014white waiter who waits upon cannibals. Not a napkin should he carry on
6015his arm, but a buckler. In good time, though, to his great delight,
6016the three salt-sea warriors would rise and depart; to his credulous,
6017fable-mongering ears, all their martial bones jingling in them at every
6018step, like Moorish scimetars in scabbards.
6019
6020But, though these barbarians dined in the cabin, and nominally lived
6021there; still, being anything but sedentary in their habits, they were
6022scarcely ever in it except at mealtimes, and just before sleeping-time,
6023when they passed through it to their own peculiar quarters.
6024
6025In this one matter, Ahab seemed no exception to most American whale
6026captains, who, as a set, rather incline to the opinion that by rights
6027the ship's cabin belongs to them; and that it is by courtesy alone that
6028anybody else is, at any time, permitted there. So that, in real truth,
6029the mates and harpooneers of the Pequod might more properly be said to
6030have lived out of the cabin than in it. For when they did enter it, it
6031was something as a street-door enters a house; turning inwards for
6032a moment, only to be turned out the next; and, as a permanent thing,
6033residing in the open air. Nor did they lose much hereby; in the cabin
6034was no companionship; socially, Ahab was inaccessible. Though nominally
6035included in the census of Christendom, he was still an alien to it. He
6036lived in the world, as the last of the Grisly Bears lived in settled
6037Missouri. And as when Spring and Summer had departed, that wild Logan of
6038the woods, burying himself in the hollow of a tree, lived out the winter
6039there, sucking his own paws; so, in his inclement, howling old age,
6040Ahab's soul, shut up in the caved trunk of his body, there fed upon the
6041sullen paws of its gloom!
6042
6043
6044
6045CHAPTER 35. The Mast-Head.
6046
6047
6048It was during the more pleasant weather, that in due rotation with the
6049other seamen my first mast-head came round.
6050
6051In most American whalemen the mast-heads are manned almost
6052simultaneously with the vessel's leaving her port; even though she may
6053have fifteen thousand miles, and more, to sail ere reaching her proper
6054cruising ground. And if, after a three, four, or five years' voyage
6055she is drawing nigh home with anything empty in her--say, an empty vial
6056even--then, her mast-heads are kept manned to the last; and not till her
6057skysail-poles sail in among the spires of the port, does she altogether
6058relinquish the hope of capturing one whale more.
6059
6060Now, as the business of standing mast-heads, ashore or afloat, is a very
6061ancient and interesting one, let us in some measure expatiate here.
6062I take it, that the earliest standers of mast-heads were the old
6063Egyptians; because, in all my researches, I find none prior to them.
6064For though their progenitors, the builders of Babel, must doubtless, by
6065their tower, have intended to rear the loftiest mast-head in all Asia,
6066or Africa either; yet (ere the final truck was put to it) as that great
6067stone mast of theirs may be said to have gone by the board, in the dread
6068gale of God's wrath; therefore, we cannot give these Babel builders
6069priority over the Egyptians. And that the Egyptians were a nation of
6070mast-head standers, is an assertion based upon the general belief among
6071archaeologists, that the first pyramids were founded for astronomical
6072purposes: a theory singularly supported by the peculiar stair-like
6073formation of all four sides of those edifices; whereby, with prodigious
6074long upliftings of their legs, those old astronomers were wont to mount
6075to the apex, and sing out for new stars; even as the look-outs of a
6076modern ship sing out for a sail, or a whale just bearing in sight. In
6077Saint Stylites, the famous Christian hermit of old times, who built him
6078a lofty stone pillar in the desert and spent the whole latter portion of
6079his life on its summit, hoisting his food from the ground with a
6080tackle; in him we have a remarkable instance of a dauntless
6081stander-of-mast-heads; who was not to be driven from his place by fogs
6082or frosts, rain, hail, or sleet; but valiantly facing everything out to
6083the last, literally died at his post. Of modern standers-of-mast-heads
6084we have but a lifeless set; mere stone, iron, and bronze men; who,
6085though well capable of facing out a stiff gale, are still entirely
6086incompetent to the business of singing out upon discovering any strange
6087sight. There is Napoleon; who, upon the top of the column of Vendome,
6088stands with arms folded, some one hundred and fifty feet in the air;
6089careless, now, who rules the decks below; whether Louis Philippe, Louis
6090Blanc, or Louis the Devil. Great Washington, too, stands high aloft on
6091his towering main-mast in Baltimore, and like one of Hercules' pillars,
6092his column marks that point of human grandeur beyond which few mortals
6093will go. Admiral Nelson, also, on a capstan of gun-metal, stands his
6094mast-head in Trafalgar Square; and ever when most obscured by that
6095London smoke, token is yet given that a hidden hero is there; for
6096where there is smoke, must be fire. But neither great Washington, nor
6097Napoleon, nor Nelson, will answer a single hail from below, however
6098madly invoked to befriend by their counsels the distracted decks
6099upon which they gaze; however it may be surmised, that their spirits
6100penetrate through the thick haze of the future, and descry what shoals
6101and what rocks must be shunned.
6102
6103It may seem unwarrantable to couple in any respect the mast-head
6104standers of the land with those of the sea; but that in truth it is
6105not so, is plainly evinced by an item for which Obed Macy, the sole
6106historian of Nantucket, stands accountable. The worthy Obed tells us,
6107that in the early times of the whale fishery, ere ships were regularly
6108launched in pursuit of the game, the people of that island erected lofty
6109spars along the sea-coast, to which the look-outs ascended by means
6110of nailed cleats, something as fowls go upstairs in a hen-house. A few
6111years ago this same plan was adopted by the Bay whalemen of New Zealand,
6112who, upon descrying the game, gave notice to the ready-manned boats nigh
6113the beach. But this custom has now become obsolete; turn we then to the
6114one proper mast-head, that of a whale-ship at sea. The three mast-heads
6115are kept manned from sun-rise to sun-set; the seamen taking their
6116regular turns (as at the helm), and relieving each other every two
6117hours. In the serene weather of the tropics it is exceedingly pleasant
6118the mast-head; nay, to a dreamy meditative man it is delightful. There
6119you stand, a hundred feet above the silent decks, striding along the
6120deep, as if the masts were gigantic stilts, while beneath you and
6121between your legs, as it were, swim the hugest monsters of the sea, even
6122as ships once sailed between the boots of the famous Colossus at old
6123Rhodes. There you stand, lost in the infinite series of the sea, with
6124nothing ruffled but the waves. The tranced ship indolently rolls; the
6125drowsy trade winds blow; everything resolves you into languor. For the
6126most part, in this tropic whaling life, a sublime uneventfulness invests
6127you; you hear no news; read no gazettes; extras with startling accounts
6128of commonplaces never delude you into unnecessary excitements; you hear
6129of no domestic afflictions; bankrupt securities; fall of stocks; are
6130never troubled with the thought of what you shall have for dinner--for
6131all your meals for three years and more are snugly stowed in casks, and
6132your bill of fare is immutable.
6133
6134In one of those southern whalesmen, on a long three or four years'
6135voyage, as often happens, the sum of the various hours you spend at the
6136mast-head would amount to several entire months. And it is much to be
6137deplored that the place to which you devote so considerable a portion
6138of the whole term of your natural life, should be so sadly destitute
6139of anything approaching to a cosy inhabitiveness, or adapted to breed a
6140comfortable localness of feeling, such as pertains to a bed, a hammock,
6141a hearse, a sentry box, a pulpit, a coach, or any other of those small
6142and snug contrivances in which men temporarily isolate themselves. Your
6143most usual point of perch is the head of the t' gallant-mast, where you
6144stand upon two thin parallel sticks (almost peculiar to whalemen) called
6145the t' gallant cross-trees. Here, tossed about by the sea, the beginner
6146feels about as cosy as he would standing on a bull's horns. To be sure,
6147in cold weather you may carry your house aloft with you, in the shape of
6148a watch-coat; but properly speaking the thickest watch-coat is no more
6149of a house than the unclad body; for as the soul is glued inside of its
6150fleshy tabernacle, and cannot freely move about in it, nor even move out
6151of it, without running great risk of perishing (like an ignorant pilgrim
6152crossing the snowy Alps in winter); so a watch-coat is not so much of
6153a house as it is a mere envelope, or additional skin encasing you. You
6154cannot put a shelf or chest of drawers in your body, and no more can you
6155make a convenient closet of your watch-coat.
6156
6157Concerning all this, it is much to be deplored that the mast-heads of a
6158southern whale ship are unprovided with those enviable little tents
6159or pulpits, called CROW'S-NESTS, in which the look-outs of a Greenland
6160whaler are protected from the inclement weather of the frozen seas. In
6161the fireside narrative of Captain Sleet, entitled "A Voyage among the
6162Icebergs, in quest of the Greenland Whale, and incidentally for the
6163re-discovery of the Lost Icelandic Colonies of Old Greenland;" in
6164this admirable volume, all standers of mast-heads are furnished with
6165a charmingly circumstantial account of the then recently invented
6166CROW'S-NEST of the Glacier, which was the name of Captain Sleet's good
6167craft. He called it the SLEET'S CROW'S-NEST, in honour of himself; he
6168being the original inventor and patentee, and free from all ridiculous
6169false delicacy, and holding that if we call our own children after our
6170own names (we fathers being the original inventors and patentees), so
6171likewise should we denominate after ourselves any other apparatus we
6172may beget. In shape, the Sleet's crow's-nest is something like a large
6173tierce or pipe; it is open above, however, where it is furnished with
6174a movable side-screen to keep to windward of your head in a hard gale.
6175Being fixed on the summit of the mast, you ascend into it through a
6176little trap-hatch in the bottom. On the after side, or side next the
6177stern of the ship, is a comfortable seat, with a locker underneath for
6178umbrellas, comforters, and coats. In front is a leather rack, in which
6179to keep your speaking trumpet, pipe, telescope, and other nautical
6180conveniences. When Captain Sleet in person stood his mast-head in this
6181crow's-nest of his, he tells us that he always had a rifle with him
6182(also fixed in the rack), together with a powder flask and shot, for
6183the purpose of popping off the stray narwhales, or vagrant sea unicorns
6184infesting those waters; for you cannot successfully shoot at them from
6185the deck owing to the resistance of the water, but to shoot down upon
6186them is a very different thing. Now, it was plainly a labor of love
6187for Captain Sleet to describe, as he does, all the little detailed
6188conveniences of his crow's-nest; but though he so enlarges upon many
6189of these, and though he treats us to a very scientific account of his
6190experiments in this crow's-nest, with a small compass he kept there for
6191the purpose of counteracting the errors resulting from what is called
6192the "local attraction" of all binnacle magnets; an error ascribable to
6193the horizontal vicinity of the iron in the ship's planks, and in the
6194Glacier's case, perhaps, to there having been so many broken-down
6195blacksmiths among her crew; I say, that though the Captain is very
6196discreet and scientific here, yet, for all his learned "binnacle
6197deviations," "azimuth compass observations," and "approximate errors,"
6198he knows very well, Captain Sleet, that he was not so much immersed
6199in those profound magnetic meditations, as to fail being attracted
6200occasionally towards that well replenished little case-bottle, so nicely
6201tucked in on one side of his crow's nest, within easy reach of his hand.
6202Though, upon the whole, I greatly admire and even love the brave, the
6203honest, and learned Captain; yet I take it very ill of him that he
6204should so utterly ignore that case-bottle, seeing what a faithful friend
6205and comforter it must have been, while with mittened fingers and hooded
6206head he was studying the mathematics aloft there in that bird's nest
6207within three or four perches of the pole.
6208
6209But if we Southern whale-fishers are not so snugly housed aloft as
6210Captain Sleet and his Greenlandmen were; yet that disadvantage is
6211greatly counter-balanced by the widely contrasting serenity of those
6212seductive seas in which we South fishers mostly float. For one, I used
6213to lounge up the rigging very leisurely, resting in the top to have a
6214chat with Queequeg, or any one else off duty whom I might find there;
6215then ascending a little way further, and throwing a lazy leg over the
6216top-sail yard, take a preliminary view of the watery pastures, and so at
6217last mount to my ultimate destination.
6218
6219Let me make a clean breast of it here, and frankly admit that I kept but
6220sorry guard. With the problem of the universe revolving in me, how
6221could I--being left completely to myself at such a thought-engendering
6222altitude--how could I but lightly hold my obligations to observe all
6223whale-ships' standing orders, "Keep your weather eye open, and sing out
6224every time."
6225
6226And let me in this place movingly admonish you, ye ship-owners of
6227Nantucket! Beware of enlisting in your vigilant fisheries any lad with
6228lean brow and hollow eye; given to unseasonable meditativeness; and who
6229offers to ship with the Phaedon instead of Bowditch in his head. Beware
6230of such an one, I say; your whales must be seen before they can be
6231killed; and this sunken-eyed young Platonist will tow you ten wakes
6232round the world, and never make you one pint of sperm the richer. Nor
6233are these monitions at all unneeded. For nowadays, the whale-fishery
6234furnishes an asylum for many romantic, melancholy, and absent-minded
6235young men, disgusted with the carking cares of earth, and seeking
6236sentiment in tar and blubber. Childe Harold not unfrequently perches
6237himself upon the mast-head of some luckless disappointed whale-ship, and
6238in moody phrase ejaculates:--
6239
6240"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll! Ten thousand
6241blubber-hunters sweep over thee in vain."
6242
6243Very often do the captains of such ships take those absent-minded
6244young philosophers to task, upbraiding them with not feeling sufficient
6245"interest" in the voyage; half-hinting that they are so hopelessly lost
6246to all honourable ambition, as that in their secret souls they would
6247rather not see whales than otherwise. But all in vain; those young
6248Platonists have a notion that their vision is imperfect; they are
6249short-sighted; what use, then, to strain the visual nerve? They have
6250left their opera-glasses at home.
6251
6252"Why, thou monkey," said a harpooneer to one of these lads, "we've been
6253cruising now hard upon three years, and thou hast not raised a whale
6254yet. Whales are scarce as hen's teeth whenever thou art up here."
6255Perhaps they were; or perhaps there might have been shoals of them in
6256the far horizon; but lulled into such an opium-like listlessness of
6257vacant, unconscious reverie is this absent-minded youth by the blending
6258cadence of waves with thoughts, that at last he loses his identity;
6259takes the mystic ocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep,
6260blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and nature; and every
6261strange, half-seen, gliding, beautiful thing that eludes him; every
6262dimly-discovered, uprising fin of some undiscernible form, seems to him
6263the embodiment of those elusive thoughts that only people the soul by
6264continually flitting through it. In this enchanted mood, thy spirit ebbs
6265away to whence it came; becomes diffused through time and space; like
6266Crammer's(Thomas Cranmer) sprinkled Pantheistic ashes, forming at last a part of every
6267shore the round globe over.
6268
6269There is no life in thee, now, except that rocking life imparted by a
6270gently rolling ship; by her, borrowed from the sea; by the sea, from
6271the inscrutable tides of God. But while this sleep, this dream is on ye,
6272move your foot or hand an inch; slip your hold at all; and your identity
6273comes back in horror. Over Descartian vortices you hover. And perhaps,
6274at mid-day, in the fairest weather, with one half-throttled shriek you
6275drop through that transparent air into the summer sea, no more to rise
6276for ever. Heed it well, ye Pantheists!
6277
6278
6279
6280CHAPTER 36. The Quarter-Deck.
6281
6282
6283(ENTER AHAB: THEN, ALL)
6284
6285
6286It was not a great while after the affair of the pipe, that one
6287morning shortly after breakfast, Ahab, as was his wont, ascended the
6288cabin-gangway to the deck. There most sea-captains usually walk at that
6289hour, as country gentlemen, after the same meal, take a few turns in the
6290garden.
6291
6292Soon his steady, ivory stride was heard, as to and fro he paced his old
6293rounds, upon planks so familiar to his tread, that they were all over
6294dented, like geological stones, with the peculiar mark of his walk. Did
6295you fixedly gaze, too, upon that ribbed and dented brow; there also,
6296you would see still stranger foot-prints--the foot-prints of his one
6297unsleeping, ever-pacing thought.
6298
6299But on the occasion in question, those dents looked deeper, even as
6300his nervous step that morning left a deeper mark. And, so full of his
6301thought was Ahab, that at every uniform turn that he made, now at the
6302main-mast and now at the binnacle, you could almost see that thought
6303turn in him as he turned, and pace in him as he paced; so completely
6304possessing him, indeed, that it all but seemed the inward mould of every
6305outer movement.
6306
6307"D'ye mark him, Flask?" whispered Stubb; "the chick that's in him pecks
6308the shell. 'Twill soon be out."
6309
6310The hours wore on;--Ahab now shut up within his cabin; anon, pacing the
6311deck, with the same intense bigotry of purpose in his aspect.
6312
6313It drew near the close of day. Suddenly he came to a halt by the
6314bulwarks, and inserting his bone leg into the auger-hole there, and with
6315one hand grasping a shroud, he ordered Starbuck to send everybody aft.
6316
6317"Sir!" said the mate, astonished at an order seldom or never given on
6318ship-board except in some extraordinary case.
6319
6320"Send everybody aft," repeated Ahab. "Mast-heads, there! come down!"
6321
6322When the entire ship's company were assembled, and with curious and not
6323wholly unapprehensive faces, were eyeing him, for he looked not unlike
6324the weather horizon when a storm is coming up, Ahab, after rapidly
6325glancing over the bulwarks, and then darting his eyes among the crew,
6326started from his standpoint; and as though not a soul were nigh him
6327resumed his heavy turns upon the deck. With bent head and half-slouched
6328hat he continued to pace, unmindful of the wondering whispering among
6329the men; till Stubb cautiously whispered to Flask, that Ahab must have
6330summoned them there for the purpose of witnessing a pedestrian feat. But
6331this did not last long. Vehemently pausing, he cried:--
6332
6333"What do ye do when ye see a whale, men?"
6334
6335"Sing out for him!" was the impulsive rejoinder from a score of clubbed
6336voices.
6337
6338"Good!" cried Ahab, with a wild approval in his tones; observing the
6339hearty animation into which his unexpected question had so magnetically
6340thrown them.
6341
6342"And what do ye next, men?"
6343
6344"Lower away, and after him!"
6345
6346"And what tune is it ye pull to, men?"
6347
6348"A dead whale or a stove boat!"
6349
6350More and more strangely and fiercely glad and approving, grew the
6351countenance of the old man at every shout; while the mariners began
6352to gaze curiously at each other, as if marvelling how it was that they
6353themselves became so excited at such seemingly purposeless questions.
6354
6355But, they were all eagerness again, as Ahab, now half-revolving in his
6356pivot-hole, with one hand reaching high up a shroud, and tightly, almost
6357convulsively grasping it, addressed them thus:--
6358
6359"All ye mast-headers have before now heard me give orders about a white
6360whale. Look ye! d'ye see this Spanish ounce of gold?"--holding up a
6361broad bright coin to the sun--"it is a sixteen dollar piece, men. D'ye
6362see it? Mr. Starbuck, hand me yon top-maul."
6363
6364While the mate was getting the hammer, Ahab, without speaking, was
6365slowly rubbing the gold piece against the skirts of his jacket, as if
6366to heighten its lustre, and without using any words was meanwhile
6367lowly humming to himself, producing a sound so strangely muffled and
6368inarticulate that it seemed the mechanical humming of the wheels of his
6369vitality in him.
6370
6371Receiving the top-maul from Starbuck, he advanced towards the main-mast
6372with the hammer uplifted in one hand, exhibiting the gold with the
6373other, and with a high raised voice exclaiming: "Whosoever of ye
6374raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw;
6375whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three holes
6376punctured in his starboard fluke--look ye, whosoever of ye raises me
6377that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys!"
6378
6379"Huzza! huzza!" cried the seamen, as with swinging tarpaulins they
6380hailed the act of nailing the gold to the mast.
6381
6382"It's a white whale, I say," resumed Ahab, as he threw down the topmaul:
6383"a white whale. Skin your eyes for him, men; look sharp for white water;
6384if ye see but a bubble, sing out."
6385
6386All this while Tashtego, Daggoo, and Queequeg had looked on with even
6387more intense interest and surprise than the rest, and at the mention
6388of the wrinkled brow and crooked jaw they had started as if each was
6389separately touched by some specific recollection.
6390
6391"Captain Ahab," said Tashtego, "that white whale must be the same that
6392some call Moby Dick."
6393
6394"Moby Dick?" shouted Ahab. "Do ye know the white whale then, Tash?"
6395
6396"Does he fan-tail a little curious, sir, before he goes down?" said the
6397Gay-Header deliberately.
6398
6399"And has he a curious spout, too," said Daggoo, "very bushy, even for a
6400parmacetty, and mighty quick, Captain Ahab?"
6401
6402"And he have one, two, three--oh! good many iron in him hide, too,
6403Captain," cried Queequeg disjointedly, "all twiske-tee be-twisk, like
6404him--him--" faltering hard for a word, and screwing his hand round and
6405round as though uncorking a bottle--"like him--him--"
6406
6407"Corkscrew!" cried Ahab, "aye, Queequeg, the harpoons lie all twisted
6408and wrenched in him; aye, Daggoo, his spout is a big one, like a whole
6409shock of wheat, and white as a pile of our Nantucket wool after the
6410great annual sheep-shearing; aye, Tashtego, and he fan-tails like a
6411split jib in a squall. Death and devils! men, it is Moby Dick ye have
6412seen--Moby Dick--Moby Dick!"
6413
6414"Captain Ahab," said Starbuck, who, with Stubb and Flask, had thus far
6415been eyeing his superior with increasing surprise, but at last seemed
6416struck with a thought which somewhat explained all the wonder. "Captain
6417Ahab, I have heard of Moby Dick--but it was not Moby Dick that took off
6418thy leg?"
6419
6420"Who told thee that?" cried Ahab; then pausing, "Aye, Starbuck; aye, my
6421hearties all round; it was Moby Dick that dismasted me; Moby Dick that
6422brought me to this dead stump I stand on now. Aye, aye," he shouted with
6423a terrific, loud, animal sob, like that of a heart-stricken moose;
6424"Aye, aye! it was that accursed white whale that razed me; made a poor
6425pegging lubber of me for ever and a day!" Then tossing both arms, with
6426measureless imprecations he shouted out: "Aye, aye! and I'll chase him
6427round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and
6428round perdition's flames before I give him up. And this is what ye have
6429shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and
6430over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out.
6431What say ye, men, will ye splice hands on it, now? I think ye do look
6432brave."
6433
6434"Aye, aye!" shouted the harpooneers and seamen, running closer to the
6435excited old man: "A sharp eye for the white whale; a sharp lance for
6436Moby Dick!"
6437
6438"God bless ye," he seemed to half sob and half shout. "God bless ye,
6439men. Steward! go draw the great measure of grog. But what's this long
6440face about, Mr. Starbuck; wilt thou not chase the white whale? art not
6441game for Moby Dick?"
6442
6443"I am game for his crooked jaw, and for the jaws of Death too, Captain
6444Ahab, if it fairly comes in the way of the business we follow; but I
6445came here to hunt whales, not my commander's vengeance. How many barrels
6446will thy vengeance yield thee even if thou gettest it, Captain Ahab? it
6447will not fetch thee much in our Nantucket market."
6448
6449"Nantucket market! Hoot! But come closer, Starbuck; thou requirest
6450a little lower layer. If money's to be the measurer, man, and the
6451accountants have computed their great counting-house the globe, by
6452girdling it with guineas, one to every three parts of an inch; then, let
6453me tell thee, that my vengeance will fetch a great premium HERE!"
6454
6455"He smites his chest," whispered Stubb, "what's that for? methinks it
6456rings most vast, but hollow."
6457
6458"Vengeance on a dumb brute!" cried Starbuck, "that simply smote thee
6459from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing,
6460Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous."
6461
6462"Hark ye yet again--the little lower layer. All visible objects, man,
6463are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event--in the living act, the
6464undoubted deed--there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth
6465the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man
6466will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside
6467except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that
6468wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But
6469'tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength,
6470with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is
6471chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale
6472principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy,
6473man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me. For could the sun do that,
6474then could I do the other; since there is ever a sort of fair play
6475herein, jealousy presiding over all creations. But not my master, man,
6476is even that fair play. Who's over me? Truth hath no confines. Take off
6477thine eye! more intolerable than fiends' glarings is a doltish
6478stare! So, so; thou reddenest and palest; my heat has melted thee to
6479anger-glow. But look ye, Starbuck, what is said in heat, that thing
6480unsays itself. There are men from whom warm words are small indignity. I
6481meant not to incense thee. Let it go. Look! see yonder Turkish cheeks of
6482spotted tawn--living, breathing pictures painted by the sun. The Pagan
6483leopards--the unrecking and unworshipping things, that live; and seek,
6484and give no reasons for the torrid life they feel! The crew, man, the
6485crew! Are they not one and all with Ahab, in this matter of the whale?
6486See Stubb! he laughs! See yonder Chilian! he snorts to think of it.
6487Stand up amid the general hurricane, thy one tost sapling cannot,
6488Starbuck! And what is it? Reckon it. 'Tis but to help strike a fin; no
6489wondrous feat for Starbuck. What is it more? From this one poor hunt,
6490then, the best lance out of all Nantucket, surely he will not hang back,
6491when every foremast-hand has clutched a whetstone? Ah! constrainings
6492seize thee; I see! the billow lifts thee! Speak, but speak!--Aye, aye!
6493thy silence, then, THAT voices thee. (ASIDE) Something shot from my
6494dilated nostrils, he has inhaled it in his lungs. Starbuck now is mine;
6495cannot oppose me now, without rebellion."
6496
6497"God keep me!--keep us all!" murmured Starbuck, lowly.
6498
6499But in his joy at the enchanted, tacit acquiescence of the mate, Ahab
6500did not hear his foreboding invocation; nor yet the low laugh from the
6501hold; nor yet the presaging vibrations of the winds in the cordage;
6502nor yet the hollow flap of the sails against the masts, as for a moment
6503their hearts sank in. For again Starbuck's downcast eyes lighted up with
6504the stubbornness of life; the subterranean laugh died away; the winds
6505blew on; the sails filled out; the ship heaved and rolled as before. Ah,
6506ye admonitions and warnings! why stay ye not when ye come? But
6507rather are ye predictions than warnings, ye shadows! Yet not so much
6508predictions from without, as verifications of the foregoing things
6509within. For with little external to constrain us, the innermost
6510necessities in our being, these still drive us on.
6511
6512"The measure! the measure!" cried Ahab.
6513
6514Receiving the brimming pewter, and turning to the harpooneers, he
6515ordered them to produce their weapons. Then ranging them before him near
6516the capstan, with their harpoons in their hands, while his three mates
6517stood at his side with their lances, and the rest of the ship's company
6518formed a circle round the group; he stood for an instant searchingly
6519eyeing every man of his crew. But those wild eyes met his, as the
6520bloodshot eyes of the prairie wolves meet the eye of their leader, ere
6521he rushes on at their head in the trail of the bison; but, alas! only to
6522fall into the hidden snare of the Indian.
6523
6524"Drink and pass!" he cried, handing the heavy charged flagon to the
6525nearest seaman. "The crew alone now drink. Round with it, round! Short
6526draughts--long swallows, men; 'tis hot as Satan's hoof. So, so; it
6527goes round excellently. It spiralizes in ye; forks out at the
6528serpent-snapping eye. Well done; almost drained. That way it went, this
6529way it comes. Hand it me--here's a hollow! Men, ye seem the years; so
6530brimming life is gulped and gone. Steward, refill!
6531
6532"Attend now, my braves. I have mustered ye all round this capstan; and
6533ye mates, flank me with your lances; and ye harpooneers, stand there
6534with your irons; and ye, stout mariners, ring me in, that I may in some
6535sort revive a noble custom of my fisherman fathers before me. O men, you
6536will yet see that--Ha! boy, come back? bad pennies come not sooner. Hand
6537it me. Why, now, this pewter had run brimming again, were't not thou St.
6538Vitus' imp--away, thou ague!
6539
6540"Advance, ye mates! Cross your lances full before me. Well done! Let
6541me touch the axis." So saying, with extended arm, he grasped the
6542three level, radiating lances at their crossed centre; while so doing,
6543suddenly and nervously twitched them; meanwhile, glancing intently from
6544Starbuck to Stubb; from Stubb to Flask. It seemed as though, by some
6545nameless, interior volition, he would fain have shocked into them the
6546same fiery emotion accumulated within the Leyden jar of his own magnetic
6547life. The three mates quailed before his strong, sustained, and mystic
6548aspect. Stubb and Flask looked sideways from him; the honest eye of
6549Starbuck fell downright.
6550
6551"In vain!" cried Ahab; "but, maybe, 'tis well. For did ye three but
6552once take the full-forced shock, then mine own electric thing, THAT had
6553perhaps expired from out me. Perchance, too, it would have dropped ye
6554dead. Perchance ye need it not. Down lances! And now, ye mates, I do
6555appoint ye three cupbearers to my three pagan kinsmen there--yon three
6556most honourable gentlemen and noblemen, my valiant harpooneers. Disdain
6557the task? What, when the great Pope washes the feet of beggars, using
6558his tiara for ewer? Oh, my sweet cardinals! your own condescension, THAT
6559shall bend ye to it. I do not order ye; ye will it. Cut your seizings
6560and draw the poles, ye harpooneers!"
6561
6562Silently obeying the order, the three harpooneers now stood with the
6563detached iron part of their harpoons, some three feet long, held, barbs
6564up, before him.
6565
6566"Stab me not with that keen steel! Cant them; cant them over! know ye
6567not the goblet end? Turn up the socket! So, so; now, ye cup-bearers,
6568advance. The irons! take them; hold them while I fill!" Forthwith,
6569slowly going from one officer to the other, he brimmed the harpoon
6570sockets with the fiery waters from the pewter.
6571
6572"Now, three to three, ye stand. Commend the murderous chalices! Bestow
6573them, ye who are now made parties to this indissoluble league. Ha!
6574Starbuck! but the deed is done! Yon ratifying sun now waits to sit upon
6575it. Drink, ye harpooneers! drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful
6576whaleboat's bow--Death to Moby Dick! God hunt us all, if we do not hunt
6577Moby Dick to his death!" The long, barbed steel goblets were lifted;
6578and to cries and maledictions against the white whale, the spirits were
6579simultaneously quaffed down with a hiss. Starbuck paled, and turned, and
6580shivered. Once more, and finally, the replenished pewter went the rounds
6581among the frantic crew; when, waving his free hand to them, they all
6582dispersed; and Ahab retired within his cabin.
6583
6584
6585
6586CHAPTER 37. Sunset.
6587
6588
6589THE CABIN; BY THE STERN WINDOWS; AHAB SITTING ALONE, AND GAZING OUT.
6590
6591
6592I leave a white and turbid wake; pale waters, paler cheeks, where'er I
6593sail. The envious billows sidelong swell to whelm my track; let them;
6594but first I pass.
6595
6596Yonder, by ever-brimming goblet's rim, the warm waves blush like wine.
6597The gold brow plumbs the blue. The diver sun--slow dived from noon--goes
6598down; my soul mounts up! she wearies with her endless hill. Is, then,
6599the crown too heavy that I wear? this Iron Crown of Lombardy. Yet is
6600it bright with many a gem; I the wearer, see not its far flashings; but
6601darkly feel that I wear that, that dazzlingly confounds. 'Tis iron--that
6602I know--not gold. 'Tis split, too--that I feel; the jagged edge galls
6603me so, my brain seems to beat against the solid metal; aye, steel skull,
6604mine; the sort that needs no helmet in the most brain-battering fight!
6605
6606Dry heat upon my brow? Oh! time was, when as the sunrise nobly spurred
6607me, so the sunset soothed. No more. This lovely light, it lights not me;
6608all loveliness is anguish to me, since I can ne'er enjoy. Gifted with
6609the high perception, I lack the low, enjoying power; damned, most subtly
6610and most malignantly! damned in the midst of Paradise! Good night--good
6611night! (WAVING HIS HAND, HE MOVES FROM THE WINDOW.)
6612
6613'Twas not so hard a task. I thought to find one stubborn, at the least;
6614but my one cogged circle fits into all their various wheels, and they
6615revolve. Or, if you will, like so many ant-hills of powder, they all
6616stand before me; and I their match. Oh, hard! that to fire others, the
6617match itself must needs be wasting! What I've dared, I've willed; and
6618what I've willed, I'll do! They think me mad--Starbuck does; but I'm
6619demoniac, I am madness maddened! That wild madness that's only calm
6620to comprehend itself! The prophecy was that I should be dismembered;
6621and--Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophesy that I will dismember my
6622dismemberer. Now, then, be the prophet and the fulfiller one. That's
6623more than ye, ye great gods, ever were. I laugh and hoot at ye, ye
6624cricket-players, ye pugilists, ye deaf Burkes and blinded Bendigoes!
6625I will not say as schoolboys do to bullies--Take some one of your own
6626size; don't pommel ME! No, ye've knocked me down, and I am up again; but
6627YE have run and hidden. Come forth from behind your cotton bags! I have
6628no long gun to reach ye. Come, Ahab's compliments to ye; come and see
6629if ye can swerve me. Swerve me? ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve
6630yourselves! man has ye there. Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is
6631laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded
6632gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents' beds,
6633unerringly I rush! Naught's an obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron
6634way!
6635
6636
6637
6638CHAPTER 38. Dusk.
6639
6640
6641BY THE MAINMAST; STARBUCK LEANING AGAINST IT.
6642
6643
6644My soul is more than matched; she's overmanned; and by a madman!
6645Insufferable sting, that sanity should ground arms on such a field! But
6646he drilled deep down, and blasted all my reason out of me! I think I see
6647his impious end; but feel that I must help him to it. Will I, nill I,
6648the ineffable thing has tied me to him; tows me with a cable I have no
6649knife to cut. Horrible old man! Who's over him, he cries;--aye, he would
6650be a democrat to all above; look, how he lords it over all below! Oh! I
6651plainly see my miserable office,--to obey, rebelling; and worse yet,
6652to hate with touch of pity! For in his eyes I read some lurid woe would
6653shrivel me up, had I it. Yet is there hope. Time and tide flow wide.
6654The hated whale has the round watery world to swim in, as the small
6655gold-fish has its glassy globe. His heaven-insulting purpose, God may
6656wedge aside. I would up heart, were it not like lead. But my whole
6657clock's run down; my heart the all-controlling weight, I have no key to
6658lift again.
6659
6660
6661[A BURST OF REVELRY FROM THE FORECASTLE.]
6662
6663
6664Oh, God! to sail with such a heathen crew that have small touch of human
6665mothers in them! Whelped somewhere by the sharkish sea. The white whale
6666is their demigorgon. Hark! the infernal orgies! that revelry is forward!
6667mark the unfaltering silence aft! Methinks it pictures life. Foremost
6668through the sparkling sea shoots on the gay, embattled, bantering
6669bow, but only to drag dark Ahab after it, where he broods within his
6670sternward cabin, builded over the dead water of the wake, and further
6671on, hunted by its wolfish gurglings. The long howl thrills me through!
6672Peace! ye revellers, and set the watch! Oh, life! 'tis in an hour like
6673this, with soul beat down and held to knowledge,--as wild, untutored
6674things are forced to feed--Oh, life! 'tis now that I do feel the latent
6675horror in thee! but 'tis not me! that horror's out of me! and with the
6676soft feeling of the human in me, yet will I try to fight ye, ye grim,
6677phantom futures! Stand by me, hold me, bind me, O ye blessed influences!
6678
6679
6680
6681CHAPTER 39. First Night Watch.
6682
6683Fore-Top.
6684
6685(STUBB SOLUS, AND MENDING A BRACE.)
6686
6687
6688Ha! ha! ha! ha! hem! clear my throat!--I've been thinking over it
6689ever since, and that ha, ha's the final consequence. Why so? Because a
6690laugh's the wisest, easiest answer to all that's queer; and come what
6691will, one comfort's always left--that unfailing comfort is, it's all
6692predestinated. I heard not all his talk with Starbuck; but to my poor
6693eye Starbuck then looked something as I the other evening felt. Be sure
6694the old Mogul has fixed him, too. I twigged it, knew it; had had the
6695gift, might readily have prophesied it--for when I clapped my eye upon
6696his skull I saw it. Well, Stubb, WISE Stubb--that's my title--well,
6697Stubb, what of it, Stubb? Here's a carcase. I know not all that may be
6698coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing. Such a waggish
6699leering as lurks in all your horribles! I feel funny. Fa, la! lirra,
6700skirra! What's my juicy little pear at home doing now? Crying its eyes
6701out?--Giving a party to the last arrived harpooneers, I dare say, gay as
6702a frigate's pennant, and so am I--fa, la! lirra, skirra! Oh--
6703
6704We'll drink to-night with hearts as light, To love, as gay and fleeting
6705As bubbles that swim, on the beaker's brim, And break on the lips while
6706meeting.
6707
6708
6709A brave stave that--who calls? Mr. Starbuck? Aye, aye, sir--(ASIDE) he's
6710my superior, he has his too, if I'm not mistaken.--Aye, aye, sir, just
6711through with this job--coming.
6712
6713
6714
6715CHAPTER 40. Midnight, Forecastle.
6716
6717HARPOONEERS AND SAILORS.
6718
6719(FORESAIL RISES AND DISCOVERS THE WATCH STANDING, LOUNGING, LEANING, AND
6720LYING IN VARIOUS ATTITUDES, ALL SINGING IN CHORUS.)
6721
6722     Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish ladies!
6723     Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain!
6724     Our captain's commanded.--
6725
67261ST NANTUCKET SAILOR. Oh, boys, don't be sentimental; it's bad for the
6727digestion! Take a tonic, follow me! (SINGS, AND ALL FOLLOW)
6728
6729    Our captain stood upon the deck,
6730    A spy-glass in his hand,
6731    A viewing of those gallant whales
6732    That blew at every strand.
6733    Oh, your tubs in your boats, my boys,
6734    And by your braces stand,
6735    And we'll have one of those fine whales,
6736    Hand, boys, over hand!
6737    So, be cheery, my lads! may your hearts never fail!
6738    While the bold harpooner is striking the whale!
6739
6740MATE'S VOICE FROM THE QUARTER-DECK. Eight bells there, forward!
6741
67422ND NANTUCKET SAILOR. Avast the chorus! Eight bells there! d'ye hear,
6743bell-boy? Strike the bell eight, thou Pip! thou blackling! and let me
6744call the watch. I've the sort of mouth for that--the hogshead mouth.
6745So, so, (THRUSTS HIS HEAD DOWN THE SCUTTLE,) Star-bo-l-e-e-n-s, a-h-o-y!
6746Eight bells there below! Tumble up!
6747
6748DUTCH SAILOR. Grand snoozing to-night, maty; fat night for that. I
6749mark this in our old Mogul's wine; it's quite as deadening to some as
6750filliping to others. We sing; they sleep--aye, lie down there, like
6751ground-tier butts. At 'em again! There, take this copper-pump, and hail
6752'em through it. Tell 'em to avast dreaming of their lasses. Tell 'em
6753it's the resurrection; they must kiss their last, and come to judgment.
6754That's the way--THAT'S it; thy throat ain't spoiled with eating
6755Amsterdam butter.
6756
6757FRENCH SAILOR. Hist, boys! let's have a jig or two before we ride to
6758anchor in Blanket Bay. What say ye? There comes the other watch. Stand
6759by all legs! Pip! little Pip! hurrah with your tambourine!
6760
6761PIP. (SULKY AND SLEEPY) Don't know where it is.
6762
6763FRENCH SAILOR. Beat thy belly, then, and wag thy ears. Jig it, men,
6764I say; merry's the word; hurrah! Damn me, won't you dance? Form, now,
6765Indian-file, and gallop into the double-shuffle? Throw yourselves! Legs!
6766legs!
6767
6768ICELAND SAILOR. I don't like your floor, maty; it's too springy to my
6769taste. I'm used to ice-floors. I'm sorry to throw cold water on the
6770subject; but excuse me.
6771
6772MALTESE SAILOR. Me too; where's your girls? Who but a fool would take
6773his left hand by his right, and say to himself, how d'ye do? Partners! I
6774must have partners!
6775
6776SICILIAN SAILOR. Aye; girls and a green!--then I'll hop with ye; yea,
6777turn grasshopper!
6778
6779LONG-ISLAND SAILOR. Well, well, ye sulkies, there's plenty more of us.
6780Hoe corn when you may, say I. All legs go to harvest soon. Ah! here
6781comes the music; now for it!
6782
6783AZORE SAILOR. (ASCENDING, AND PITCHING THE TAMBOURINE UP THE SCUTTLE.)
6784Here you are, Pip; and there's the windlass-bitts; up you mount! Now,
6785boys! (THE HALF OF THEM DANCE TO THE TAMBOURINE; SOME GO BELOW; SOME
6786SLEEP OR LIE AMONG THE COILS OF RIGGING. OATHS A-PLENTY.)
6787
6788AZORE SAILOR. (DANCING) Go it, Pip! Bang it, bell-boy! Rig it, dig it,
6789stig it, quig it, bell-boy! Make fire-flies; break the jinglers!
6790
6791PIP. Jinglers, you say?--there goes another, dropped off; I pound it so.
6792
6793CHINA SAILOR. Rattle thy teeth, then, and pound away; make a pagoda of
6794thyself.
6795
6796
6797FRENCH SAILOR. Merry-mad! Hold up thy hoop, Pip, till I jump through it!
6798Split jibs! tear yourselves!
6799
6800TASHTEGO. (QUIETLY SMOKING) That's a white man; he calls that fun:
6801humph! I save my sweat.
6802
6803OLD MANX SAILOR. I wonder whether those jolly lads bethink them of what
6804they are dancing over. I'll dance over your grave, I will--that's
6805the bitterest threat of your night-women, that beat head-winds round
6806corners. O Christ! to think of the green navies and the green-skulled
6807crews! Well, well; belike the whole world's a ball, as you scholars have
6808it; and so 'tis right to make one ballroom of it. Dance on, lads, you're
6809young; I was once.
6810
68113D NANTUCKET SAILOR. Spell oh!--whew! this is worse than pulling after
6812whales in a calm--give us a whiff, Tash.
6813
6814(THEY CEASE DANCING, AND GATHER IN CLUSTERS. MEANTIME THE SKY
6815DARKENS--THE WIND RISES.)
6816
6817LASCAR SAILOR. By Brahma! boys, it'll be douse sail soon. The sky-born,
6818high-tide Ganges turned to wind! Thou showest thy black brow, Seeva!
6819
6820MALTESE SAILOR. (RECLINING AND SHAKING HIS CAP.) It's the waves--the
6821snow's caps turn to jig it now. They'll shake their tassels soon. Now
6822would all the waves were women, then I'd go drown, and chassee with them
6823evermore! There's naught so sweet on earth--heaven may not match
6824it!--as those swift glances of warm, wild bosoms in the dance, when the
6825over-arboring arms hide such ripe, bursting grapes.
6826
6827SICILIAN SAILOR. (RECLINING.) Tell me not of it! Hark ye, lad--fleet
6828interlacings of the limbs--lithe swayings--coyings--flutterings! lip!
6829heart! hip! all graze: unceasing touch and go! not taste, observe ye,
6830else come satiety. Eh, Pagan? (NUDGING.)
6831
6832TAHITAN SAILOR. (RECLINING ON A MAT.) Hail, holy nakedness of our
6833dancing girls!--the Heeva-Heeva! Ah! low veiled, high palmed Tahiti! I
6834still rest me on thy mat, but the soft soil has slid! I saw thee woven
6835in the wood, my mat! green the first day I brought ye thence; now worn
6836and wilted quite. Ah me!--not thou nor I can bear the change! How
6837then, if so be transplanted to yon sky? Hear I the roaring streams from
6838Pirohitee's peak of spears, when they leap down the crags and drown the
6839villages?--The blast! the blast! Up, spine, and meet it! (LEAPS TO HIS
6840FEET.)
6841
6842PORTUGUESE SAILOR. How the sea rolls swashing 'gainst the side! Stand
6843by for reefing, hearties! the winds are just crossing swords, pell-mell
6844they'll go lunging presently.
6845
6846DANISH SAILOR. Crack, crack, old ship! so long as thou crackest, thou
6847holdest! Well done! The mate there holds ye to it stiffly. He's no more
6848afraid than the isle fort at Cattegat, put there to fight the Baltic
6849with storm-lashed guns, on which the sea-salt cakes!
6850
68514TH NANTUCKET SAILOR. He has his orders, mind ye that. I heard old
6852Ahab tell him he must always kill a squall, something as they burst a
6853waterspout with a pistol--fire your ship right into it!
6854
6855ENGLISH SAILOR. Blood! but that old man's a grand old cove! We are the
6856lads to hunt him up his whale!
6857
6858ALL. Aye! aye!
6859
6860OLD MANX SAILOR. How the three pines shake! Pines are the hardest sort
6861of tree to live when shifted to any other soil, and here there's none
6862but the crew's cursed clay. Steady, helmsman! steady. This is the sort
6863of weather when brave hearts snap ashore, and keeled hulls split at sea.
6864Our captain has his birthmark; look yonder, boys, there's another in the
6865sky--lurid-like, ye see, all else pitch black.
6866
6867DAGGOO. What of that? Who's afraid of black's afraid of me! I'm quarried
6868out of it!
6869
6870SPANISH SAILOR. (ASIDE.) He wants to bully, ah!--the old grudge makes
6871me touchy (ADVANCING.) Aye, harpooneer, thy race is the undeniable dark
6872side of mankind--devilish dark at that. No offence.
6873
6874DAGGOO (GRIMLY). None.
6875
6876ST. JAGO'S SAILOR. That Spaniard's mad or drunk. But that can't be, or
6877else in his one case our old Mogul's fire-waters are somewhat long in
6878working.
6879
68805TH NANTUCKET SAILOR. What's that I saw--lightning? Yes.
6881
6882SPANISH SAILOR. No; Daggoo showing his teeth.
6883
6884DAGGOO (SPRINGING). Swallow thine, mannikin! White skin, white liver!
6885
6886SPANISH SAILOR (MEETING HIM). Knife thee heartily! big frame, small
6887spirit!
6888
6889ALL. A row! a row! a row!
6890
6891TASHTEGO (WITH A WHIFF). A row a'low, and a row aloft--Gods and
6892men--both brawlers! Humph!
6893
6894BELFAST SAILOR. A row! arrah a row! The Virgin be blessed, a row! Plunge
6895in with ye!
6896
6897ENGLISH SAILOR. Fair play! Snatch the Spaniard's knife! A ring, a ring!
6898
6899OLD MANX SAILOR. Ready formed. There! the ringed horizon. In that ring
6900Cain struck Abel. Sweet work, right work! No? Why then, God, mad'st thou
6901the ring?
6902
6903MATE'S VOICE FROM THE QUARTER-DECK. Hands by the halyards! in
6904top-gallant sails! Stand by to reef topsails!
6905
6906ALL. The squall! the squall! jump, my jollies! (THEY SCATTER.)
6907
6908
6909PIP (SHRINKING UNDER THE WINDLASS). Jollies? Lord help such jollies!
6910Crish, crash! there goes the jib-stay! Blang-whang! God! Duck lower,
6911Pip, here comes the royal yard! It's worse than being in the whirled
6912woods, the last day of the year! Who'd go climbing after chestnuts now?
6913But there they go, all cursing, and here I don't. Fine prospects to 'em;
6914they're on the road to heaven. Hold on hard! Jimmini, what a squall!
6915But those chaps there are worse yet--they are your white squalls, they.
6916White squalls? white whale, shirr! shirr! Here have I heard all their
6917chat just now, and the white whale--shirr! shirr!--but spoken of
6918once! and only this evening--it makes me jingle all over like my
6919tambourine--that anaconda of an old man swore 'em in to hunt him! Oh,
6920thou big white God aloft there somewhere in yon darkness, have mercy on
6921this small black boy down here; preserve him from all men that have no
6922bowels to feel fear!
6923
6924
6925
6926CHAPTER 41. Moby Dick.
6927
6928
6929I, Ishmael, was one of that crew; my shouts had gone up with the rest;
6930my oath had been welded with theirs; and stronger I shouted, and more
6931did I hammer and clinch my oath, because of the dread in my soul. A
6932wild, mystical, sympathetical feeling was in me; Ahab's quenchless feud
6933seemed mine. With greedy ears I learned the history of that murderous
6934monster against whom I and all the others had taken our oaths of
6935violence and revenge.
6936
6937For some time past, though at intervals only, the unaccompanied,
6938secluded White Whale had haunted those uncivilized seas mostly
6939frequented by the Sperm Whale fishermen. But not all of them knew of his
6940existence; only a few of them, comparatively, had knowingly seen him;
6941while the number who as yet had actually and knowingly given battle to
6942him, was small indeed. For, owing to the large number of whale-cruisers;
6943the disorderly way they were sprinkled over the entire watery
6944circumference, many of them adventurously pushing their quest along
6945solitary latitudes, so as seldom or never for a whole twelvemonth or
6946more on a stretch, to encounter a single news-telling sail of any sort;
6947the inordinate length of each separate voyage; the irregularity of the
6948times of sailing from home; all these, with other circumstances, direct
6949and indirect, long obstructed the spread through the whole world-wide
6950whaling-fleet of the special individualizing tidings concerning Moby
6951Dick. It was hardly to be doubted, that several vessels reported to have
6952encountered, at such or such a time, or on such or such a meridian,
6953a Sperm Whale of uncommon magnitude and malignity, which whale, after
6954doing great mischief to his assailants, had completely escaped them; to
6955some minds it was not an unfair presumption, I say, that the whale in
6956question must have been no other than Moby Dick. Yet as of late the
6957Sperm Whale fishery had been marked by various and not unfrequent
6958instances of great ferocity, cunning, and malice in the monster
6959attacked; therefore it was, that those who by accident ignorantly gave
6960battle to Moby Dick; such hunters, perhaps, for the most part, were
6961content to ascribe the peculiar terror he bred, more, as it were, to
6962the perils of the Sperm Whale fishery at large, than to the individual
6963cause. In that way, mostly, the disastrous encounter between Ahab and
6964the whale had hitherto been popularly regarded.
6965
6966And as for those who, previously hearing of the White Whale, by chance
6967caught sight of him; in the beginning of the thing they had every one of
6968them, almost, as boldly and fearlessly lowered for him, as for any other
6969whale of that species. But at length, such calamities did ensue in these
6970assaults--not restricted to sprained wrists and ankles, broken limbs, or
6971devouring amputations--but fatal to the last degree of fatality; those
6972repeated disastrous repulses, all accumulating and piling their terrors
6973upon Moby Dick; those things had gone far to shake the fortitude of many
6974brave hunters, to whom the story of the White Whale had eventually come.
6975
6976Nor did wild rumors of all sorts fail to exaggerate, and still the more
6977horrify the true histories of these deadly encounters. For not only do
6978fabulous rumors naturally grow out of the very body of all surprising
6979terrible events,--as the smitten tree gives birth to its fungi; but, in
6980maritime life, far more than in that of terra firma, wild rumors abound,
6981wherever there is any adequate reality for them to cling to. And as the
6982sea surpasses the land in this matter, so the whale fishery surpasses
6983every other sort of maritime life, in the wonderfulness and fearfulness
6984of the rumors which sometimes circulate there. For not only are whalemen
6985as a body unexempt from that ignorance and superstitiousness hereditary
6986to all sailors; but of all sailors, they are by all odds the most
6987directly brought into contact with whatever is appallingly astonishing
6988in the sea; face to face they not only eye its greatest marvels, but,
6989hand to jaw, give battle to them. Alone, in such remotest waters, that
6990though you sailed a thousand miles, and passed a thousand shores, you
6991would not come to any chiseled hearth-stone, or aught hospitable beneath
6992that part of the sun; in such latitudes and longitudes, pursuing too
6993such a calling as he does, the whaleman is wrapped by influences all
6994tending to make his fancy pregnant with many a mighty birth.
6995
6996No wonder, then, that ever gathering volume from the mere transit over
6997the widest watery spaces, the outblown rumors of the White Whale did
6998in the end incorporate with themselves all manner of morbid hints,
6999and half-formed foetal suggestions of supernatural agencies, which
7000eventually invested Moby Dick with new terrors unborrowed from anything
7001that visibly appears. So that in many cases such a panic did he finally
7002strike, that few who by those rumors, at least, had heard of the White
7003Whale, few of those hunters were willing to encounter the perils of his
7004jaw.
7005
7006But there were still other and more vital practical influences at work.
7007Not even at the present day has the original prestige of the Sperm
7008Whale, as fearfully distinguished from all other species of the
7009leviathan, died out of the minds of the whalemen as a body. There are
7010those this day among them, who, though intelligent and courageous
7011enough in offering battle to the Greenland or Right whale, would
7012perhaps--either from professional inexperience, or incompetency, or
7013timidity, decline a contest with the Sperm Whale; at any rate, there are
7014plenty of whalemen, especially among those whaling nations not sailing
7015under the American flag, who have never hostilely encountered the Sperm
7016Whale, but whose sole knowledge of the leviathan is restricted to
7017the ignoble monster primitively pursued in the North; seated on their
7018hatches, these men will hearken with a childish fireside interest
7019and awe, to the wild, strange tales of Southern whaling. Nor is the
7020pre-eminent tremendousness of the great Sperm Whale anywhere more
7021feelingly comprehended, than on board of those prows which stem him.
7022
7023And as if the now tested reality of his might had in former
7024legendary times thrown its shadow before it; we find some book
7025naturalists--Olassen and Povelson--declaring the Sperm Whale not only to
7026be a consternation to every other creature in the sea, but also to be so
7027incredibly ferocious as continually to be athirst for human blood. Nor
7028even down to so late a time as Cuvier's, were these or almost similar
7029impressions effaced. For in his Natural History, the Baron himself
7030affirms that at sight of the Sperm Whale, all fish (sharks included) are
7031"struck with the most lively terrors," and "often in the precipitancy of
7032their flight dash themselves against the rocks with such violence as to
7033cause instantaneous death." And however the general experiences in the
7034fishery may amend such reports as these; yet in their full terribleness,
7035even to the bloodthirsty item of Povelson, the superstitious belief in
7036them is, in some vicissitudes of their vocation, revived in the minds of
7037the hunters.
7038
7039So that overawed by the rumors and portents concerning him, not a few of
7040the fishermen recalled, in reference to Moby Dick, the earlier days
7041of the Sperm Whale fishery, when it was oftentimes hard to induce long
7042practised Right whalemen to embark in the perils of this new and daring
7043warfare; such men protesting that although other leviathans might be
7044hopefully pursued, yet to chase and point lance at such an apparition
7045as the Sperm Whale was not for mortal man. That to attempt it, would
7046be inevitably to be torn into a quick eternity. On this head, there are
7047some remarkable documents that may be consulted.
7048
7049Nevertheless, some there were, who even in the face of these things
7050were ready to give chase to Moby Dick; and a still greater number who,
7051chancing only to hear of him distantly and vaguely, without the
7052specific details of any certain calamity, and without superstitious
7053accompaniments, were sufficiently hardy not to flee from the battle if
7054offered.
7055
7056One of the wild suggestions referred to, as at last coming to be linked
7057with the White Whale in the minds of the superstitiously inclined,
7058was the unearthly conceit that Moby Dick was ubiquitous; that he had
7059actually been encountered in opposite latitudes at one and the same
7060instant of time.
7061
7062Nor, credulous as such minds must have been, was this conceit altogether
7063without some faint show of superstitious probability. For as the secrets
7064of the currents in the seas have never yet been divulged, even to
7065the most erudite research; so the hidden ways of the Sperm Whale
7066when beneath the surface remain, in great part, unaccountable to his
7067pursuers; and from time to time have originated the most curious and
7068contradictory speculations regarding them, especially concerning the
7069mystic modes whereby, after sounding to a great depth, he transports
7070himself with such vast swiftness to the most widely distant points.
7071
7072It is a thing well known to both American and English whale-ships, and
7073as well a thing placed upon authoritative record years ago by Scoresby,
7074that some whales have been captured far north in the Pacific, in whose
7075bodies have been found the barbs of harpoons darted in the Greenland
7076seas. Nor is it to be gainsaid, that in some of these instances it has
7077been declared that the interval of time between the two assaults could
7078not have exceeded very many days. Hence, by inference, it has been
7079believed by some whalemen, that the Nor' West Passage, so long a problem
7080to man, was never a problem to the whale. So that here, in the real
7081living experience of living men, the prodigies related in old times of
7082the inland Strello mountain in Portugal (near whose top there was said
7083to be a lake in which the wrecks of ships floated up to the surface);
7084and that still more wonderful story of the Arethusa fountain near
7085Syracuse (whose waters were believed to have come from the Holy Land
7086by an underground passage); these fabulous narrations are almost fully
7087equalled by the realities of the whalemen.
7088
7089Forced into familiarity, then, with such prodigies as these; and knowing
7090that after repeated, intrepid assaults, the White Whale had escaped
7091alive; it cannot be much matter of surprise that some whalemen should
7092go still further in their superstitions; declaring Moby Dick not only
7093ubiquitous, but immortal (for immortality is but ubiquity in time); that
7094though groves of spears should be planted in his flanks, he would still
7095swim away unharmed; or if indeed he should ever be made to spout thick
7096blood, such a sight would be but a ghastly deception; for again in
7097unensanguined billows hundreds of leagues away, his unsullied jet would
7098once more be seen.
7099
7100But even stripped of these supernatural surmisings, there was enough in
7101the earthly make and incontestable character of the monster to strike
7102the imagination with unwonted power. For, it was not so much his
7103uncommon bulk that so much distinguished him from other sperm whales,
7104but, as was elsewhere thrown out--a peculiar snow-white wrinkled
7105forehead, and a high, pyramidical white hump. These were his prominent
7106features; the tokens whereby, even in the limitless, uncharted seas, he
7107revealed his identity, at a long distance, to those who knew him.
7108
7109The rest of his body was so streaked, and spotted, and marbled with
7110the same shrouded hue, that, in the end, he had gained his distinctive
7111appellation of the White Whale; a name, indeed, literally justified by
7112his vivid aspect, when seen gliding at high noon through a dark blue
7113sea, leaving a milky-way wake of creamy foam, all spangled with golden
7114gleamings.
7115
7116Nor was it his unwonted magnitude, nor his remarkable hue, nor yet his
7117deformed lower jaw, that so much invested the whale with natural terror,
7118as that unexampled, intelligent malignity which, according to specific
7119accounts, he had over and over again evinced in his assaults. More than
7120all, his treacherous retreats struck more of dismay than perhaps aught
7121else. For, when swimming before his exulting pursuers, with every
7122apparent symptom of alarm, he had several times been known to turn
7123round suddenly, and, bearing down upon them, either stave their boats to
7124splinters, or drive them back in consternation to their ship.
7125
7126Already several fatalities had attended his chase. But though similar
7127disasters, however little bruited ashore, were by no means unusual
7128in the fishery; yet, in most instances, such seemed the White Whale's
7129infernal aforethought of ferocity, that every dismembering or death
7130that he caused, was not wholly regarded as having been inflicted by an
7131unintelligent agent.
7132
7133Judge, then, to what pitches of inflamed, distracted fury the minds of
7134his more desperate hunters were impelled, when amid the chips of chewed
7135boats, and the sinking limbs of torn comrades, they swam out of the
7136white curds of the whale's direful wrath into the serene, exasperating
7137sunlight, that smiled on, as if at a birth or a bridal.
7138
7139His three boats stove around him, and oars and men both whirling in the
7140eddies; one captain, seizing the line-knife from his broken prow, had
7141dashed at the whale, as an Arkansas duellist at his foe, blindly seeking
7142with a six inch blade to reach the fathom-deep life of the whale.
7143That captain was Ahab. And then it was, that suddenly sweeping his
7144sickle-shaped lower jaw beneath him, Moby Dick had reaped away Ahab's
7145leg, as a mower a blade of grass in the field. No turbaned Turk, no
7146hired Venetian or Malay, could have smote him with more seeming malice.
7147Small reason was there to doubt, then, that ever since that almost fatal
7148encounter, Ahab had cherished a wild vindictiveness against the whale,
7149all the more fell for that in his frantic morbidness he at last came
7150to identify with him, not only all his bodily woes, but all his
7151intellectual and spiritual exasperations. The White Whale swam before
7152him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which
7153some deep men feel eating in them, till they are left living on with
7154half a heart and half a lung. That intangible malignity which has been
7155from the beginning; to whose dominion even the modern Christians ascribe
7156one-half of the worlds; which the ancient Ophites of the east reverenced
7157in their statue devil;--Ahab did not fall down and worship it like them;
7158but deliriously transferring its idea to the abhorred white whale, he
7159pitted himself, all mutilated, against it. All that most maddens and
7160torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice
7161in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle
7162demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly
7163personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon
7164the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt
7165by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a
7166mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.
7167
7168It is not probable that this monomania in him took its instant rise at
7169the precise time of his bodily dismemberment. Then, in darting at the
7170monster, knife in hand, he had but given loose to a sudden, passionate,
7171corporal animosity; and when he received the stroke that tore him, he
7172probably but felt the agonizing bodily laceration, but nothing more.
7173Yet, when by this collision forced to turn towards home, and for long
7174months of days and weeks, Ahab and anguish lay stretched together in one
7175hammock, rounding in mid winter that dreary, howling Patagonian Cape;
7176then it was, that his torn body and gashed soul bled into one another;
7177and so interfusing, made him mad. That it was only then, on the homeward
7178voyage, after the encounter, that the final monomania seized him, seems
7179all but certain from the fact that, at intervals during the passage,
7180he was a raving lunatic; and, though unlimbed of a leg, yet such vital
7181strength yet lurked in his Egyptian chest, and was moreover intensified
7182by his delirium, that his mates were forced to lace him fast, even
7183there, as he sailed, raving in his hammock. In a strait-jacket, he swung
7184to the mad rockings of the gales. And, when running into more sufferable
7185latitudes, the ship, with mild stun'sails spread, floated across the
7186tranquil tropics, and, to all appearances, the old man's delirium seemed
7187left behind him with the Cape Horn swells, and he came forth from his
7188dark den into the blessed light and air; even then, when he bore that
7189firm, collected front, however pale, and issued his calm orders once
7190again; and his mates thanked God the direful madness was now gone; even
7191then, Ahab, in his hidden self, raved on. Human madness is oftentimes a
7192cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but
7193become transfigured into some still subtler form. Ahab's full lunacy
7194subsided not, but deepeningly contracted; like the unabated Hudson,
7195when that noble Northman flows narrowly, but unfathomably through the
7196Highland gorge. But, as in his narrow-flowing monomania, not one jot of
7197Ahab's broad madness had been left behind; so in that broad madness, not
7198one jot of his great natural intellect had perished. That before living
7199agent, now became the living instrument. If such a furious trope may
7200stand, his special lunacy stormed his general sanity, and carried it,
7201and turned all its concentred cannon upon its own mad mark; so that far
7202from having lost his strength, Ahab, to that one end, did now possess a
7203thousand fold more potency than ever he had sanely brought to bear upon
7204any one reasonable object.
7205
7206This is much; yet Ahab's larger, darker, deeper part remains unhinted.
7207But vain to popularize profundities, and all truth is profound. Winding
7208far down from within the very heart of this spiked Hotel de Cluny where
7209we here stand--however grand and wonderful, now quit it;--and take your
7210way, ye nobler, sadder souls, to those vast Roman halls of Thermes;
7211where far beneath the fantastic towers of man's upper earth, his root
7212of grandeur, his whole awful essence sits in bearded state; an antique
7213buried beneath antiquities, and throned on torsoes! So with a broken
7214throne, the great gods mock that captive king; so like a Caryatid, he
7215patient sits, upholding on his frozen brow the piled entablatures of
7216ages. Wind ye down there, ye prouder, sadder souls! question that proud,
7217sad king! A family likeness! aye, he did beget ye, ye young exiled
7218royalties; and from your grim sire only will the old State-secret come.
7219
7220Now, in his heart, Ahab had some glimpse of this, namely: all my means
7221are sane, my motive and my object mad. Yet without power to kill, or
7222change, or shun the fact; he likewise knew that to mankind he did long
7223dissemble; in some sort, did still. But that thing of his dissembling
7224was only subject to his perceptibility, not to his will determinate.
7225Nevertheless, so well did he succeed in that dissembling, that when
7226with ivory leg he stepped ashore at last, no Nantucketer thought him
7227otherwise than but naturally grieved, and that to the quick, with the
7228terrible casualty which had overtaken him.
7229
7230The report of his undeniable delirium at sea was likewise popularly
7231ascribed to a kindred cause. And so too, all the added moodiness which
7232always afterwards, to the very day of sailing in the Pequod on the
7233present voyage, sat brooding on his brow. Nor is it so very unlikely,
7234that far from distrusting his fitness for another whaling voyage, on
7235account of such dark symptoms, the calculating people of that prudent
7236isle were inclined to harbor the conceit, that for those very reasons he
7237was all the better qualified and set on edge, for a pursuit so full
7238of rage and wildness as the bloody hunt of whales. Gnawed within and
7239scorched without, with the infixed, unrelenting fangs of some incurable
7240idea; such an one, could he be found, would seem the very man to dart
7241his iron and lift his lance against the most appalling of all brutes.
7242Or, if for any reason thought to be corporeally incapacitated for that,
7243yet such an one would seem superlatively competent to cheer and howl on
7244his underlings to the attack. But be all this as it may, certain it is,
7245that with the mad secret of his unabated rage bolted up and keyed in
7246him, Ahab had purposely sailed upon the present voyage with the one only
7247and all-engrossing object of hunting the White Whale. Had any one of his
7248old acquaintances on shore but half dreamed of what was lurking in him
7249then, how soon would their aghast and righteous souls have wrenched the
7250ship from such a fiendish man! They were bent on profitable cruises, the
7251profit to be counted down in dollars from the mint. He was intent on an
7252audacious, immitigable, and supernatural revenge.
7253
7254Here, then, was this grey-headed, ungodly old man, chasing with curses a
7255Job's whale round the world, at the head of a crew, too, chiefly made
7256up of mongrel renegades, and castaways, and cannibals--morally enfeebled
7257also, by the incompetence of mere unaided virtue or right-mindedness in
7258Starbuck, the invulnerable jollity of indifference and recklessness in
7259Stubb, and the pervading mediocrity in Flask. Such a crew, so officered,
7260seemed specially picked and packed by some infernal fatality to help him
7261to his monomaniac revenge. How it was that they so aboundingly responded
7262to the old man's ire--by what evil magic their souls were possessed,
7263that at times his hate seemed almost theirs; the White Whale as much
7264their insufferable foe as his; how all this came to be--what the White
7265Whale was to them, or how to their unconscious understandings, also, in
7266some dim, unsuspected way, he might have seemed the gliding great demon
7267of the seas of life,--all this to explain, would be to dive deeper than
7268Ishmael can go. The subterranean miner that works in us all, how can one
7269tell whither leads his shaft by the ever shifting, muffled sound of his
7270pick? Who does not feel the irresistible arm drag? What skiff in tow
7271of a seventy-four can stand still? For one, I gave myself up to the
7272abandonment of the time and the place; but while yet all a-rush to
7273encounter the whale, could see naught in that brute but the deadliest
7274ill.
7275
7276
7277
7278CHAPTER 42. The Whiteness of The Whale.
7279
7280
7281What the white whale was to Ahab, has been hinted; what, at times, he
7282was to me, as yet remains unsaid.
7283
7284Aside from those more obvious considerations touching Moby Dick, which
7285could not but occasionally awaken in any man's soul some alarm, there
7286was another thought, or rather vague, nameless horror concerning him,
7287which at times by its intensity completely overpowered all the rest; and
7288yet so mystical and well nigh ineffable was it, that I almost despair of
7289putting it in a comprehensible form. It was the whiteness of the whale
7290that above all things appalled me. But how can I hope to explain myself
7291here; and yet, in some dim, random way, explain myself I must, else all
7292these chapters might be naught.
7293
7294Though in many natural objects, whiteness refiningly enhances beauty, as
7295if imparting some special virtue of its own, as in marbles, japonicas,
7296and pearls; and though various nations have in some way recognised a
7297certain royal preeminence in this hue; even the barbaric, grand old
7298kings of Pegu placing the title "Lord of the White Elephants" above all
7299their other magniloquent ascriptions of dominion; and the modern kings
7300of Siam unfurling the same snow-white quadruped in the royal standard;
7301and the Hanoverian flag bearing the one figure of a snow-white charger;
7302and the great Austrian Empire, Caesarian, heir to overlording Rome,
7303having for the imperial colour the same imperial hue; and though this
7304pre-eminence in it applies to the human race itself, giving the white
7305man ideal mastership over every dusky tribe; and though, besides, all
7306this, whiteness has been even made significant of gladness, for among
7307the Romans a white stone marked a joyful day; and though in other mortal
7308sympathies and symbolizings, this same hue is made the emblem of many
7309touching, noble things--the innocence of brides, the benignity of age;
7310though among the Red Men of America the giving of the white belt
7311of wampum was the deepest pledge of honour; though in many climes,
7312whiteness typifies the majesty of Justice in the ermine of the Judge,
7313and contributes to the daily state of kings and queens drawn by
7314milk-white steeds; though even in the higher mysteries of the most
7315august religions it has been made the symbol of the divine spotlessness
7316and power; by the Persian fire worshippers, the white forked flame being
7317held the holiest on the altar; and in the Greek mythologies, Great Jove
7318himself being made incarnate in a snow-white bull; and though to the
7319noble Iroquois, the midwinter sacrifice of the sacred White Dog was
7320by far the holiest festival of their theology, that spotless, faithful
7321creature being held the purest envoy they could send to the Great Spirit
7322with the annual tidings of their own fidelity; and though directly from
7323the Latin word for white, all Christian priests derive the name of
7324one part of their sacred vesture, the alb or tunic, worn beneath the
7325cassock; and though among the holy pomps of the Romish faith, white is
7326specially employed in the celebration of the Passion of our Lord; though
7327in the Vision of St. John, white robes are given to the redeemed, and
7328the four-and-twenty elders stand clothed in white before the great-white
7329throne, and the Holy One that sitteth there white like wool; yet for all
7330these accumulated associations, with whatever is sweet, and honourable,
7331and sublime, there yet lurks an elusive something in the innermost idea
7332of this hue, which strikes more of panic to the soul than that redness
7333which affrights in blood.
7334
7335This elusive quality it is, which causes the thought of whiteness, when
7336divorced from more kindly associations, and coupled with any object
7337terrible in itself, to heighten that terror to the furthest bounds.
7338Witness the white bear of the poles, and the white shark of the tropics;
7339what but their smooth, flaky whiteness makes them the transcendent
7340horrors they are? That ghastly whiteness it is which imparts such an
7341abhorrent mildness, even more loathsome than terrific, to the dumb
7342gloating of their aspect. So that not the fierce-fanged tiger in his
7343heraldic coat can so stagger courage as the white-shrouded bear or
7344shark.*
7345
7346
7347*With reference to the Polar bear, it may possibly be urged by him
7348who would fain go still deeper into this matter, that it is not
7349the whiteness, separately regarded, which heightens the intolerable
7350hideousness of that brute; for, analysed, that heightened hideousness,
7351it might be said, only rises from the circumstance, that the
7352irresponsible ferociousness of the creature stands invested in the
7353fleece of celestial innocence and love; and hence, by bringing together
7354two such opposite emotions in our minds, the Polar bear frightens us
7355with so unnatural a contrast. But even assuming all this to be true;
7356yet, were it not for the whiteness, you would not have that intensified
7357terror.
7358
7359As for the white shark, the white gliding ghostliness of repose in that
7360creature, when beheld in his ordinary moods, strangely tallies with the
7361same quality in the Polar quadruped. This peculiarity is most vividly
7362hit by the French in the name they bestow upon that fish. The Romish
7363mass for the dead begins with "Requiem eternam" (eternal rest), whence
7364REQUIEM denominating the mass itself, and any other funeral music. Now,
7365in allusion to the white, silent stillness of death in this shark, and
7366the mild deadliness of his habits, the French call him REQUIN.
7367
7368
7369Bethink thee of the albatross, whence come those clouds of spiritual
7370wonderment and pale dread, in which that white phantom sails in all
7371imaginations? Not Coleridge first threw that spell; but God's great,
7372unflattering laureate, Nature.*
7373
7374
7375*I remember the first albatross I ever saw. It was during a prolonged
7376gale, in waters hard upon the Antarctic seas. From my forenoon watch
7377below, I ascended to the overclouded deck; and there, dashed upon the
7378main hatches, I saw a regal, feathery thing of unspotted whiteness, and
7379with a hooked, Roman bill sublime. At intervals, it arched forth
7380its vast archangel wings, as if to embrace some holy ark. Wondrous
7381flutterings and throbbings shook it. Though bodily unharmed, it uttered
7382cries, as some king's ghost in supernatural distress. Through its
7383inexpressible, strange eyes, methought I peeped to secrets which took
7384hold of God. As Abraham before the angels, I bowed myself; the white
7385thing was so white, its wings so wide, and in those for ever exiled
7386waters, I had lost the miserable warping memories of traditions and of
7387towns. Long I gazed at that prodigy of plumage. I cannot tell, can only
7388hint, the things that darted through me then. But at last I awoke; and
7389turning, asked a sailor what bird was this. A goney, he replied. Goney!
7390never had heard that name before; is it conceivable that this glorious
7391thing is utterly unknown to men ashore! never! But some time after, I
7392learned that goney was some seaman's name for albatross. So that by no
7393possibility could Coleridge's wild Rhyme have had aught to do with those
7394mystical impressions which were mine, when I saw that bird upon our
7395deck. For neither had I then read the Rhyme, nor knew the bird to be
7396an albatross. Yet, in saying this, I do but indirectly burnish a little
7397brighter the noble merit of the poem and the poet.
7398
7399I assert, then, that in the wondrous bodily whiteness of the bird
7400chiefly lurks the secret of the spell; a truth the more evinced in this,
7401that by a solecism of terms there are birds called grey albatrosses;
7402and these I have frequently seen, but never with such emotions as when I
7403beheld the Antarctic fowl.
7404
7405But how had the mystic thing been caught? Whisper it not, and I will
7406tell; with a treacherous hook and line, as the fowl floated on the sea.
7407At last the Captain made a postman of it; tying a lettered, leathern
7408tally round its neck, with the ship's time and place; and then letting
7409it escape. But I doubt not, that leathern tally, meant for man, was
7410taken off in Heaven, when the white fowl flew to join the wing-folding,
7411the invoking, and adoring cherubim!
7412
7413
7414Most famous in our Western annals and Indian traditions is that of
7415the White Steed of the Prairies; a magnificent milk-white charger,
7416large-eyed, small-headed, bluff-chested, and with the dignity of a
7417thousand monarchs in his lofty, overscorning carriage. He was the
7418elected Xerxes of vast herds of wild horses, whose pastures in those
7419days were only fenced by the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghanies. At
7420their flaming head he westward trooped it like that chosen star which
7421every evening leads on the hosts of light. The flashing cascade of his
7422mane, the curving comet of his tail, invested him with housings more
7423resplendent than gold and silver-beaters could have furnished him. A
7424most imperial and archangelical apparition of that unfallen, western
7425world, which to the eyes of the old trappers and hunters revived the
7426glories of those primeval times when Adam walked majestic as a god,
7427bluff-browed and fearless as this mighty steed. Whether marching amid
7428his aides and marshals in the van of countless cohorts that endlessly
7429streamed it over the plains, like an Ohio; or whether with his
7430circumambient subjects browsing all around at the horizon, the White
7431Steed gallopingly reviewed them with warm nostrils reddening through his
7432cool milkiness; in whatever aspect he presented himself, always to the
7433bravest Indians he was the object of trembling reverence and awe. Nor
7434can it be questioned from what stands on legendary record of this noble
7435horse, that it was his spiritual whiteness chiefly, which so clothed him
7436with divineness; and that this divineness had that in it which, though
7437commanding worship, at the same time enforced a certain nameless terror.
7438
7439But there are other instances where this whiteness loses all that
7440accessory and strange glory which invests it in the White Steed and
7441Albatross.
7442
7443What is it that in the Albino man so peculiarly repels and often shocks
7444the eye, as that sometimes he is loathed by his own kith and kin! It
7445is that whiteness which invests him, a thing expressed by the name
7446he bears. The Albino is as well made as other men--has no substantive
7447deformity--and yet this mere aspect of all-pervading whiteness makes him
7448more strangely hideous than the ugliest abortion. Why should this be so?
7449
7450Nor, in quite other aspects, does Nature in her least palpable but
7451not the less malicious agencies, fail to enlist among her forces
7452this crowning attribute of the terrible. From its snowy aspect, the
7453gauntleted ghost of the Southern Seas has been denominated the White
7454Squall. Nor, in some historic instances, has the art of human malice
7455omitted so potent an auxiliary. How wildly it heightens the effect of
7456that passage in Froissart, when, masked in the snowy symbol of their
7457faction, the desperate White Hoods of Ghent murder their bailiff in the
7458market-place!
7459
7460Nor, in some things, does the common, hereditary experience of all
7461mankind fail to bear witness to the supernaturalism of this hue. It
7462cannot well be doubted, that the one visible quality in the aspect of
7463the dead which most appals the gazer, is the marble pallor lingering
7464there; as if indeed that pallor were as much like the badge of
7465consternation in the other world, as of mortal trepidation here. And
7466from that pallor of the dead, we borrow the expressive hue of the shroud
7467in which we wrap them. Nor even in our superstitions do we fail to
7468throw the same snowy mantle round our phantoms; all ghosts rising in a
7469milk-white fog--Yea, while these terrors seize us, let us add, that even
7470the king of terrors, when personified by the evangelist, rides on his
7471pallid horse.
7472
7473Therefore, in his other moods, symbolize whatever grand or gracious
7474thing he will by whiteness, no man can deny that in its profoundest
7475idealized significance it calls up a peculiar apparition to the soul.
7476
7477But though without dissent this point be fixed, how is mortal man to
7478account for it? To analyse it, would seem impossible. Can we, then,
7479by the citation of some of those instances wherein this thing of
7480whiteness--though for the time either wholly or in great part stripped
7481of all direct associations calculated to impart to it aught fearful,
7482but nevertheless, is found to exert over us the same sorcery, however
7483modified;--can we thus hope to light upon some chance clue to conduct us
7484to the hidden cause we seek?
7485
7486Let us try. But in a matter like this, subtlety appeals to subtlety,
7487and without imagination no man can follow another into these halls. And
7488though, doubtless, some at least of the imaginative impressions about
7489to be presented may have been shared by most men, yet few perhaps were
7490entirely conscious of them at the time, and therefore may not be able to
7491recall them now.
7492
7493Why to the man of untutored ideality, who happens to be but loosely
7494acquainted with the peculiar character of the day, does the bare mention
7495of Whitsuntide marshal in the fancy such long, dreary, speechless
7496processions of slow-pacing pilgrims, down-cast and hooded with
7497new-fallen snow? Or, to the unread, unsophisticated Protestant of the
7498Middle American States, why does the passing mention of a White Friar or
7499a White Nun, evoke such an eyeless statue in the soul?
7500
7501Or what is there apart from the traditions of dungeoned warriors and
7502kings (which will not wholly account for it) that makes the White
7503Tower of London tell so much more strongly on the imagination of
7504an untravelled American, than those other storied structures, its
7505neighbors--the Byward Tower, or even the Bloody? And those sublimer
7506towers, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, whence, in peculiar moods,
7507comes that gigantic ghostliness over the soul at the bare mention of
7508that name, while the thought of Virginia's Blue Ridge is full of a soft,
7509dewy, distant dreaminess? Or why, irrespective of all latitudes and
7510longitudes, does the name of the White Sea exert such a spectralness
7511over the fancy, while that of the Yellow Sea lulls us with mortal
7512thoughts of long lacquered mild afternoons on the waves, followed by
7513the gaudiest and yet sleepiest of sunsets? Or, to choose a wholly
7514unsubstantial instance, purely addressed to the fancy, why, in reading
7515the old fairy tales of Central Europe, does "the tall pale man" of the
7516Hartz forests, whose changeless pallor unrustlingly glides through the
7517green of the groves--why is this phantom more terrible than all the
7518whooping imps of the Blocksburg?
7519
7520Nor is it, altogether, the remembrance of her cathedral-toppling
7521earthquakes; nor the stampedoes of her frantic seas; nor the
7522tearlessness of arid skies that never rain; nor the sight of her wide
7523field of leaning spires, wrenched cope-stones, and crosses all adroop
7524(like canted yards of anchored fleets); and her suburban avenues of
7525house-walls lying over upon each other, as a tossed pack of cards;--it
7526is not these things alone which make tearless Lima, the strangest,
7527saddest city thou can'st see. For Lima has taken the white veil; and
7528there is a higher horror in this whiteness of her woe. Old as Pizarro,
7529this whiteness keeps her ruins for ever new; admits not the cheerful
7530greenness of complete decay; spreads over her broken ramparts the rigid
7531pallor of an apoplexy that fixes its own distortions.
7532
7533I know that, to the common apprehension, this phenomenon of whiteness
7534is not confessed to be the prime agent in exaggerating the terror of
7535objects otherwise terrible; nor to the unimaginative mind is there aught
7536of terror in those appearances whose awfulness to another mind almost
7537solely consists in this one phenomenon, especially when exhibited under
7538any form at all approaching to muteness or universality. What I mean
7539by these two statements may perhaps be respectively elucidated by the
7540following examples.
7541
7542First: The mariner, when drawing nigh the coasts of foreign lands, if by
7543night he hear the roar of breakers, starts to vigilance, and feels just
7544enough of trepidation to sharpen all his faculties; but under precisely
7545similar circumstances, let him be called from his hammock to view his
7546ship sailing through a midnight sea of milky whiteness--as if from
7547encircling headlands shoals of combed white bears were swimming round
7548him, then he feels a silent, superstitious dread; the shrouded phantom
7549of the whitened waters is horrible to him as a real ghost; in vain the
7550lead assures him he is still off soundings; heart and helm they both go
7551down; he never rests till blue water is under him again. Yet where is
7552the mariner who will tell thee, "Sir, it was not so much the fear of
7553striking hidden rocks, as the fear of that hideous whiteness that so
7554stirred me?"
7555
7556Second: To the native Indian of Peru, the continual sight of the
7557snowhowdahed Andes conveys naught of dread, except, perhaps, in the
7558mere fancying of the eternal frosted desolateness reigning at such vast
7559altitudes, and the natural conceit of what a fearfulness it would be
7560to lose oneself in such inhuman solitudes. Much the same is it with the
7561backwoodsman of the West, who with comparative indifference views an
7562unbounded prairie sheeted with driven snow, no shadow of tree or twig
7563to break the fixed trance of whiteness. Not so the sailor, beholding the
7564scenery of the Antarctic seas; where at times, by some infernal trick
7565of legerdemain in the powers of frost and air, he, shivering and half
7566shipwrecked, instead of rainbows speaking hope and solace to his misery,
7567views what seems a boundless churchyard grinning upon him with its lean
7568ice monuments and splintered crosses.
7569
7570But thou sayest, methinks that white-lead chapter about whiteness is but
7571a white flag hung out from a craven soul; thou surrenderest to a hypo,
7572Ishmael.
7573
7574Tell me, why this strong young colt, foaled in some peaceful valley of
7575Vermont, far removed from all beasts of prey--why is it that upon the
7576sunniest day, if you but shake a fresh buffalo robe behind him, so that
7577he cannot even see it, but only smells its wild animal muskiness--why
7578will he start, snort, and with bursting eyes paw the ground in phrensies
7579of affright? There is no remembrance in him of any gorings of wild
7580creatures in his green northern home, so that the strange muskiness he
7581smells cannot recall to him anything associated with the experience of
7582former perils; for what knows he, this New England colt, of the black
7583bisons of distant Oregon?
7584
7585No; but here thou beholdest even in a dumb brute, the instinct of the
7586knowledge of the demonism in the world. Though thousands of miles from
7587Oregon, still when he smells that savage musk, the rending, goring bison
7588herds are as present as to the deserted wild foal of the prairies, which
7589this instant they may be trampling into dust.
7590
7591Thus, then, the muffled rollings of a milky sea; the bleak rustlings
7592of the festooned frosts of mountains; the desolate shiftings of the
7593windrowed snows of prairies; all these, to Ishmael, are as the shaking
7594of that buffalo robe to the frightened colt!
7595
7596Though neither knows where lie the nameless things of which the mystic
7597sign gives forth such hints; yet with me, as with the colt, somewhere
7598those things must exist. Though in many of its aspects this visible
7599world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright.
7600
7601But not yet have we solved the incantation of this whiteness, and
7602learned why it appeals with such power to the soul; and more strange
7603and far more portentous--why, as we have seen, it is at once the
7604most meaning symbol of spiritual things, nay, the very veil of the
7605Christian's Deity; and yet should be as it is, the intensifying agent in
7606things the most appalling to mankind.
7607
7608Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids
7609and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the
7610thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky
7611way? Or is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a colour as
7612the visible absence of colour; and at the same time the concrete of all
7613colours; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness,
7614full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows--a colourless, all-colour
7615of atheism from which we shrink? And when we consider that other theory
7616of the natural philosophers, that all other earthly hues--every stately
7617or lovely emblazoning--the sweet tinges of sunset skies and woods; yea,
7618and the gilded velvets of butterflies, and the butterfly cheeks of
7619young girls; all these are but subtile deceits, not actually inherent
7620in substances, but only laid on from without; so that all deified Nature
7621absolutely paints like the harlot, whose allurements cover nothing but
7622the charnel-house within; and when we proceed further, and consider that
7623the mystical cosmetic which produces every one of her hues, the great
7624principle of light, for ever remains white or colourless in itself, and
7625if operating without medium upon matter, would touch all objects, even
7626tulips and roses, with its own blank tinge--pondering all this, the
7627palsied universe lies before us a leper; and like wilful travellers in
7628Lapland, who refuse to wear coloured and colouring glasses upon their
7629eyes, so the wretched infidel gazes himself blind at the monumental
7630white shroud that wraps all the prospect around him. And of all these
7631things the Albino whale was the symbol. Wonder ye then at the fiery
7632hunt?
7633
7634
7635
7636CHAPTER 43. Hark!
7637
7638
7639"HIST! Did you hear that noise, Cabaco?"
7640
7641It was the middle-watch; a fair moonlight; the seamen were standing in a
7642cordon, extending from one of the fresh-water butts in the waist, to the
7643scuttle-butt near the taffrail. In this manner, they passed the buckets
7644to fill the scuttle-butt. Standing, for the most part, on the hallowed
7645precincts of the quarter-deck, they were careful not to speak or rustle
7646their feet. From hand to hand, the buckets went in the deepest silence,
7647only broken by the occasional flap of a sail, and the steady hum of the
7648unceasingly advancing keel.
7649
7650It was in the midst of this repose, that Archy, one of the cordon, whose
7651post was near the after-hatches, whispered to his neighbor, a Cholo, the
7652words above.
7653
7654"Hist! did you hear that noise, Cabaco?"
7655
7656"Take the bucket, will ye, Archy? what noise d'ye mean?"
7657
7658"There it is again--under the hatches--don't you hear it--a cough--it
7659sounded like a cough."
7660
7661"Cough be damned! Pass along that return bucket."
7662
7663"There again--there it is!--it sounds like two or three sleepers turning
7664over, now!"
7665
7666"Caramba! have done, shipmate, will ye? It's the three soaked biscuits
7667ye eat for supper turning over inside of ye--nothing else. Look to the
7668bucket!"
7669
7670"Say what ye will, shipmate; I've sharp ears."
7671
7672"Aye, you are the chap, ain't ye, that heard the hum of the old
7673Quakeress's knitting-needles fifty miles at sea from Nantucket; you're
7674the chap."
7675
7676"Grin away; we'll see what turns up. Hark ye, Cabaco, there is somebody
7677down in the after-hold that has not yet been seen on deck; and I suspect
7678our old Mogul knows something of it too. I heard Stubb tell Flask, one
7679morning watch, that there was something of that sort in the wind."
7680
7681"Tish! the bucket!"
7682
7683
7684
7685CHAPTER 44. The Chart.
7686
7687
7688Had you followed Captain Ahab down into his cabin after the squall that
7689took place on the night succeeding that wild ratification of his purpose
7690with his crew, you would have seen him go to a locker in the transom,
7691and bringing out a large wrinkled roll of yellowish sea charts, spread
7692them before him on his screwed-down table. Then seating himself before
7693it, you would have seen him intently study the various lines and
7694shadings which there met his eye; and with slow but steady pencil trace
7695additional courses over spaces that before were blank. At intervals, he
7696would refer to piles of old log-books beside him, wherein were set down
7697the seasons and places in which, on various former voyages of various
7698ships, sperm whales had been captured or seen.
7699
7700While thus employed, the heavy pewter lamp suspended in chains over his
7701head, continually rocked with the motion of the ship, and for ever threw
7702shifting gleams and shadows of lines upon his wrinkled brow, till it
7703almost seemed that while he himself was marking out lines and courses
7704on the wrinkled charts, some invisible pencil was also tracing lines and
7705courses upon the deeply marked chart of his forehead.
7706
7707But it was not this night in particular that, in the solitude of his
7708cabin, Ahab thus pondered over his charts. Almost every night they were
7709brought out; almost every night some pencil marks were effaced, and
7710others were substituted. For with the charts of all four oceans before
7711him, Ahab was threading a maze of currents and eddies, with a view to
7712the more certain accomplishment of that monomaniac thought of his soul.
7713
7714Now, to any one not fully acquainted with the ways of the leviathans,
7715it might seem an absurdly hopeless task thus to seek out one solitary
7716creature in the unhooped oceans of this planet. But not so did it
7717seem to Ahab, who knew the sets of all tides and currents; and thereby
7718calculating the driftings of the sperm whale's food; and, also, calling
7719to mind the regular, ascertained seasons for hunting him in particular
7720latitudes; could arrive at reasonable surmises, almost approaching to
7721certainties, concerning the timeliest day to be upon this or that ground
7722in search of his prey.
7723
7724So assured, indeed, is the fact concerning the periodicalness of the
7725sperm whale's resorting to given waters, that many hunters believe that,
7726could he be closely observed and studied throughout the world; were the
7727logs for one voyage of the entire whale fleet carefully collated,
7728then the migrations of the sperm whale would be found to correspond in
7729invariability to those of the herring-shoals or the flights of swallows.
7730On this hint, attempts have been made to construct elaborate migratory
7731charts of the sperm whale.*
7732
7733     *Since the above was written, the statement is happily borne
7734     out by an official circular, issued by Lieutenant Maury, of
7735     the National Observatory, Washington, April 16th, 1851. By
7736     that circular, it appears that precisely such a chart is in
7737     course of completion; and portions of it are presented in
7738     the circular. "This chart divides the ocean into districts
7739     of five degrees of latitude by five degrees of longitude;
7740     perpendicularly through each of which districts are twelve
7741     columns for the twelve months; and horizontally through each
7742     of which districts are three lines; one to show the number
7743     of days that have been spent in each month in every
7744     district, and the two others to show the number of days in
7745     which whales, sperm or right, have been seen."
7746
7747Besides, when making a passage from one feeding-ground to another, the
7748sperm whales, guided by some infallible instinct--say, rather, secret
7749intelligence from the Deity--mostly swim in VEINS, as they are called;
7750continuing their way along a given ocean-line with such undeviating
7751exactitude, that no ship ever sailed her course, by any chart, with
7752one tithe of such marvellous precision. Though, in these cases, the
7753direction taken by any one whale be straight as a surveyor's parallel,
7754and though the line of advance be strictly confined to its own
7755unavoidable, straight wake, yet the arbitrary VEIN in which at these
7756times he is said to swim, generally embraces some few miles in width
7757(more or less, as the vein is presumed to expand or contract); but
7758never exceeds the visual sweep from the whale-ship's mast-heads,
7759when circumspectly gliding along this magic zone. The sum is, that at
7760particular seasons within that breadth and along that path, migrating
7761whales may with great confidence be looked for.
7762
7763And hence not only at substantiated times, upon well known separate
7764feeding-grounds, could Ahab hope to encounter his prey; but in crossing
7765the widest expanses of water between those grounds he could, by his
7766art, so place and time himself on his way, as even then not to be wholly
7767without prospect of a meeting.
7768
7769There was a circumstance which at first sight seemed to entangle his
7770delirious but still methodical scheme. But not so in the reality,
7771perhaps. Though the gregarious sperm whales have their regular seasons
7772for particular grounds, yet in general you cannot conclude that the
7773herds which haunted such and such a latitude or longitude this year,
7774say, will turn out to be identically the same with those that were found
7775there the preceding season; though there are peculiar and unquestionable
7776instances where the contrary of this has proved true. In general, the
7777same remark, only within a less wide limit, applies to the solitaries
7778and hermits among the matured, aged sperm whales. So that though Moby
7779Dick had in a former year been seen, for example, on what is called the
7780Seychelle ground in the Indian ocean, or Volcano Bay on the Japanese
7781Coast; yet it did not follow, that were the Pequod to visit either of
7782those spots at any subsequent corresponding season, she would infallibly
7783encounter him there. So, too, with some other feeding grounds, where
7784he had at times revealed himself. But all these seemed only his casual
7785stopping-places and ocean-inns, so to speak, not his places of prolonged
7786abode. And where Ahab's chances of accomplishing his object have
7787hitherto been spoken of, allusion has only been made to whatever
7788way-side, antecedent, extra prospects were his, ere a particular
7789set time or place were attained, when all possibilities would become
7790probabilities, and, as Ahab fondly thought, every possibility the next
7791thing to a certainty. That particular set time and place were conjoined
7792in the one technical phrase--the Season-on-the-Line. For there and then,
7793for several consecutive years, Moby Dick had been periodically descried,
7794lingering in those waters for awhile, as the sun, in its annual round,
7795loiters for a predicted interval in any one sign of the Zodiac. There
7796it was, too, that most of the deadly encounters with the white whale had
7797taken place; there the waves were storied with his deeds; there also was
7798that tragic spot where the monomaniac old man had found the awful motive
7799to his vengeance. But in the cautious comprehensiveness and unloitering
7800vigilance with which Ahab threw his brooding soul into this unfaltering
7801hunt, he would not permit himself to rest all his hopes upon the one
7802crowning fact above mentioned, however flattering it might be to those
7803hopes; nor in the sleeplessness of his vow could he so tranquillize his
7804unquiet heart as to postpone all intervening quest.
7805
7806Now, the Pequod had sailed from Nantucket at the very beginning of the
7807Season-on-the-Line. No possible endeavor then could enable her commander
7808to make the great passage southwards, double Cape Horn, and then running
7809down sixty degrees of latitude arrive in the equatorial Pacific in time
7810to cruise there. Therefore, he must wait for the next ensuing season.
7811Yet the premature hour of the Pequod's sailing had, perhaps, been
7812correctly selected by Ahab, with a view to this very complexion of
7813things. Because, an interval of three hundred and sixty-five days
7814and nights was before him; an interval which, instead of impatiently
7815enduring ashore, he would spend in a miscellaneous hunt; if by chance
7816the White Whale, spending his vacation in seas far remote from his
7817periodical feeding-grounds, should turn up his wrinkled brow off the
7818Persian Gulf, or in the Bengal Bay, or China Seas, or in any other
7819waters haunted by his race. So that Monsoons, Pampas, Nor'-Westers,
7820Harmattans, Trades; any wind but the Levanter and Simoon, might
7821blow Moby Dick into the devious zig-zag world-circle of the Pequod's
7822circumnavigating wake.
7823
7824But granting all this; yet, regarded discreetly and coolly, seems it not
7825but a mad idea, this; that in the broad boundless ocean, one solitary
7826whale, even if encountered, should be thought capable of individual
7827recognition from his hunter, even as a white-bearded Mufti in the
7828thronged thoroughfares of Constantinople? Yes. For the peculiar
7829snow-white brow of Moby Dick, and his snow-white hump, could not but
7830be unmistakable. And have I not tallied the whale, Ahab would mutter
7831to himself, as after poring over his charts till long after midnight he
7832would throw himself back in reveries--tallied him, and shall he escape?
7833His broad fins are bored, and scalloped out like a lost sheep's ear! And
7834here, his mad mind would run on in a breathless race; till a weariness
7835and faintness of pondering came over him; and in the open air of the
7836deck he would seek to recover his strength. Ah, God! what trances
7837of torments does that man endure who is consumed with one unachieved
7838revengeful desire. He sleeps with clenched hands; and wakes with his own
7839bloody nails in his palms.
7840
7841Often, when forced from his hammock by exhausting and intolerably vivid
7842dreams of the night, which, resuming his own intense thoughts through
7843the day, carried them on amid a clashing of phrensies, and whirled them
7844round and round and round in his blazing brain, till the very throbbing
7845of his life-spot became insufferable anguish; and when, as was sometimes
7846the case, these spiritual throes in him heaved his being up from its
7847base, and a chasm seemed opening in him, from which forked flames and
7848lightnings shot up, and accursed fiends beckoned him to leap down among
7849them; when this hell in himself yawned beneath him, a wild cry would be
7850heard through the ship; and with glaring eyes Ahab would burst from his
7851state room, as though escaping from a bed that was on fire. Yet these,
7852perhaps, instead of being the unsuppressable symptoms of some latent
7853weakness, or fright at his own resolve, were but the plainest tokens
7854of its intensity. For, at such times, crazy Ahab, the scheming,
7855unappeasedly steadfast hunter of the white whale; this Ahab that had
7856gone to his hammock, was not the agent that so caused him to burst from
7857it in horror again. The latter was the eternal, living principle or
7858soul in him; and in sleep, being for the time dissociated from the
7859characterizing mind, which at other times employed it for its outer
7860vehicle or agent, it spontaneously sought escape from the scorching
7861contiguity of the frantic thing, of which, for the time, it was no
7862longer an integral. But as the mind does not exist unless leagued with
7863the soul, therefore it must have been that, in Ahab's case, yielding up
7864all his thoughts and fancies to his one supreme purpose; that purpose,
7865by its own sheer inveteracy of will, forced itself against gods and
7866devils into a kind of self-assumed, independent being of its own. Nay,
7867could grimly live and burn, while the common vitality to which it was
7868conjoined, fled horror-stricken from the unbidden and unfathered birth.
7869Therefore, the tormented spirit that glared out of bodily eyes, when
7870what seemed Ahab rushed from his room, was for the time but a vacated
7871thing, a formless somnambulistic being, a ray of living light, to be
7872sure, but without an object to colour, and therefore a blankness in
7873itself. God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature
7874in thee; and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; a
7875vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature
7876he creates.
7877
7878
7879
7880CHAPTER 45. The Affidavit.
7881
7882
7883So far as what there may be of a narrative in this book; and, indeed, as
7884indirectly touching one or two very interesting and curious particulars
7885in the habits of sperm whales, the foregoing chapter, in its earlier
7886part, is as important a one as will be found in this volume; but the
7887leading matter of it requires to be still further and more familiarly
7888enlarged upon, in order to be adequately understood, and moreover to
7889take away any incredulity which a profound ignorance of the entire
7890subject may induce in some minds, as to the natural verity of the main
7891points of this affair.
7892
7893I care not to perform this part of my task methodically; but shall
7894be content to produce the desired impression by separate citations of
7895items, practically or reliably known to me as a whaleman; and from these
7896citations, I take it--the conclusion aimed at will naturally follow of
7897itself.
7898
7899First: I have personally known three instances where a whale, after
7900receiving a harpoon, has effected a complete escape; and, after an
7901interval (in one instance of three years), has been again struck by
7902the same hand, and slain; when the two irons, both marked by the same
7903private cypher, have been taken from the body. In the instance where
7904three years intervened between the flinging of the two harpoons; and I
7905think it may have been something more than that; the man who darted
7906them happening, in the interval, to go in a trading ship on a voyage to
7907Africa, went ashore there, joined a discovery party, and penetrated far
7908into the interior, where he travelled for a period of nearly two years,
7909often endangered by serpents, savages, tigers, poisonous miasmas,
7910with all the other common perils incident to wandering in the heart of
7911unknown regions. Meanwhile, the whale he had struck must also have
7912been on its travels; no doubt it had thrice circumnavigated the globe,
7913brushing with its flanks all the coasts of Africa; but to no purpose.
7914This man and this whale again came together, and the one vanquished the
7915other. I say I, myself, have known three instances similar to this; that
7916is in two of them I saw the whales struck; and, upon the second attack,
7917saw the two irons with the respective marks cut in them, afterwards
7918taken from the dead fish. In the three-year instance, it so fell out
7919that I was in the boat both times, first and last, and the last time
7920distinctly recognised a peculiar sort of huge mole under the whale's
7921eye, which I had observed there three years previous. I say three years,
7922but I am pretty sure it was more than that. Here are three instances,
7923then, which I personally know the truth of; but I have heard of many
7924other instances from persons whose veracity in the matter there is no
7925good ground to impeach.
7926
7927Secondly: It is well known in the Sperm Whale Fishery, however ignorant
7928the world ashore may be of it, that there have been several memorable
7929historical instances where a particular whale in the ocean has been at
7930distant times and places popularly cognisable. Why such a whale became
7931thus marked was not altogether and originally owing to his bodily
7932peculiarities as distinguished from other whales; for however peculiar
7933in that respect any chance whale may be, they soon put an end to his
7934peculiarities by killing him, and boiling him down into a peculiarly
7935valuable oil. No: the reason was this: that from the fatal experiences
7936of the fishery there hung a terrible prestige of perilousness about
7937such a whale as there did about Rinaldo Rinaldini, insomuch that
7938most fishermen were content to recognise him by merely touching their
7939tarpaulins when he would be discovered lounging by them on the sea,
7940without seeking to cultivate a more intimate acquaintance. Like some
7941poor devils ashore that happen to know an irascible great man, they
7942make distant unobtrusive salutations to him in the street, lest if they
7943pursued the acquaintance further, they might receive a summary thump for
7944their presumption.
7945
7946But not only did each of these famous whales enjoy great individual
7947celebrity--Nay, you may call it an ocean-wide renown; not only was he
7948famous in life and now is immortal in forecastle stories after death,
7949but he was admitted into all the rights, privileges, and distinctions of
7950a name; had as much a name indeed as Cambyses or Caesar. Was it not so,
7951O Timor Tom! thou famed leviathan, scarred like an iceberg, who so long
7952did'st lurk in the Oriental straits of that name, whose spout was oft
7953seen from the palmy beach of Ombay? Was it not so, O New Zealand Jack!
7954thou terror of all cruisers that crossed their wakes in the vicinity of
7955the Tattoo Land? Was it not so, O Morquan! King of Japan, whose lofty
7956jet they say at times assumed the semblance of a snow-white cross
7957against the sky? Was it not so, O Don Miguel! thou Chilian whale, marked
7958like an old tortoise with mystic hieroglyphics upon the back! In plain
7959prose, here are four whales as well known to the students of Cetacean
7960History as Marius or Sylla to the classic scholar.
7961
7962But this is not all. New Zealand Tom and Don Miguel, after at various
7963times creating great havoc among the boats of different vessels, were
7964finally gone in quest of, systematically hunted out, chased and killed
7965by valiant whaling captains, who heaved up their anchors with
7966that express object as much in view, as in setting out through the
7967Narragansett Woods, Captain Butler of old had it in his mind to capture
7968that notorious murderous savage Annawon, the headmost warrior of the
7969Indian King Philip.
7970
7971I do not know where I can find a better place than just here, to make
7972mention of one or two other things, which to me seem important, as in
7973printed form establishing in all respects the reasonableness of the
7974whole story of the White Whale, more especially the catastrophe. For
7975this is one of those disheartening instances where truth requires full
7976as much bolstering as error. So ignorant are most landsmen of some of
7977the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without
7978some hints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the
7979fishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still
7980worse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory.
7981
7982First: Though most men have some vague flitting ideas of the general
7983perils of the grand fishery, yet they have nothing like a fixed, vivid
7984conception of those perils, and the frequency with which they recur.
7985One reason perhaps is, that not one in fifty of the actual disasters and
7986deaths by casualties in the fishery, ever finds a public record at home,
7987however transient and immediately forgotten that record. Do you suppose
7988that that poor fellow there, who this moment perhaps caught by the
7989whale-line off the coast of New Guinea, is being carried down to the
7990bottom of the sea by the sounding leviathan--do you suppose that that
7991poor fellow's name will appear in the newspaper obituary you will read
7992to-morrow at your breakfast? No: because the mails are very irregular
7993between here and New Guinea. In fact, did you ever hear what might be
7994called regular news direct or indirect from New Guinea? Yet I tell you
7995that upon one particular voyage which I made to the Pacific, among many
7996others we spoke thirty different ships, every one of which had had a
7997death by a whale, some of them more than one, and three that had each
7998lost a boat's crew. For God's sake, be economical with your lamps and
7999candles! not a gallon you burn, but at least one drop of man's blood was
8000spilled for it.
8001
8002Secondly: People ashore have indeed some indefinite idea that a whale is
8003an enormous creature of enormous power; but I have ever found that when
8004narrating to them some specific example of this two-fold enormousness,
8005they have significantly complimented me upon my facetiousness; when, I
8006declare upon my soul, I had no more idea of being facetious than Moses,
8007when he wrote the history of the plagues of Egypt.
8008
8009But fortunately the special point I here seek can be established upon
8010testimony entirely independent of my own. That point is this: The Sperm
8011Whale is in some cases sufficiently powerful, knowing, and judiciously
8012malicious, as with direct aforethought to stave in, utterly destroy, and
8013sink a large ship; and what is more, the Sperm Whale HAS done it.
8014
8015First: In the year 1820 the ship Essex, Captain Pollard, of Nantucket,
8016was cruising in the Pacific Ocean. One day she saw spouts, lowered her
8017boats, and gave chase to a shoal of sperm whales. Ere long, several of
8018the whales were wounded; when, suddenly, a very large whale escaping
8019from the boats, issued from the shoal, and bore directly down upon the
8020ship. Dashing his forehead against her hull, he so stove her in, that in
8021less than "ten minutes" she settled down and fell over. Not a surviving
8022plank of her has been seen since. After the severest exposure, part of
8023the crew reached the land in their boats. Being returned home at last,
8024Captain Pollard once more sailed for the Pacific in command of another
8025ship, but the gods shipwrecked him again upon unknown rocks and
8026breakers; for the second time his ship was utterly lost, and forthwith
8027forswearing the sea, he has never tempted it since. At this day Captain
8028Pollard is a resident of Nantucket. I have seen Owen Chace, who was
8029chief mate of the Essex at the time of the tragedy; I have read his
8030plain and faithful narrative; I have conversed with his son; and all
8031this within a few miles of the scene of the catastrophe.*
8032
8033
8034*The following are extracts from Chace's narrative: "Every fact seemed
8035to warrant me in concluding that it was anything but chance which
8036directed his operations; he made two several attacks upon the ship, at
8037a short interval between them, both of which, according to their
8038direction, were calculated to do us the most injury, by being made
8039ahead, and thereby combining the speed of the two objects for the shock;
8040to effect which, the exact manoeuvres which he made were necessary. His
8041aspect was most horrible, and such as indicated resentment and fury. He
8042came directly from the shoal which we had just before entered, and in
8043which we had struck three of his companions, as if fired with revenge
8044for their sufferings." Again: "At all events, the whole circumstances
8045taken together, all happening before my own eyes, and producing, at the
8046time, impressions in my mind of decided, calculating mischief, on the
8047part of the whale (many of which impressions I cannot now recall),
8048induce me to be satisfied that I am correct in my opinion."
8049
8050Here are his reflections some time after quitting the ship, during
8051a black night in an open boat, when almost despairing of reaching any
8052hospitable shore. "The dark ocean and swelling waters were nothing; the
8053fears of being swallowed up by some dreadful tempest, or dashed
8054upon hidden rocks, with all the other ordinary subjects of fearful
8055contemplation, seemed scarcely entitled to a moment's thought; the
8056dismal looking wreck, and THE HORRID ASPECT AND REVENGE OF THE WHALE,
8057wholly engrossed my reflections, until day again made its appearance."
8058
8059In another place--p. 45,--he speaks of "THE MYSTERIOUS AND MORTAL ATTACK
8060OF THE ANIMAL."
8061
8062
8063Secondly: The ship Union, also of Nantucket, was in the year 1807
8064totally lost off the Azores by a similar onset, but the authentic
8065particulars of this catastrophe I have never chanced to encounter,
8066though from the whale hunters I have now and then heard casual allusions
8067to it.
8068
8069Thirdly: Some eighteen or twenty years ago Commodore J---, then
8070commanding an American sloop-of-war of the first class, happened to be
8071dining with a party of whaling captains, on board a Nantucket ship in
8072the harbor of Oahu, Sandwich Islands. Conversation turning upon whales,
8073the Commodore was pleased to be sceptical touching the amazing strength
8074ascribed to them by the professional gentlemen present. He peremptorily
8075denied for example, that any whale could so smite his stout sloop-of-war
8076as to cause her to leak so much as a thimbleful. Very good; but there
8077is more coming. Some weeks after, the Commodore set sail in this
8078impregnable craft for Valparaiso. But he was stopped on the way by a
8079portly sperm whale, that begged a few moments' confidential business
8080with him. That business consisted in fetching the Commodore's craft such
8081a thwack, that with all his pumps going he made straight for the nearest
8082port to heave down and repair. I am not superstitious, but I consider
8083the Commodore's interview with that whale as providential. Was not Saul
8084of Tarsus converted from unbelief by a similar fright? I tell you, the
8085sperm whale will stand no nonsense.
8086
8087I will now refer you to Langsdorff's Voyages for a little circumstance
8088in point, peculiarly interesting to the writer hereof. Langsdorff, you
8089must know by the way, was attached to the Russian Admiral Krusenstern's
8090famous Discovery Expedition in the beginning of the present century.
8091Captain Langsdorff thus begins his seventeenth chapter:
8092
8093"By the thirteenth of May our ship was ready to sail, and the next day
8094we were out in the open sea, on our way to Ochotsh. The weather was very
8095clear and fine, but so intolerably cold that we were obliged to keep on
8096our fur clothing. For some days we had very little wind; it was not
8097till the nineteenth that a brisk gale from the northwest sprang up. An
8098uncommon large whale, the body of which was larger than the ship itself,
8099lay almost at the surface of the water, but was not perceived by any
8100one on board till the moment when the ship, which was in full sail,
8101was almost upon him, so that it was impossible to prevent its striking
8102against him. We were thus placed in the most imminent danger, as this
8103gigantic creature, setting up its back, raised the ship three feet at
8104least out of the water. The masts reeled, and the sails fell altogether,
8105while we who were below all sprang instantly upon the deck, concluding
8106that we had struck upon some rock; instead of this we saw the monster
8107sailing off with the utmost gravity and solemnity. Captain D'Wolf
8108applied immediately to the pumps to examine whether or not the vessel
8109had received any damage from the shock, but we found that very happily
8110it had escaped entirely uninjured."
8111
8112Now, the Captain D'Wolf here alluded to as commanding the ship in
8113question, is a New Englander, who, after a long life of unusual
8114adventures as a sea-captain, this day resides in the village of
8115Dorchester near Boston. I have the honour of being a nephew of his. I
8116have particularly questioned him concerning this passage in Langsdorff.
8117He substantiates every word. The ship, however, was by no means a large
8118one: a Russian craft built on the Siberian coast, and purchased by my
8119uncle after bartering away the vessel in which he sailed from home.
8120
8121In that up and down manly book of old-fashioned adventure, so full, too,
8122of honest wonders--the voyage of Lionel Wafer, one of ancient Dampier's
8123old chums--I found a little matter set down so like that just quoted
8124from Langsdorff, that I cannot forbear inserting it here for a
8125corroborative example, if such be needed.
8126
8127Lionel, it seems, was on his way to "John Ferdinando," as he calls
8128the modern Juan Fernandes. "In our way thither," he says, "about four
8129o'clock in the morning, when we were about one hundred and fifty leagues
8130from the Main of America, our ship felt a terrible shock, which put our
8131men in such consternation that they could hardly tell where they were
8132or what to think; but every one began to prepare for death. And, indeed,
8133the shock was so sudden and violent, that we took it for granted the
8134ship had struck against a rock; but when the amazement was a little
8135over, we cast the lead, and sounded, but found no ground..... The
8136suddenness of the shock made the guns leap in their carriages, and
8137several of the men were shaken out of their hammocks. Captain Davis, who
8138lay with his head on a gun, was thrown out of his cabin!" Lionel then
8139goes on to impute the shock to an earthquake, and seems to substantiate
8140the imputation by stating that a great earthquake, somewhere about
8141that time, did actually do great mischief along the Spanish land. But
8142I should not much wonder if, in the darkness of that early hour of the
8143morning, the shock was after all caused by an unseen whale vertically
8144bumping the hull from beneath.
8145
8146I might proceed with several more examples, one way or another known to
8147me, of the great power and malice at times of the sperm whale. In more
8148than one instance, he has been known, not only to chase the assailing
8149boats back to their ships, but to pursue the ship itself, and long
8150withstand all the lances hurled at him from its decks. The English ship
8151Pusie Hall can tell a story on that head; and, as for his strength,
8152let me say, that there have been examples where the lines attached to a
8153running sperm whale have, in a calm, been transferred to the ship, and
8154secured there; the whale towing her great hull through the water, as a
8155horse walks off with a cart. Again, it is very often observed that, if
8156the sperm whale, once struck, is allowed time to rally, he then acts,
8157not so often with blind rage, as with wilful, deliberate designs of
8158destruction to his pursuers; nor is it without conveying some eloquent
8159indication of his character, that upon being attacked he will frequently
8160open his mouth, and retain it in that dread expansion for several
8161consecutive minutes. But I must be content with only one more and a
8162concluding illustration; a remarkable and most significant one, by which
8163you will not fail to see, that not only is the most marvellous event in
8164this book corroborated by plain facts of the present day, but that these
8165marvels (like all marvels) are mere repetitions of the ages; so that for
8166the millionth time we say amen with Solomon--Verily there is nothing new
8167under the sun.
8168
8169In the sixth Christian century lived Procopius, a Christian magistrate
8170of Constantinople, in the days when Justinian was Emperor and Belisarius
8171general. As many know, he wrote the history of his own times, a work
8172every way of uncommon value. By the best authorities, he has always been
8173considered a most trustworthy and unexaggerating historian, except in
8174some one or two particulars, not at all affecting the matter presently
8175to be mentioned.
8176
8177Now, in this history of his, Procopius mentions that, during the term
8178of his prefecture at Constantinople, a great sea-monster was captured
8179in the neighboring Propontis, or Sea of Marmora, after having destroyed
8180vessels at intervals in those waters for a period of more than fifty
8181years. A fact thus set down in substantial history cannot easily be
8182gainsaid. Nor is there any reason it should be. Of what precise species
8183this sea-monster was, is not mentioned. But as he destroyed ships, as
8184well as for other reasons, he must have been a whale; and I am strongly
8185inclined to think a sperm whale. And I will tell you why. For a long
8186time I fancied that the sperm whale had been always unknown in the
8187Mediterranean and the deep waters connecting with it. Even now I am
8188certain that those seas are not, and perhaps never can be, in the
8189present constitution of things, a place for his habitual gregarious
8190resort. But further investigations have recently proved to me, that in
8191modern times there have been isolated instances of the presence of the
8192sperm whale in the Mediterranean. I am told, on good authority, that
8193on the Barbary coast, a Commodore Davis of the British navy found
8194the skeleton of a sperm whale. Now, as a vessel of war readily passes
8195through the Dardanelles, hence a sperm whale could, by the same route,
8196pass out of the Mediterranean into the Propontis.
8197
8198In the Propontis, as far as I can learn, none of that peculiar substance
8199called BRIT is to be found, the aliment of the right whale. But I have
8200every reason to believe that the food of the sperm whale--squid or
8201cuttle-fish--lurks at the bottom of that sea, because large creatures,
8202but by no means the largest of that sort, have been found at its
8203surface. If, then, you properly put these statements together, and
8204reason upon them a bit, you will clearly perceive that, according to all
8205human reasoning, Procopius's sea-monster, that for half a century stove
8206the ships of a Roman Emperor, must in all probability have been a sperm
8207whale.
8208
8209
8210
8211CHAPTER 46. Surmises.
8212
8213
8214Though, consumed with the hot fire of his purpose, Ahab in all his
8215thoughts and actions ever had in view the ultimate capture of Moby Dick;
8216though he seemed ready to sacrifice all mortal interests to that one
8217passion; nevertheless it may have been that he was by nature and long
8218habituation far too wedded to a fiery whaleman's ways, altogether to
8219abandon the collateral prosecution of the voyage. Or at least if
8220this were otherwise, there were not wanting other motives much more
8221influential with him. It would be refining too much, perhaps, even
8222considering his monomania, to hint that his vindictiveness towards the
8223White Whale might have possibly extended itself in some degree to all
8224sperm whales, and that the more monsters he slew by so much the more he
8225multiplied the chances that each subsequently encountered whale would
8226prove to be the hated one he hunted. But if such an hypothesis be indeed
8227exceptionable, there were still additional considerations which, though
8228not so strictly according with the wildness of his ruling passion, yet
8229were by no means incapable of swaying him.
8230
8231To accomplish his object Ahab must use tools; and of all tools used in
8232the shadow of the moon, men are most apt to get out of order. He knew,
8233for example, that however magnetic his ascendency in some respects was
8234over Starbuck, yet that ascendency did not cover the complete spiritual
8235man any more than mere corporeal superiority involves intellectual
8236mastership; for to the purely spiritual, the intellectual but stand in a
8237sort of corporeal relation. Starbuck's body and Starbuck's coerced will
8238were Ahab's, so long as Ahab kept his magnet at Starbuck's brain; still
8239he knew that for all this the chief mate, in his soul, abhorred his
8240captain's quest, and could he, would joyfully disintegrate himself from
8241it, or even frustrate it. It might be that a long interval would elapse
8242ere the White Whale was seen. During that long interval Starbuck
8243would ever be apt to fall into open relapses of rebellion against his
8244captain's leadership, unless some ordinary, prudential, circumstantial
8245influences were brought to bear upon him. Not only that, but the subtle
8246insanity of Ahab respecting Moby Dick was noways more significantly
8247manifested than in his superlative sense and shrewdness in foreseeing
8248that, for the present, the hunt should in some way be stripped of that
8249strange imaginative impiousness which naturally invested it; that
8250the full terror of the voyage must be kept withdrawn into the obscure
8251background (for few men's courage is proof against protracted meditation
8252unrelieved by action); that when they stood their long night watches,
8253his officers and men must have some nearer things to think of than Moby
8254Dick. For however eagerly and impetuously the savage crew had hailed the
8255announcement of his quest; yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less
8256capricious and unreliable--they live in the varying outer weather, and
8257they inhale its fickleness--and when retained for any object remote and
8258blank in the pursuit, however promissory of life and passion in the
8259end, it is above all things requisite that temporary interests and
8260employments should intervene and hold them healthily suspended for the
8261final dash.
8262
8263Nor was Ahab unmindful of another thing. In times of strong emotion
8264mankind disdain all base considerations; but such times are evanescent.
8265The permanent constitutional condition of the manufactured man, thought
8266Ahab, is sordidness. Granting that the White Whale fully incites the
8267hearts of this my savage crew, and playing round their savageness even
8268breeds a certain generous knight-errantism in them, still, while for the
8269love of it they give chase to Moby Dick, they must also have food
8270for their more common, daily appetites. For even the high lifted and
8271chivalric Crusaders of old times were not content to traverse two
8272thousand miles of land to fight for their holy sepulchre, without
8273committing burglaries, picking pockets, and gaining other pious
8274perquisites by the way. Had they been strictly held to their one final
8275and romantic object--that final and romantic object, too many would have
8276turned from in disgust. I will not strip these men, thought Ahab, of all
8277hopes of cash--aye, cash. They may scorn cash now; but let some months
8278go by, and no perspective promise of it to them, and then this same
8279quiescent cash all at once mutinying in them, this same cash would soon
8280cashier Ahab.
8281
8282Nor was there wanting still another precautionary motive more related
8283to Ahab personally. Having impulsively, it is probable, and perhaps
8284somewhat prematurely revealed the prime but private purpose of the
8285Pequod's voyage, Ahab was now entirely conscious that, in so doing,
8286he had indirectly laid himself open to the unanswerable charge of
8287usurpation; and with perfect impunity, both moral and legal, his crew
8288if so disposed, and to that end competent, could refuse all further
8289obedience to him, and even violently wrest from him the command. From
8290even the barely hinted imputation of usurpation, and the possible
8291consequences of such a suppressed impression gaining ground, Ahab must
8292of course have been most anxious to protect himself. That protection
8293could only consist in his own predominating brain and heart and hand,
8294backed by a heedful, closely calculating attention to every minute
8295atmospheric influence which it was possible for his crew to be subjected
8296to.
8297
8298For all these reasons then, and others perhaps too analytic to be
8299verbally developed here, Ahab plainly saw that he must still in a good
8300degree continue true to the natural, nominal purpose of the Pequod's
8301voyage; observe all customary usages; and not only that, but force
8302himself to evince all his well known passionate interest in the general
8303pursuit of his profession.
8304
8305Be all this as it may, his voice was now often heard hailing the three
8306mast-heads and admonishing them to keep a bright look-out, and not omit
8307reporting even a porpoise. This vigilance was not long without reward.
8308
8309
8310
8311CHAPTER 47. The Mat-Maker.
8312
8313
8314It was a cloudy, sultry afternoon; the seamen were lazily lounging
8315about the decks, or vacantly gazing over into the lead-coloured waters.
8316Queequeg and I were mildly employed weaving what is called a sword-mat,
8317for an additional lashing to our boat. So still and subdued and yet
8318somehow preluding was all the scene, and such an incantation of reverie
8319lurked in the air, that each silent sailor seemed resolved into his own
8320invisible self.
8321
8322I was the attendant or page of Queequeg, while busy at the mat. As I
8323kept passing and repassing the filling or woof of marline between
8324the long yarns of the warp, using my own hand for the shuttle, and as
8325Queequeg, standing sideways, ever and anon slid his heavy oaken sword
8326between the threads, and idly looking off upon the water, carelessly and
8327unthinkingly drove home every yarn: I say so strange a dreaminess did
8328there then reign all over the ship and all over the sea, only broken by
8329the intermitting dull sound of the sword, that it seemed as if this were
8330the Loom of Time, and I myself were a shuttle mechanically weaving
8331and weaving away at the Fates. There lay the fixed threads of the warp
8332subject to but one single, ever returning, unchanging vibration, and
8333that vibration merely enough to admit of the crosswise interblending
8334of other threads with its own. This warp seemed necessity; and here,
8335thought I, with my own hand I ply my own shuttle and weave my own
8336destiny into these unalterable threads. Meantime, Queequeg's impulsive,
8337indifferent sword, sometimes hitting the woof slantingly, or crookedly,
8338or strongly, or weakly, as the case might be; and by this difference
8339in the concluding blow producing a corresponding contrast in the final
8340aspect of the completed fabric; this savage's sword, thought I,
8341which thus finally shapes and fashions both warp and woof; this
8342easy, indifferent sword must be chance--aye, chance, free will, and
8343necessity--nowise incompatible--all interweavingly working together.
8344The straight warp of necessity, not to be swerved from its ultimate
8345course--its every alternating vibration, indeed, only tending to that;
8346free will still free to ply her shuttle between given threads; and
8347chance, though restrained in its play within the right lines of
8348necessity, and sideways in its motions directed by free will, though
8349thus prescribed to by both, chance by turns rules either, and has the
8350last featuring blow at events.
8351
8352
8353Thus we were weaving and weaving away when I started at a sound so
8354strange, long drawn, and musically wild and unearthly, that the ball
8355of free will dropped from my hand, and I stood gazing up at the clouds
8356whence that voice dropped like a wing. High aloft in the cross-trees was
8357that mad Gay-Header, Tashtego. His body was reaching eagerly forward,
8358his hand stretched out like a wand, and at brief sudden intervals he
8359continued his cries. To be sure the same sound was that very moment
8360perhaps being heard all over the seas, from hundreds of whalemen's
8361look-outs perched as high in the air; but from few of those lungs could
8362that accustomed old cry have derived such a marvellous cadence as from
8363Tashtego the Indian's.
8364
8365As he stood hovering over you half suspended in air, so wildly and
8366eagerly peering towards the horizon, you would have thought him some
8367prophet or seer beholding the shadows of Fate, and by those wild cries
8368announcing their coming.
8369
8370"There she blows! there! there! there! she blows! she blows!"
8371
8372"Where-away?"
8373
8374"On the lee-beam, about two miles off! a school of them!"
8375
8376Instantly all was commotion.
8377
8378The Sperm Whale blows as a clock ticks, with the same undeviating and
8379reliable uniformity. And thereby whalemen distinguish this fish from
8380other tribes of his genus.
8381
8382"There go flukes!" was now the cry from Tashtego; and the whales
8383disappeared.
8384
8385"Quick, steward!" cried Ahab. "Time! time!"
8386
8387Dough-Boy hurried below, glanced at the watch, and reported the exact
8388minute to Ahab.
8389
8390The ship was now kept away from the wind, and she went gently rolling
8391before it. Tashtego reporting that the whales had gone down heading to
8392leeward, we confidently looked to see them again directly in advance of
8393our bows. For that singular craft at times evinced by the Sperm Whale
8394when, sounding with his head in one direction, he nevertheless, while
8395concealed beneath the surface, mills round, and swiftly swims off in the
8396opposite quarter--this deceitfulness of his could not now be in action;
8397for there was no reason to suppose that the fish seen by Tashtego had
8398been in any way alarmed, or indeed knew at all of our vicinity. One of
8399the men selected for shipkeepers--that is, those not appointed to the
8400boats, by this time relieved the Indian at the main-mast head. The
8401sailors at the fore and mizzen had come down; the line tubs were fixed
8402in their places; the cranes were thrust out; the mainyard was backed,
8403and the three boats swung over the sea like three samphire baskets over
8404high cliffs. Outside of the bulwarks their eager crews with one hand
8405clung to the rail, while one foot was expectantly poised on the gunwale.
8406So look the long line of man-of-war's men about to throw themselves on
8407board an enemy's ship.
8408
8409But at this critical instant a sudden exclamation was heard that took
8410every eye from the whale. With a start all glared at dark Ahab, who was
8411surrounded by five dusky phantoms that seemed fresh formed out of air.
8412
8413
8414
8415CHAPTER 48. The First Lowering.
8416
8417
8418The phantoms, for so they then seemed, were flitting on the other side
8419of the deck, and, with a noiseless celerity, were casting loose the
8420tackles and bands of the boat which swung there. This boat had always
8421been deemed one of the spare boats, though technically called the
8422captain's, on account of its hanging from the starboard quarter. The
8423figure that now stood by its bows was tall and swart, with one white
8424tooth evilly protruding from its steel-like lips. A rumpled Chinese
8425jacket of black cotton funereally invested him, with wide black trowsers
8426of the same dark stuff. But strangely crowning this ebonness was a
8427glistening white plaited turban, the living hair braided and coiled
8428round and round upon his head. Less swart in aspect, the companions of
8429this figure were of that vivid, tiger-yellow complexion peculiar to
8430some of the aboriginal natives of the Manillas;--a race notorious for
8431a certain diabolism of subtilty, and by some honest white mariners
8432supposed to be the paid spies and secret confidential agents on the
8433water of the devil, their lord, whose counting-room they suppose to be
8434elsewhere.
8435
8436While yet the wondering ship's company were gazing upon these strangers,
8437Ahab cried out to the white-turbaned old man at their head, "All ready
8438there, Fedallah?"
8439
8440"Ready," was the half-hissed reply.
8441
8442"Lower away then; d'ye hear?" shouting across the deck. "Lower away
8443there, I say."
8444
8445Such was the thunder of his voice, that spite of their amazement the men
8446sprang over the rail; the sheaves whirled round in the blocks; with a
8447wallow, the three boats dropped into the sea; while, with a dexterous,
8448off-handed daring, unknown in any other vocation, the sailors,
8449goat-like, leaped down the rolling ship's side into the tossed boats
8450below.
8451
8452Hardly had they pulled out from under the ship's lee, when a fourth
8453keel, coming from the windward side, pulled round under the stern, and
8454showed the five strangers rowing Ahab, who, standing erect in the stern,
8455loudly hailed Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask, to spread themselves widely,
8456so as to cover a large expanse of water. But with all their eyes again
8457riveted upon the swart Fedallah and his crew, the inmates of the other
8458boats obeyed not the command.
8459
8460"Captain Ahab?--" said Starbuck.
8461
8462"Spread yourselves," cried Ahab; "give way, all four boats. Thou, Flask,
8463pull out more to leeward!"
8464
8465"Aye, aye, sir," cheerily cried little King-Post, sweeping round
8466his great steering oar. "Lay back!" addressing his crew.
8467"There!--there!--there again! There she blows right ahead, boys!--lay
8468back!"
8469
8470"Never heed yonder yellow boys, Archy."
8471
8472"Oh, I don't mind'em, sir," said Archy; "I knew it all before now.
8473Didn't I hear 'em in the hold? And didn't I tell Cabaco here of it? What
8474say ye, Cabaco? They are stowaways, Mr. Flask."
8475
8476"Pull, pull, my fine hearts-alive; pull, my children; pull, my little
8477ones," drawlingly and soothingly sighed Stubb to his crew, some of whom
8478still showed signs of uneasiness. "Why don't you break your backbones,
8479my boys? What is it you stare at? Those chaps in yonder boat? Tut! They
8480are only five more hands come to help us--never mind from where--the
8481more the merrier. Pull, then, do pull; never mind the brimstone--devils
8482are good fellows enough. So, so; there you are now; that's the stroke
8483for a thousand pounds; that's the stroke to sweep the stakes! Hurrah
8484for the gold cup of sperm oil, my heroes! Three cheers, men--all hearts
8485alive! Easy, easy; don't be in a hurry--don't be in a hurry. Why don't
8486you snap your oars, you rascals? Bite something, you dogs! So, so, so,
8487then:--softly, softly! That's it--that's it! long and strong. Give way
8488there, give way! The devil fetch ye, ye ragamuffin rapscallions; ye are
8489all asleep. Stop snoring, ye sleepers, and pull. Pull, will ye? pull,
8490can't ye? pull, won't ye? Why in the name of gudgeons and ginger-cakes
8491don't ye pull?--pull and break something! pull, and start your eyes out!
8492Here!" whipping out the sharp knife from his girdle; "every mother's son
8493of ye draw his knife, and pull with the blade between his teeth. That's
8494it--that's it. Now ye do something; that looks like it, my steel-bits.
8495Start her--start her, my silver-spoons! Start her, marling-spikes!"
8496
8497Stubb's exordium to his crew is given here at large, because he had
8498rather a peculiar way of talking to them in general, and especially in
8499inculcating the religion of rowing. But you must not suppose from this
8500specimen of his sermonizings that he ever flew into downright passions
8501with his congregation. Not at all; and therein consisted his chief
8502peculiarity. He would say the most terrific things to his crew, in a
8503tone so strangely compounded of fun and fury, and the fury seemed so
8504calculated merely as a spice to the fun, that no oarsman could hear such
8505queer invocations without pulling for dear life, and yet pulling for
8506the mere joke of the thing. Besides he all the time looked so easy and
8507indolent himself, so loungingly managed his steering-oar, and so broadly
8508gaped--open-mouthed at times--that the mere sight of such a yawning
8509commander, by sheer force of contrast, acted like a charm upon the crew.
8510Then again, Stubb was one of those odd sort of humorists, whose jollity
8511is sometimes so curiously ambiguous, as to put all inferiors on their
8512guard in the matter of obeying them.
8513
8514In obedience to a sign from Ahab, Starbuck was now pulling obliquely
8515across Stubb's bow; and when for a minute or so the two boats were
8516pretty near to each other, Stubb hailed the mate.
8517
8518"Mr. Starbuck! larboard boat there, ahoy! a word with ye, sir, if ye
8519please!"
8520
8521"Halloa!" returned Starbuck, turning round not a single inch as he
8522spoke; still earnestly but whisperingly urging his crew; his face set
8523like a flint from Stubb's.
8524
8525"What think ye of those yellow boys, sir!"
8526
8527"Smuggled on board, somehow, before the ship sailed. (Strong, strong,
8528boys!)" in a whisper to his crew, then speaking out loud again: "A sad
8529business, Mr. Stubb! (seethe her, seethe her, my lads!) but never mind,
8530Mr. Stubb, all for the best. Let all your crew pull strong, come what
8531will. (Spring, my men, spring!) There's hogsheads of sperm ahead, Mr.
8532Stubb, and that's what ye came for. (Pull, my boys!) Sperm, sperm's the
8533play! This at least is duty; duty and profit hand in hand."
8534
8535"Aye, aye, I thought as much," soliloquized Stubb, when the boats
8536diverged, "as soon as I clapt eye on 'em, I thought so. Aye, and that's
8537what he went into the after hold for, so often, as Dough-Boy long
8538suspected. They were hidden down there. The White Whale's at the bottom
8539of it. Well, well, so be it! Can't be helped! All right! Give way, men!
8540It ain't the White Whale to-day! Give way!"
8541
8542Now the advent of these outlandish strangers at such a critical instant
8543as the lowering of the boats from the deck, this had not unreasonably
8544awakened a sort of superstitious amazement in some of the ship's
8545company; but Archy's fancied discovery having some time previous got
8546abroad among them, though indeed not credited then, this had in some
8547small measure prepared them for the event. It took off the extreme edge
8548of their wonder; and so what with all this and Stubb's confident way
8549of accounting for their appearance, they were for the time freed from
8550superstitious surmisings; though the affair still left abundant room for
8551all manner of wild conjectures as to dark Ahab's precise agency in the
8552matter from the beginning. For me, I silently recalled the mysterious
8553shadows I had seen creeping on board the Pequod during the dim Nantucket
8554dawn, as well as the enigmatical hintings of the unaccountable Elijah.
8555
8556Meantime, Ahab, out of hearing of his officers, having sided the
8557furthest to windward, was still ranging ahead of the other boats; a
8558circumstance bespeaking how potent a crew was pulling him. Those tiger
8559yellow creatures of his seemed all steel and whalebone; like five
8560trip-hammers they rose and fell with regular strokes of strength, which
8561periodically started the boat along the water like a horizontal burst
8562boiler out of a Mississippi steamer. As for Fedallah, who was seen
8563pulling the harpooneer oar, he had thrown aside his black jacket, and
8564displayed his naked chest with the whole part of his body above the
8565gunwale, clearly cut against the alternating depressions of the watery
8566horizon; while at the other end of the boat Ahab, with one arm, like a
8567fencer's, thrown half backward into the air, as if to counterbalance any
8568tendency to trip; Ahab was seen steadily managing his steering oar as in
8569a thousand boat lowerings ere the White Whale had torn him. All at once
8570the outstretched arm gave a peculiar motion and then remained fixed,
8571while the boat's five oars were seen simultaneously peaked. Boat and
8572crew sat motionless on the sea. Instantly the three spread boats in the
8573rear paused on their way. The whales had irregularly settled bodily
8574down into the blue, thus giving no distantly discernible token of the
8575movement, though from his closer vicinity Ahab had observed it.
8576
8577"Every man look out along his oars!" cried Starbuck. "Thou, Queequeg,
8578stand up!"
8579
8580Nimbly springing up on the triangular raised box in the bow, the savage
8581stood erect there, and with intensely eager eyes gazed off towards the
8582spot where the chase had last been descried. Likewise upon the extreme
8583stern of the boat where it was also triangularly platformed level with
8584the gunwale, Starbuck himself was seen coolly and adroitly balancing
8585himself to the jerking tossings of his chip of a craft, and silently
8586eyeing the vast blue eye of the sea.
8587
8588Not very far distant Flask's boat was also lying breathlessly still; its
8589commander recklessly standing upon the top of the loggerhead, a stout
8590sort of post rooted in the keel, and rising some two feet above the
8591level of the stern platform. It is used for catching turns with the
8592whale line. Its top is not more spacious than the palm of a man's hand,
8593and standing upon such a base as that, Flask seemed perched at the
8594mast-head of some ship which had sunk to all but her trucks. But little
8595King-Post was small and short, and at the same time little King-Post was
8596full of a large and tall ambition, so that this loggerhead stand-point
8597of his did by no means satisfy King-Post.
8598
8599"I can't see three seas off; tip us up an oar there, and let me on to
8600that."
8601
8602Upon this, Daggoo, with either hand upon the gunwale to steady his
8603way, swiftly slid aft, and then erecting himself volunteered his lofty
8604shoulders for a pedestal.
8605
8606"Good a mast-head as any, sir. Will you mount?"
8607
8608"That I will, and thank ye very much, my fine fellow; only I wish you
8609fifty feet taller."
8610
8611Whereupon planting his feet firmly against two opposite planks of the
8612boat, the gigantic negro, stooping a little, presented his flat palm to
8613Flask's foot, and then putting Flask's hand on his hearse-plumed head
8614and bidding him spring as he himself should toss, with one dexterous
8615fling landed the little man high and dry on his shoulders. And here was
8616Flask now standing, Daggoo with one lifted arm furnishing him with a
8617breastband to lean against and steady himself by.
8618
8619At any time it is a strange sight to the tyro to see with what wondrous
8620habitude of unconscious skill the whaleman will maintain an erect
8621posture in his boat, even when pitched about by the most riotously
8622perverse and cross-running seas. Still more strange to see him giddily
8623perched upon the loggerhead itself, under such circumstances. But the
8624sight of little Flask mounted upon gigantic Daggoo was yet more curious;
8625for sustaining himself with a cool, indifferent, easy, unthought of,
8626barbaric majesty, the noble negro to every roll of the sea harmoniously
8627rolled his fine form. On his broad back, flaxen-haired Flask seemed
8628a snow-flake. The bearer looked nobler than the rider. Though truly
8629vivacious, tumultuous, ostentatious little Flask would now and then
8630stamp with impatience; but not one added heave did he thereby give to
8631the negro's lordly chest. So have I seen Passion and Vanity stamping the
8632living magnanimous earth, but the earth did not alter her tides and her
8633seasons for that.
8634
8635Meanwhile Stubb, the third mate, betrayed no such far-gazing
8636solicitudes. The whales might have made one of their regular soundings,
8637not a temporary dive from mere fright; and if that were the case,
8638Stubb, as his wont in such cases, it seems, was resolved to solace the
8639languishing interval with his pipe. He withdrew it from his hatband,
8640where he always wore it aslant like a feather. He loaded it, and rammed
8641home the loading with his thumb-end; but hardly had he ignited his match
8642across the rough sandpaper of his hand, when Tashtego, his harpooneer,
8643whose eyes had been setting to windward like two fixed stars, suddenly
8644dropped like light from his erect attitude to his seat, crying out in a
8645quick phrensy of hurry, "Down, down all, and give way!--there they are!"
8646
8647To a landsman, no whale, nor any sign of a herring, would have been
8648visible at that moment; nothing but a troubled bit of greenish white
8649water, and thin scattered puffs of vapour hovering over it, and
8650suffusingly blowing off to leeward, like the confused scud from white
8651rolling billows. The air around suddenly vibrated and tingled, as it
8652were, like the air over intensely heated plates of iron. Beneath this
8653atmospheric waving and curling, and partially beneath a thin layer of
8654water, also, the whales were swimming. Seen in advance of all the other
8655indications, the puffs of vapour they spouted, seemed their forerunning
8656couriers and detached flying outriders.
8657
8658All four boats were now in keen pursuit of that one spot of troubled
8659water and air. But it bade fair to outstrip them; it flew on and on,
8660as a mass of interblending bubbles borne down a rapid stream from the
8661hills.
8662
8663"Pull, pull, my good boys," said Starbuck, in the lowest possible but
8664intensest concentrated whisper to his men; while the sharp fixed glance
8665from his eyes darted straight ahead of the bow, almost seemed as two
8666visible needles in two unerring binnacle compasses. He did not say much
8667to his crew, though, nor did his crew say anything to him. Only the
8668silence of the boat was at intervals startlingly pierced by one of his
8669peculiar whispers, now harsh with command, now soft with entreaty.
8670
8671How different the loud little King-Post. "Sing out and say something,
8672my hearties. Roar and pull, my thunderbolts! Beach me, beach me on their
8673black backs, boys; only do that for me, and I'll sign over to you my
8674Martha's Vineyard plantation, boys; including wife and children, boys.
8675Lay me on--lay me on! O Lord, Lord! but I shall go stark, staring mad!
8676See! see that white water!" And so shouting, he pulled his hat from his
8677head, and stamped up and down on it; then picking it up, flirted it far
8678off upon the sea; and finally fell to rearing and plunging in the boat's
8679stern like a crazed colt from the prairie.
8680
8681"Look at that chap now," philosophically drawled Stubb, who, with his
8682unlighted short pipe, mechanically retained between his teeth, at a
8683short distance, followed after--"He's got fits, that Flask has. Fits?
8684yes, give him fits--that's the very word--pitch fits into 'em. Merrily,
8685merrily, hearts-alive. Pudding for supper, you know;--merry's the word.
8686Pull, babes--pull, sucklings--pull, all. But what the devil are you
8687hurrying about? Softly, softly, and steadily, my men. Only pull, and
8688keep pulling; nothing more. Crack all your backbones, and bite your
8689knives in two--that's all. Take it easy--why don't ye take it easy, I
8690say, and burst all your livers and lungs!"
8691
8692But what it was that inscrutable Ahab said to that tiger-yellow crew of
8693his--these were words best omitted here; for you live under the blessed
8694light of the evangelical land. Only the infidel sharks in the audacious
8695seas may give ear to such words, when, with tornado brow, and eyes of
8696red murder, and foam-glued lips, Ahab leaped after his prey.
8697
8698Meanwhile, all the boats tore on. The repeated specific allusions of
8699Flask to "that whale," as he called the fictitious monster which
8700he declared to be incessantly tantalizing his boat's bow with its
8701tail--these allusions of his were at times so vivid and life-like, that
8702they would cause some one or two of his men to snatch a fearful look
8703over the shoulder. But this was against all rule; for the oarsmen
8704must put out their eyes, and ram a skewer through their necks; usage
8705pronouncing that they must have no organs but ears, and no limbs but
8706arms, in these critical moments.
8707
8708It was a sight full of quick wonder and awe! The vast swells of the
8709omnipotent sea; the surging, hollow roar they made, as they rolled along
8710the eight gunwales, like gigantic bowls in a boundless bowling-green;
8711the brief suspended agony of the boat, as it would tip for an instant on
8712the knife-like edge of the sharper waves, that almost seemed threatening
8713to cut it in two; the sudden profound dip into the watery glens and
8714hollows; the keen spurrings and goadings to gain the top of the opposite
8715hill; the headlong, sled-like slide down its other side;--all these,
8716with the cries of the headsmen and harpooneers, and the shuddering gasps
8717of the oarsmen, with the wondrous sight of the ivory Pequod bearing
8718down upon her boats with outstretched sails, like a wild hen after her
8719screaming brood;--all this was thrilling.
8720
8721Not the raw recruit, marching from the bosom of his wife into the fever
8722heat of his first battle; not the dead man's ghost encountering the
8723first unknown phantom in the other world;--neither of these can feel
8724stranger and stronger emotions than that man does, who for the first
8725time finds himself pulling into the charmed, churned circle of the
8726hunted sperm whale.
8727
8728The dancing white water made by the chase was now becoming more and more
8729visible, owing to the increasing darkness of the dun cloud-shadows
8730flung upon the sea. The jets of vapour no longer blended, but tilted
8731everywhere to right and left; the whales seemed separating their wakes.
8732The boats were pulled more apart; Starbuck giving chase to three whales
8733running dead to leeward. Our sail was now set, and, with the still
8734rising wind, we rushed along; the boat going with such madness through
8735the water, that the lee oars could scarcely be worked rapidly enough to
8736escape being torn from the row-locks.
8737
8738Soon we were running through a suffusing wide veil of mist; neither ship
8739nor boat to be seen.
8740
8741"Give way, men," whispered Starbuck, drawing still further aft the sheet
8742of his sail; "there is time to kill a fish yet before the squall comes.
8743There's white water again!--close to! Spring!"
8744
8745Soon after, two cries in quick succession on each side of us denoted
8746that the other boats had got fast; but hardly were they overheard, when
8747with a lightning-like hurtling whisper Starbuck said: "Stand up!" and
8748Queequeg, harpoon in hand, sprang to his feet.
8749
8750Though not one of the oarsmen was then facing the life and death peril
8751so close to them ahead, yet with their eyes on the intense countenance
8752of the mate in the stern of the boat, they knew that the imminent
8753instant had come; they heard, too, an enormous wallowing sound as of
8754fifty elephants stirring in their litter. Meanwhile the boat was still
8755booming through the mist, the waves curling and hissing around us like
8756the erected crests of enraged serpents.
8757
8758"That's his hump. THERE, THERE, give it to him!" whispered Starbuck.
8759
8760A short rushing sound leaped out of the boat; it was the darted iron of
8761Queequeg. Then all in one welded commotion came an invisible push from
8762astern, while forward the boat seemed striking on a ledge; the sail
8763collapsed and exploded; a gush of scalding vapour shot up near by;
8764something rolled and tumbled like an earthquake beneath us. The whole
8765crew were half suffocated as they were tossed helter-skelter into the
8766white curdling cream of the squall. Squall, whale, and harpoon had all
8767blended together; and the whale, merely grazed by the iron, escaped.
8768
8769Though completely swamped, the boat was nearly unharmed. Swimming round
8770it we picked up the floating oars, and lashing them across the gunwale,
8771tumbled back to our places. There we sat up to our knees in the sea, the
8772water covering every rib and plank, so that to our downward gazing eyes
8773the suspended craft seemed a coral boat grown up to us from the bottom
8774of the ocean.
8775
8776The wind increased to a howl; the waves dashed their bucklers together;
8777the whole squall roared, forked, and crackled around us like a white
8778fire upon the prairie, in which, unconsumed, we were burning; immortal
8779in these jaws of death! In vain we hailed the other boats; as well roar
8780to the live coals down the chimney of a flaming furnace as hail those
8781boats in that storm. Meanwhile the driving scud, rack, and mist, grew
8782darker with the shadows of night; no sign of the ship could be seen.
8783The rising sea forbade all attempts to bale out the boat. The oars were
8784useless as propellers, performing now the office of life-preservers.
8785So, cutting the lashing of the waterproof match keg, after many failures
8786Starbuck contrived to ignite the lamp in the lantern; then stretching
8787it on a waif pole, handed it to Queequeg as the standard-bearer of this
8788forlorn hope. There, then, he sat, holding up that imbecile candle in
8789the heart of that almighty forlornness. There, then, he sat, the sign
8790and symbol of a man without faith, hopelessly holding up hope in the
8791midst of despair.
8792
8793Wet, drenched through, and shivering cold, despairing of ship or boat,
8794we lifted up our eyes as the dawn came on. The mist still spread over
8795the sea, the empty lantern lay crushed in the bottom of the boat.
8796Suddenly Queequeg started to his feet, hollowing his hand to his ear.
8797We all heard a faint creaking, as of ropes and yards hitherto muffled by
8798the storm. The sound came nearer and nearer; the thick mists were dimly
8799parted by a huge, vague form. Affrighted, we all sprang into the sea as
8800the ship at last loomed into view, bearing right down upon us within a
8801distance of not much more than its length.
8802
8803Floating on the waves we saw the abandoned boat, as for one instant it
8804tossed and gaped beneath the ship's bows like a chip at the base of a
8805cataract; and then the vast hull rolled over it, and it was seen no
8806more till it came up weltering astern. Again we swam for it, were dashed
8807against it by the seas, and were at last taken up and safely landed on
8808board. Ere the squall came close to, the other boats had cut loose from
8809their fish and returned to the ship in good time. The ship had given us
8810up, but was still cruising, if haply it might light upon some token of
8811our perishing,--an oar or a lance pole.
8812
8813
8814
8815CHAPTER 49. The Hyena.
8816
8817
8818There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair
8819we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical
8820joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than
8821suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own. However,
8822nothing dispirits, and nothing seems worth while disputing. He bolts
8823down all events, all creeds, and beliefs, and persuasions, all hard
8824things visible and invisible, never mind how knobby; as an ostrich of
8825potent digestion gobbles down bullets and gun flints. And as for small
8826difficulties and worryings, prospects of sudden disaster, peril of
8827life and limb; all these, and death itself, seem to him only sly,
8828good-natured hits, and jolly punches in the side bestowed by the unseen
8829and unaccountable old joker. That odd sort of wayward mood I am speaking
8830of, comes over a man only in some time of extreme tribulation; it comes
8831in the very midst of his earnestness, so that what just before might
8832have seemed to him a thing most momentous, now seems but a part of the
8833general joke. There is nothing like the perils of whaling to breed this
8834free and easy sort of genial, desperado philosophy; and with it I now
8835regarded this whole voyage of the Pequod, and the great White Whale its
8836object.
8837
8838"Queequeg," said I, when they had dragged me, the last man, to the deck,
8839and I was still shaking myself in my jacket to fling off the water;
8840"Queequeg, my fine friend, does this sort of thing often happen?"
8841Without much emotion, though soaked through just like me, he gave me to
8842understand that such things did often happen.
8843
8844"Mr. Stubb," said I, turning to that worthy, who, buttoned up in his
8845oil-jacket, was now calmly smoking his pipe in the rain; "Mr. Stubb, I
8846think I have heard you say that of all whalemen you ever met, our chief
8847mate, Mr. Starbuck, is by far the most careful and prudent. I suppose
8848then, that going plump on a flying whale with your sail set in a foggy
8849squall is the height of a whaleman's discretion?"
8850
8851"Certain. I've lowered for whales from a leaking ship in a gale off Cape
8852Horn."
8853
8854"Mr. Flask," said I, turning to little King-Post, who was standing close
8855by; "you are experienced in these things, and I am not. Will you tell
8856me whether it is an unalterable law in this fishery, Mr. Flask, for an
8857oarsman to break his own back pulling himself back-foremost into death's
8858jaws?"
8859
8860"Can't you twist that smaller?" said Flask. "Yes, that's the law.
8861I should like to see a boat's crew backing water up to a whale face
8862foremost. Ha, ha! the whale would give them squint for squint, mind
8863that!"
8864
8865Here then, from three impartial witnesses, I had a deliberate statement
8866of the entire case. Considering, therefore, that squalls and capsizings
8867in the water and consequent bivouacks on the deep, were matters
8868of common occurrence in this kind of life; considering that at the
8869superlatively critical instant of going on to the whale I must resign my
8870life into the hands of him who steered the boat--oftentimes a fellow who
8871at that very moment is in his impetuousness upon the point of scuttling
8872the craft with his own frantic stampings; considering that the
8873particular disaster to our own particular boat was chiefly to be imputed
8874to Starbuck's driving on to his whale almost in the teeth of a squall,
8875and considering that Starbuck, notwithstanding, was famous for his
8876great heedfulness in the fishery; considering that I belonged to this
8877uncommonly prudent Starbuck's boat; and finally considering in what a
8878devil's chase I was implicated, touching the White Whale: taking all
8879things together, I say, I thought I might as well go below and make a
8880rough draft of my will. "Queequeg," said I, "come along, you shall be my
8881lawyer, executor, and legatee."
8882
8883It may seem strange that of all men sailors should be tinkering at their
8884last wills and testaments, but there are no people in the world more
8885fond of that diversion. This was the fourth time in my nautical life
8886that I had done the same thing. After the ceremony was concluded upon
8887the present occasion, I felt all the easier; a stone was rolled away
8888from my heart. Besides, all the days I should now live would be as good
8889as the days that Lazarus lived after his resurrection; a supplementary
8890clean gain of so many months or weeks as the case might be. I survived
8891myself; my death and burial were locked up in my chest. I looked
8892round me tranquilly and contentedly, like a quiet ghost with a clean
8893conscience sitting inside the bars of a snug family vault.
8894
8895Now then, thought I, unconsciously rolling up the sleeves of my frock,
8896here goes for a cool, collected dive at death and destruction, and the
8897devil fetch the hindmost.
8898
8899
8900
8901CHAPTER 50. Ahab's Boat and Crew. Fedallah.
8902
8903
8904"Who would have thought it, Flask!" cried Stubb; "if I had but one leg
8905you would not catch me in a boat, unless maybe to stop the plug-hole
8906with my timber toe. Oh! he's a wonderful old man!"
8907
8908"I don't think it so strange, after all, on that account," said Flask.
8909"If his leg were off at the hip, now, it would be a different thing.
8910That would disable him; but he has one knee, and good part of the other
8911left, you know."
8912
8913"I don't know that, my little man; I never yet saw him kneel."
8914
8915
8916Among whale-wise people it has often been argued whether, considering
8917the paramount importance of his life to the success of the voyage, it is
8918right for a whaling captain to jeopardize that life in the active perils
8919of the chase. So Tamerlane's soldiers often argued with tears in their
8920eyes, whether that invaluable life of his ought to be carried into the
8921thickest of the fight.
8922
8923But with Ahab the question assumed a modified aspect. Considering
8924that with two legs man is but a hobbling wight in all times of danger;
8925considering that the pursuit of whales is always under great and
8926extraordinary difficulties; that every individual moment, indeed, then
8927comprises a peril; under these circumstances is it wise for any
8928maimed man to enter a whale-boat in the hunt? As a general thing, the
8929joint-owners of the Pequod must have plainly thought not.
8930
8931Ahab well knew that although his friends at home would think little of
8932his entering a boat in certain comparatively harmless vicissitudes of
8933the chase, for the sake of being near the scene of action and giving
8934his orders in person, yet for Captain Ahab to have a boat actually
8935apportioned to him as a regular headsman in the hunt--above all for
8936Captain Ahab to be supplied with five extra men, as that same boat's
8937crew, he well knew that such generous conceits never entered the heads
8938of the owners of the Pequod. Therefore he had not solicited a boat's
8939crew from them, nor had he in any way hinted his desires on that head.
8940Nevertheless he had taken private measures of his own touching all
8941that matter. Until Cabaco's published discovery, the sailors had little
8942foreseen it, though to be sure when, after being a little while out
8943of port, all hands had concluded the customary business of fitting the
8944whaleboats for service; when some time after this Ahab was now and then
8945found bestirring himself in the matter of making thole-pins with his
8946own hands for what was thought to be one of the spare boats, and even
8947solicitously cutting the small wooden skewers, which when the line is
8948running out are pinned over the groove in the bow: when all this was
8949observed in him, and particularly his solicitude in having an extra
8950coat of sheathing in the bottom of the boat, as if to make it better
8951withstand the pointed pressure of his ivory limb; and also the anxiety
8952he evinced in exactly shaping the thigh board, or clumsy cleat, as it is
8953sometimes called, the horizontal piece in the boat's bow for bracing the
8954knee against in darting or stabbing at the whale; when it was observed
8955how often he stood up in that boat with his solitary knee fixed in the
8956semi-circular depression in the cleat, and with the carpenter's chisel
8957gouged out a little here and straightened it a little there; all these
8958things, I say, had awakened much interest and curiosity at the time. But
8959almost everybody supposed that this particular preparative heedfulness
8960in Ahab must only be with a view to the ultimate chase of Moby Dick;
8961for he had already revealed his intention to hunt that mortal monster
8962in person. But such a supposition did by no means involve the remotest
8963suspicion as to any boat's crew being assigned to that boat.
8964
8965Now, with the subordinate phantoms, what wonder remained soon waned
8966away; for in a whaler wonders soon wane. Besides, now and then such
8967unaccountable odds and ends of strange nations come up from the unknown
8968nooks and ash-holes of the earth to man these floating outlaws of
8969whalers; and the ships themselves often pick up such queer castaway
8970creatures found tossing about the open sea on planks, bits of wreck,
8971oars, whaleboats, canoes, blown-off Japanese junks, and what not; that
8972Beelzebub himself might climb up the side and step down into the cabin
8973to chat with the captain, and it would not create any unsubduable
8974excitement in the forecastle.
8975
8976But be all this as it may, certain it is that while the subordinate
8977phantoms soon found their place among the crew, though still as it were
8978somehow distinct from them, yet that hair-turbaned Fedallah remained
8979a muffled mystery to the last. Whence he came in a mannerly world like
8980this, by what sort of unaccountable tie he soon evinced himself to be
8981linked with Ahab's peculiar fortunes; nay, so far as to have some sort
8982of a half-hinted influence; Heaven knows, but it might have been even
8983authority over him; all this none knew. But one cannot sustain
8984an indifferent air concerning Fedallah. He was such a creature as
8985civilized, domestic people in the temperate zone only see in their
8986dreams, and that but dimly; but the like of whom now and then glide
8987among the unchanging Asiatic communities, especially the Oriental isles
8988to the east of the continent--those insulated, immemorial, unalterable
8989countries, which even in these modern days still preserve much of the
8990ghostly aboriginalness of earth's primal generations, when the memory of
8991the first man was a distinct recollection, and all men his descendants,
8992unknowing whence he came, eyed each other as real phantoms, and asked of
8993the sun and the moon why they were created and to what end; when though,
8994according to Genesis, the angels indeed consorted with the daughters of
8995men, the devils also, add the uncanonical Rabbins, indulged in mundane
8996amours.
8997
8998
8999
9000CHAPTER 51. The Spirit-Spout.
9001
9002
9003Days, weeks passed, and under easy sail, the ivory Pequod had slowly
9004swept across four several cruising-grounds; that off the Azores; off the
9005Cape de Verdes; on the Plate (so called), being off the mouth of the
9006Rio de la Plata; and the Carrol Ground, an unstaked, watery locality,
9007southerly from St. Helena.
9008
9009It was while gliding through these latter waters that one serene and
9010moonlight night, when all the waves rolled by like scrolls of silver;
9011and, by their soft, suffusing seethings, made what seemed a silvery
9012silence, not a solitude; on such a silent night a silvery jet was seen
9013far in advance of the white bubbles at the bow. Lit up by the moon, it
9014looked celestial; seemed some plumed and glittering god uprising from
9015the sea. Fedallah first descried this jet. For of these moonlight
9016nights, it was his wont to mount to the main-mast head, and stand a
9017look-out there, with the same precision as if it had been day. And yet,
9018though herds of whales were seen by night, not one whaleman in a hundred
9019would venture a lowering for them. You may think with what emotions,
9020then, the seamen beheld this old Oriental perched aloft at such unusual
9021hours; his turban and the moon, companions in one sky. But when, after
9022spending his uniform interval there for several successive nights
9023without uttering a single sound; when, after all this silence, his
9024unearthly voice was heard announcing that silvery, moon-lit jet, every
9025reclining mariner started to his feet as if some winged spirit had
9026lighted in the rigging, and hailed the mortal crew. "There she blows!"
9027Had the trump of judgment blown, they could not have quivered more; yet
9028still they felt no terror; rather pleasure. For though it was a most
9029unwonted hour, yet so impressive was the cry, and so deliriously
9030exciting, that almost every soul on board instinctively desired a
9031lowering.
9032
9033Walking the deck with quick, side-lunging strides, Ahab commanded the
9034t'gallant sails and royals to be set, and every stunsail spread. The
9035best man in the ship must take the helm. Then, with every mast-head
9036manned, the piled-up craft rolled down before the wind. The strange,
9037upheaving, lifting tendency of the taffrail breeze filling the hollows
9038of so many sails, made the buoyant, hovering deck to feel like air
9039beneath the feet; while still she rushed along, as if two antagonistic
9040influences were struggling in her--one to mount direct to heaven, the
9041other to drive yawingly to some horizontal goal. And had you watched
9042Ahab's face that night, you would have thought that in him also two
9043different things were warring. While his one live leg made lively echoes
9044along the deck, every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a coffin-tap.
9045On life and death this old man walked. But though the ship so swiftly
9046sped, and though from every eye, like arrows, the eager glances shot,
9047yet the silvery jet was no more seen that night. Every sailor swore he
9048saw it once, but not a second time.
9049
9050This midnight-spout had almost grown a forgotten thing, when, some days
9051after, lo! at the same silent hour, it was again announced: again it
9052was descried by all; but upon making sail to overtake it, once more it
9053disappeared as if it had never been. And so it served us night after
9054night, till no one heeded it but to wonder at it. Mysteriously
9055jetted into the clear moonlight, or starlight, as the case might be;
9056disappearing again for one whole day, or two days, or three; and somehow
9057seeming at every distinct repetition to be advancing still further and
9058further in our van, this solitary jet seemed for ever alluring us on.
9059
9060Nor with the immemorial superstition of their race, and in accordance
9061with the preternaturalness, as it seemed, which in many things invested
9062the Pequod, were there wanting some of the seamen who swore that
9063whenever and wherever descried; at however remote times, or in however
9064far apart latitudes and longitudes, that unnearable spout was cast
9065by one self-same whale; and that whale, Moby Dick. For a time, there
9066reigned, too, a sense of peculiar dread at this flitting apparition,
9067as if it were treacherously beckoning us on and on, in order that the
9068monster might turn round upon us, and rend us at last in the remotest
9069and most savage seas.
9070
9071These temporary apprehensions, so vague but so awful, derived a wondrous
9072potency from the contrasting serenity of the weather, in which, beneath
9073all its blue blandness, some thought there lurked a devilish charm, as
9074for days and days we voyaged along, through seas so wearily, lonesomely
9075mild, that all space, in repugnance to our vengeful errand, seemed
9076vacating itself of life before our urn-like prow.
9077
9078But, at last, when turning to the eastward, the Cape winds began howling
9079around us, and we rose and fell upon the long, troubled seas that are
9080there; when the ivory-tusked Pequod sharply bowed to the blast, and
9081gored the dark waves in her madness, till, like showers of silver chips,
9082the foam-flakes flew over her bulwarks; then all this desolate vacuity
9083of life went away, but gave place to sights more dismal than before.
9084
9085Close to our bows, strange forms in the water darted hither and thither
9086before us; while thick in our rear flew the inscrutable sea-ravens. And
9087every morning, perched on our stays, rows of these birds were seen; and
9088spite of our hootings, for a long time obstinately clung to the hemp,
9089as though they deemed our ship some drifting, uninhabited craft; a thing
9090appointed to desolation, and therefore fit roosting-place for their
9091homeless selves. And heaved and heaved, still unrestingly heaved the
9092black sea, as if its vast tides were a conscience; and the great mundane
9093soul were in anguish and remorse for the long sin and suffering it had
9094bred.
9095
9096Cape of Good Hope, do they call ye? Rather Cape Tormentoso, as called
9097of yore; for long allured by the perfidious silences that before had
9098attended us, we found ourselves launched into this tormented sea,
9099where guilty beings transformed into those fowls and these fish, seemed
9100condemned to swim on everlastingly without any haven in store, or beat
9101that black air without any horizon. But calm, snow-white, and unvarying;
9102still directing its fountain of feathers to the sky; still beckoning us
9103on from before, the solitary jet would at times be descried.
9104
9105During all this blackness of the elements, Ahab, though assuming for the
9106time the almost continual command of the drenched and dangerous deck,
9107manifested the gloomiest reserve; and more seldom than ever addressed
9108his mates. In tempestuous times like these, after everything above and
9109aloft has been secured, nothing more can be done but passively to await
9110the issue of the gale. Then Captain and crew become practical fatalists.
9111So, with his ivory leg inserted into its accustomed hole, and with one
9112hand firmly grasping a shroud, Ahab for hours and hours would stand
9113gazing dead to windward, while an occasional squall of sleet or snow
9114would all but congeal his very eyelashes together. Meantime, the crew
9115driven from the forward part of the ship by the perilous seas that
9116burstingly broke over its bows, stood in a line along the bulwarks in
9117the waist; and the better to guard against the leaping waves, each man
9118had slipped himself into a sort of bowline secured to the rail, in which
9119he swung as in a loosened belt. Few or no words were spoken; and the
9120silent ship, as if manned by painted sailors in wax, day after day tore
9121on through all the swift madness and gladness of the demoniac waves.
9122By night the same muteness of humanity before the shrieks of the
9123ocean prevailed; still in silence the men swung in the bowlines; still
9124wordless Ahab stood up to the blast. Even when wearied nature seemed
9125demanding repose he would not seek that repose in his hammock. Never
9126could Starbuck forget the old man's aspect, when one night going down
9127into the cabin to mark how the barometer stood, he saw him with
9128closed eyes sitting straight in his floor-screwed chair; the rain
9129and half-melted sleet of the storm from which he had some time before
9130emerged, still slowly dripping from the unremoved hat and coat. On the
9131table beside him lay unrolled one of those charts of tides and currents
9132which have previously been spoken of. His lantern swung from his tightly
9133clenched hand. Though the body was erect, the head was thrown back so
9134that the closed eyes were pointed towards the needle of the tell-tale
9135that swung from a beam in the ceiling.*
9136
9137
9138*The cabin-compass is called the tell-tale, because without going to the
9139compass at the helm, the Captain, while below, can inform himself of the
9140course of the ship.
9141
9142
9143Terrible old man! thought Starbuck with a shudder, sleeping in this
9144gale, still thou steadfastly eyest thy purpose.
9145
9146
9147
9148CHAPTER 52. The Albatross.
9149
9150
9151South-eastward from the Cape, off the distant Crozetts, a good cruising
9152ground for Right Whalemen, a sail loomed ahead, the Goney (Albatross)
9153by name. As she slowly drew nigh, from my lofty perch at the
9154fore-mast-head, I had a good view of that sight so remarkable to a tyro
9155in the far ocean fisheries--a whaler at sea, and long absent from home.
9156
9157As if the waves had been fullers, this craft was bleached like the
9158skeleton of a stranded walrus. All down her sides, this spectral
9159appearance was traced with long channels of reddened rust, while all her
9160spars and her rigging were like the thick branches of trees furred over
9161with hoar-frost. Only her lower sails were set. A wild sight it was to
9162see her long-bearded look-outs at those three mast-heads. They seemed
9163clad in the skins of beasts, so torn and bepatched the raiment that had
9164survived nearly four years of cruising. Standing in iron hoops nailed to
9165the mast, they swayed and swung over a fathomless sea; and though, when
9166the ship slowly glided close under our stern, we six men in the air
9167came so nigh to each other that we might almost have leaped from the
9168mast-heads of one ship to those of the other; yet, those forlorn-looking
9169fishermen, mildly eyeing us as they passed, said not one word to our own
9170look-outs, while the quarter-deck hail was being heard from below.
9171
9172"Ship ahoy! Have ye seen the White Whale?"
9173
9174But as the strange captain, leaning over the pallid bulwarks, was in the
9175act of putting his trumpet to his mouth, it somehow fell from his hand
9176into the sea; and the wind now rising amain, he in vain strove to make
9177himself heard without it. Meantime his ship was still increasing the
9178distance between. While in various silent ways the seamen of the Pequod
9179were evincing their observance of this ominous incident at the first
9180mere mention of the White Whale's name to another ship, Ahab for a
9181moment paused; it almost seemed as though he would have lowered a boat
9182to board the stranger, had not the threatening wind forbade. But taking
9183advantage of his windward position, he again seized his trumpet, and
9184knowing by her aspect that the stranger vessel was a Nantucketer and
9185shortly bound home, he loudly hailed--"Ahoy there! This is the Pequod,
9186bound round the world! Tell them to address all future letters to the
9187Pacific ocean! and this time three years, if I am not at home, tell them
9188to address them to--"
9189
9190At that moment the two wakes were fairly crossed, and instantly, then,
9191in accordance with their singular ways, shoals of small harmless fish,
9192that for some days before had been placidly swimming by our side, darted
9193away with what seemed shuddering fins, and ranged themselves fore and
9194aft with the stranger's flanks. Though in the course of his continual
9195voyagings Ahab must often before have noticed a similar sight, yet, to
9196any monomaniac man, the veriest trifles capriciously carry meanings.
9197
9198"Swim away from me, do ye?" murmured Ahab, gazing over into the water.
9199There seemed but little in the words, but the tone conveyed more of deep
9200helpless sadness than the insane old man had ever before evinced. But
9201turning to the steersman, who thus far had been holding the ship in the
9202wind to diminish her headway, he cried out in his old lion voice,--"Up
9203helm! Keep her off round the world!"
9204
9205Round the world! There is much in that sound to inspire proud feelings;
9206but whereto does all that circumnavigation conduct? Only through
9207numberless perils to the very point whence we started, where those that
9208we left behind secure, were all the time before us.
9209
9210Were this world an endless plain, and by sailing eastward we could for
9211ever reach new distances, and discover sights more sweet and strange
9212than any Cyclades or Islands of King Solomon, then there were promise
9213in the voyage. But in pursuit of those far mysteries we dream of, or in
9214tormented chase of that demon phantom that, some time or other, swims
9215before all human hearts; while chasing such over this round globe, they
9216either lead us on in barren mazes or midway leave us whelmed.
9217
9218
9219
9220CHAPTER 53. The Gam.
9221
9222
9223The ostensible reason why Ahab did not go on board of the whaler we had
9224spoken was this: the wind and sea betokened storms. But even had
9225this not been the case, he would not after all, perhaps, have boarded
9226her--judging by his subsequent conduct on similar occasions--if so it
9227had been that, by the process of hailing, he had obtained a negative
9228answer to the question he put. For, as it eventually turned out, he
9229cared not to consort, even for five minutes, with any stranger captain,
9230except he could contribute some of that information he so absorbingly
9231sought. But all this might remain inadequately estimated, were not
9232something said here of the peculiar usages of whaling-vessels when
9233meeting each other in foreign seas, and especially on a common
9234cruising-ground.
9235
9236If two strangers crossing the Pine Barrens in New York State, or the
9237equally desolate Salisbury Plain in England; if casually encountering
9238each other in such inhospitable wilds, these twain, for the life of
9239them, cannot well avoid a mutual salutation; and stopping for a moment
9240to interchange the news; and, perhaps, sitting down for a while
9241and resting in concert: then, how much more natural that upon the
9242illimitable Pine Barrens and Salisbury Plains of the sea, two whaling
9243vessels descrying each other at the ends of the earth--off lone
9244Fanning's Island, or the far away King's Mills; how much more natural,
9245I say, that under such circumstances these ships should not only
9246interchange hails, but come into still closer, more friendly and
9247sociable contact. And especially would this seem to be a matter of
9248course, in the case of vessels owned in one seaport, and whose captains,
9249officers, and not a few of the men are personally known to each other;
9250and consequently, have all sorts of dear domestic things to talk about.
9251
9252For the long absent ship, the outward-bounder, perhaps, has letters on
9253board; at any rate, she will be sure to let her have some papers of a
9254date a year or two later than the last one on her blurred and thumb-worn
9255files. And in return for that courtesy, the outward-bound ship would
9256receive the latest whaling intelligence from the cruising-ground to
9257which she may be destined, a thing of the utmost importance to her. And
9258in degree, all this will hold true concerning whaling vessels crossing
9259each other's track on the cruising-ground itself, even though they
9260are equally long absent from home. For one of them may have received a
9261transfer of letters from some third, and now far remote vessel; and
9262some of those letters may be for the people of the ship she now meets.
9263Besides, they would exchange the whaling news, and have an agreeable
9264chat. For not only would they meet with all the sympathies of sailors,
9265but likewise with all the peculiar congenialities arising from a common
9266pursuit and mutually shared privations and perils.
9267
9268Nor would difference of country make any very essential difference;
9269that is, so long as both parties speak one language, as is the case
9270with Americans and English. Though, to be sure, from the small number of
9271English whalers, such meetings do not very often occur, and when they
9272do occur there is too apt to be a sort of shyness between them; for your
9273Englishman is rather reserved, and your Yankee, he does not fancy that
9274sort of thing in anybody but himself. Besides, the English whalers
9275sometimes affect a kind of metropolitan superiority over the American
9276whalers; regarding the long, lean Nantucketer, with his nondescript
9277provincialisms, as a sort of sea-peasant. But where this superiority
9278in the English whalemen does really consist, it would be hard to say,
9279seeing that the Yankees in one day, collectively, kill more whales than
9280all the English, collectively, in ten years. But this is a harmless
9281little foible in the English whale-hunters, which the Nantucketer does
9282not take much to heart; probably, because he knows that he has a few
9283foibles himself.
9284
9285So, then, we see that of all ships separately sailing the sea, the
9286whalers have most reason to be sociable--and they are so. Whereas, some
9287merchant ships crossing each other's wake in the mid-Atlantic, will
9288oftentimes pass on without so much as a single word of recognition,
9289mutually cutting each other on the high seas, like a brace of dandies in
9290Broadway; and all the time indulging, perhaps, in finical criticism upon
9291each other's rig. As for Men-of-War, when they chance to meet at sea,
9292they first go through such a string of silly bowings and scrapings, such
9293a ducking of ensigns, that there does not seem to be much right-down
9294hearty good-will and brotherly love about it at all. As touching
9295Slave-ships meeting, why, they are in such a prodigious hurry, they run
9296away from each other as soon as possible. And as for Pirates, when they
9297chance to cross each other's cross-bones, the first hail is--"How many
9298skulls?"--the same way that whalers hail--"How many barrels?" And that
9299question once answered, pirates straightway steer apart, for they are
9300infernal villains on both sides, and don't like to see overmuch of each
9301other's villanous likenesses.
9302
9303But look at the godly, honest, unostentatious, hospitable, sociable,
9304free-and-easy whaler! What does the whaler do when she meets another
9305whaler in any sort of decent weather? She has a "GAM," a thing so
9306utterly unknown to all other ships that they never heard of the name
9307even; and if by chance they should hear of it, they only grin at it, and
9308repeat gamesome stuff about "spouters" and "blubber-boilers," and such
9309like pretty exclamations. Why it is that all Merchant-seamen, and also
9310all Pirates and Man-of-War's men, and Slave-ship sailors, cherish such
9311a scornful feeling towards Whale-ships; this is a question it would be
9312hard to answer. Because, in the case of pirates, say, I should like to
9313know whether that profession of theirs has any peculiar glory about
9314it. It sometimes ends in uncommon elevation, indeed; but only at the
9315gallows. And besides, when a man is elevated in that odd fashion, he has
9316no proper foundation for his superior altitude. Hence, I conclude,
9317that in boasting himself to be high lifted above a whaleman, in that
9318assertion the pirate has no solid basis to stand on.
9319
9320But what is a GAM? You might wear out your index-finger running up and
9321down the columns of dictionaries, and never find the word. Dr. Johnson
9322never attained to that erudition; Noah Webster's ark does not hold it.
9323Nevertheless, this same expressive word has now for many years been in
9324constant use among some fifteen thousand true born Yankees. Certainly,
9325it needs a definition, and should be incorporated into the Lexicon. With
9326that view, let me learnedly define it.
9327
9328GAM. NOUN--A SOCIAL MEETING OF TWO (OR MORE) WHALESHIPS, GENERALLY ON A
9329CRUISING-GROUND; WHEN, AFTER EXCHANGING HAILS, THEY EXCHANGE VISITS BY
9330BOATS' CREWS; THE TWO CAPTAINS REMAINING, FOR THE TIME, ON BOARD OF ONE
9331SHIP, AND THE TWO CHIEF MATES ON THE OTHER.
9332
9333There is another little item about Gamming which must not be forgotten
9334here. All professions have their own little peculiarities of detail; so
9335has the whale fishery. In a pirate, man-of-war, or slave ship, when
9336the captain is rowed anywhere in his boat, he always sits in the stern
9337sheets on a comfortable, sometimes cushioned seat there, and often
9338steers himself with a pretty little milliner's tiller decorated with
9339gay cords and ribbons. But the whale-boat has no seat astern, no sofa of
9340that sort whatever, and no tiller at all. High times indeed, if whaling
9341captains were wheeled about the water on castors like gouty old aldermen
9342in patent chairs. And as for a tiller, the whale-boat never admits of
9343any such effeminacy; and therefore as in gamming a complete boat's crew
9344must leave the ship, and hence as the boat steerer or harpooneer is of
9345the number, that subordinate is the steersman upon the occasion, and
9346the captain, having no place to sit in, is pulled off to his visit
9347all standing like a pine tree. And often you will notice that being
9348conscious of the eyes of the whole visible world resting on him from
9349the sides of the two ships, this standing captain is all alive to the
9350importance of sustaining his dignity by maintaining his legs. Nor is
9351this any very easy matter; for in his rear is the immense projecting
9352steering oar hitting him now and then in the small of his back, the
9353after-oar reciprocating by rapping his knees in front. He is thus
9354completely wedged before and behind, and can only expand himself
9355sideways by settling down on his stretched legs; but a sudden, violent
9356pitch of the boat will often go far to topple him, because length of
9357foundation is nothing without corresponding breadth. Merely make a
9358spread angle of two poles, and you cannot stand them up. Then, again,
9359it would never do in plain sight of the world's riveted eyes, it would
9360never do, I say, for this straddling captain to be seen steadying
9361himself the slightest particle by catching hold of anything with
9362his hands; indeed, as token of his entire, buoyant self-command, he
9363generally carries his hands in his trowsers' pockets; but perhaps being
9364generally very large, heavy hands, he carries them there for ballast.
9365Nevertheless there have occurred instances, well authenticated ones too,
9366where the captain has been known for an uncommonly critical moment or
9367two, in a sudden squall say--to seize hold of the nearest oarsman's
9368hair, and hold on there like grim death.
9369
9370
9371
9372CHAPTER 54. The Town-Ho's Story.
9373
9374
9375(AS TOLD AT THE GOLDEN INN)
9376
9377
9378The Cape of Good Hope, and all the watery region round about there, is
9379much like some noted four corners of a great highway, where you meet
9380more travellers than in any other part.
9381
9382It was not very long after speaking the Goney that another
9383homeward-bound whaleman, the Town-Ho,* was encountered. She was manned
9384almost wholly by Polynesians. In the short gam that ensued she gave
9385us strong news of Moby Dick. To some the general interest in the White
9386Whale was now wildly heightened by a circumstance of the Town-Ho's
9387story, which seemed obscurely to involve with the whale a certain
9388wondrous, inverted visitation of one of those so called judgments of God
9389which at times are said to overtake some men. This latter circumstance,
9390with its own particular accompaniments, forming what may be called the
9391secret part of the tragedy about to be narrated, never reached the ears
9392of Captain Ahab or his mates. For that secret part of the story was
9393unknown to the captain of the Town-Ho himself. It was the private
9394property of three confederate white seamen of that ship, one of whom, it
9395seems, communicated it to Tashtego with Romish injunctions of secrecy,
9396but the following night Tashtego rambled in his sleep, and revealed
9397so much of it in that way, that when he was wakened he could not well
9398withhold the rest. Nevertheless, so potent an influence did this thing
9399have on those seamen in the Pequod who came to the full knowledge of
9400it, and by such a strange delicacy, to call it so, were they governed in
9401this matter, that they kept the secret among themselves so that it never
9402transpired abaft the Pequod's main-mast. Interweaving in its proper
9403place this darker thread with the story as publicly narrated on the
9404ship, the whole of this strange affair I now proceed to put on lasting
9405record.
9406
9407
9408*The ancient whale-cry upon first sighting a whale from the mast-head,
9409still used by whalemen in hunting the famous Gallipagos terrapin.
9410
9411
9412For my humor's sake, I shall preserve the style in which I once narrated
9413it at Lima, to a lounging circle of my Spanish friends, one saint's eve,
9414smoking upon the thick-gilt tiled piazza of the Golden Inn. Of those
9415fine cavaliers, the young Dons, Pedro and Sebastian, were on the closer
9416terms with me; and hence the interluding questions they occasionally
9417put, and which are duly answered at the time.
9418
9419"Some two years prior to my first learning the events which I am about
9420rehearsing to you, gentlemen, the Town-Ho, Sperm Whaler of Nantucket,
9421was cruising in your Pacific here, not very many days' sail eastward
9422from the eaves of this good Golden Inn. She was somewhere to the
9423northward of the Line. One morning upon handling the pumps, according to
9424daily usage, it was observed that she made more water in her hold than
9425common. They supposed a sword-fish had stabbed her, gentlemen. But the
9426captain, having some unusual reason for believing that rare good luck
9427awaited him in those latitudes; and therefore being very averse to quit
9428them, and the leak not being then considered at all dangerous, though,
9429indeed, they could not find it after searching the hold as low down
9430as was possible in rather heavy weather, the ship still continued her
9431cruisings, the mariners working at the pumps at wide and easy intervals;
9432but no good luck came; more days went by, and not only was the leak yet
9433undiscovered, but it sensibly increased. So much so, that now taking
9434some alarm, the captain, making all sail, stood away for the nearest
9435harbor among the islands, there to have his hull hove out and repaired.
9436
9437"Though no small passage was before her, yet, if the commonest chance
9438favoured, he did not at all fear that his ship would founder by the way,
9439because his pumps were of the best, and being periodically relieved at
9440them, those six-and-thirty men of his could easily keep the ship free;
9441never mind if the leak should double on her. In truth, well nigh the
9442whole of this passage being attended by very prosperous breezes, the
9443Town-Ho had all but certainly arrived in perfect safety at her port
9444without the occurrence of the least fatality, had it not been for the
9445brutal overbearing of Radney, the mate, a Vineyarder, and the bitterly
9446provoked vengeance of Steelkilt, a Lakeman and desperado from Buffalo.
9447
9448"'Lakeman!--Buffalo! Pray, what is a Lakeman, and where is Buffalo?'
9449said Don Sebastian, rising in his swinging mat of grass.
9450
9451"On the eastern shore of our Lake Erie, Don; but--I crave your
9452courtesy--may be, you shall soon hear further of all that. Now,
9453gentlemen, in square-sail brigs and three-masted ships, well-nigh as
9454large and stout as any that ever sailed out of your old Callao to far
9455Manilla; this Lakeman, in the land-locked heart of our America, had yet
9456been nurtured by all those agrarian freebooting impressions popularly
9457connected with the open ocean. For in their interflowing aggregate,
9458those grand fresh-water seas of ours,--Erie, and Ontario, and Huron, and
9459Superior, and Michigan,--possess an ocean-like expansiveness, with many
9460of the ocean's noblest traits; with many of its rimmed varieties of
9461races and of climes. They contain round archipelagoes of romantic isles,
9462even as the Polynesian waters do; in large part, are shored by two great
9463contrasting nations, as the Atlantic is; they furnish long maritime
9464approaches to our numerous territorial colonies from the East, dotted
9465all round their banks; here and there are frowned upon by batteries,
9466and by the goat-like craggy guns of lofty Mackinaw; they have heard the
9467fleet thunderings of naval victories; at intervals, they yield their
9468beaches to wild barbarians, whose red painted faces flash from out
9469their peltry wigwams; for leagues and leagues are flanked by ancient
9470and unentered forests, where the gaunt pines stand like serried lines
9471of kings in Gothic genealogies; those same woods harboring wild Afric
9472beasts of prey, and silken creatures whose exported furs give robes
9473to Tartar Emperors; they mirror the paved capitals of Buffalo and
9474Cleveland, as well as Winnebago villages; they float alike the
9475full-rigged merchant ship, the armed cruiser of the State, the steamer,
9476and the beech canoe; they are swept by Borean and dismasting blasts as
9477direful as any that lash the salted wave; they know what shipwrecks are,
9478for out of sight of land, however inland, they have drowned full many
9479a midnight ship with all its shrieking crew. Thus, gentlemen, though
9480an inlander, Steelkilt was wild-ocean born, and wild-ocean nurtured;
9481as much of an audacious mariner as any. And for Radney, though in his
9482infancy he may have laid him down on the lone Nantucket beach, to nurse
9483at his maternal sea; though in after life he had long followed our
9484austere Atlantic and your contemplative Pacific; yet was he quite as
9485vengeful and full of social quarrel as the backwoods seaman, fresh
9486from the latitudes of buck-horn handled bowie-knives. Yet was this
9487Nantucketer a man with some good-hearted traits; and this Lakeman, a
9488mariner, who though a sort of devil indeed, might yet by inflexible
9489firmness, only tempered by that common decency of human recognition
9490which is the meanest slave's right; thus treated, this Steelkilt had
9491long been retained harmless and docile. At all events, he had proved
9492so thus far; but Radney was doomed and made mad, and Steelkilt--but,
9493gentlemen, you shall hear.
9494
9495"It was not more than a day or two at the furthest after pointing
9496her prow for her island haven, that the Town-Ho's leak seemed again
9497increasing, but only so as to require an hour or more at the pumps
9498every day. You must know that in a settled and civilized ocean like our
9499Atlantic, for example, some skippers think little of pumping their whole
9500way across it; though of a still, sleepy night, should the officer of
9501the deck happen to forget his duty in that respect, the probability
9502would be that he and his shipmates would never again remember it, on
9503account of all hands gently subsiding to the bottom. Nor in the
9504solitary and savage seas far from you to the westward, gentlemen, is it
9505altogether unusual for ships to keep clanging at their pump-handles in
9506full chorus even for a voyage of considerable length; that is, if it lie
9507along a tolerably accessible coast, or if any other reasonable retreat
9508is afforded them. It is only when a leaky vessel is in some very out of
9509the way part of those waters, some really landless latitude, that her
9510captain begins to feel a little anxious.
9511
9512"Much this way had it been with the Town-Ho; so when her leak was found
9513gaining once more, there was in truth some small concern manifested by
9514several of her company; especially by Radney the mate. He commanded
9515the upper sails to be well hoisted, sheeted home anew, and every way
9516expanded to the breeze. Now this Radney, I suppose, was as little of a
9517coward, and as little inclined to any sort of nervous apprehensiveness
9518touching his own person as any fearless, unthinking creature on land or
9519on sea that you can conveniently imagine, gentlemen. Therefore when
9520he betrayed this solicitude about the safety of the ship, some of the
9521seamen declared that it was only on account of his being a part owner in
9522her. So when they were working that evening at the pumps, there was on
9523this head no small gamesomeness slily going on among them, as they stood
9524with their feet continually overflowed by the rippling clear water;
9525clear as any mountain spring, gentlemen--that bubbling from the pumps
9526ran across the deck, and poured itself out in steady spouts at the lee
9527scupper-holes.
9528
9529"Now, as you well know, it is not seldom the case in this conventional
9530world of ours--watery or otherwise; that when a person placed in command
9531over his fellow-men finds one of them to be very significantly his
9532superior in general pride of manhood, straightway against that man he
9533conceives an unconquerable dislike and bitterness; and if he have a
9534chance he will pull down and pulverize that subaltern's tower, and
9535make a little heap of dust of it. Be this conceit of mine as it may,
9536gentlemen, at all events Steelkilt was a tall and noble animal with a
9537head like a Roman, and a flowing golden beard like the tasseled housings
9538of your last viceroy's snorting charger; and a brain, and a heart, and
9539a soul in him, gentlemen, which had made Steelkilt Charlemagne, had he
9540been born son to Charlemagne's father. But Radney, the mate, was ugly
9541as a mule; yet as hardy, as stubborn, as malicious. He did not love
9542Steelkilt, and Steelkilt knew it.
9543
9544"Espying the mate drawing near as he was toiling at the pump with the
9545rest, the Lakeman affected not to notice him, but unawed, went on with
9546his gay banterings.
9547
9548"'Aye, aye, my merry lads, it's a lively leak this; hold a cannikin, one
9549of ye, and let's have a taste. By the Lord, it's worth bottling! I tell
9550ye what, men, old Rad's investment must go for it! he had best cut away
9551his part of the hull and tow it home. The fact is, boys, that sword-fish
9552only began the job; he's come back again with a gang of ship-carpenters,
9553saw-fish, and file-fish, and what not; and the whole posse of 'em
9554are now hard at work cutting and slashing at the bottom; making
9555improvements, I suppose. If old Rad were here now, I'd tell him to jump
9556overboard and scatter 'em. They're playing the devil with his estate, I
9557can tell him. But he's a simple old soul,--Rad, and a beauty too. Boys,
9558they say the rest of his property is invested in looking-glasses. I
9559wonder if he'd give a poor devil like me the model of his nose.'
9560
9561"'Damn your eyes! what's that pump stopping for?' roared Radney,
9562pretending not to have heard the sailors' talk. 'Thunder away at it!'
9563
9564"'Aye, aye, sir,' said Steelkilt, merry as a cricket. 'Lively, boys,
9565lively, now!' And with that the pump clanged like fifty fire-engines;
9566the men tossed their hats off to it, and ere long that peculiar gasping
9567of the lungs was heard which denotes the fullest tension of life's
9568utmost energies.
9569
9570"Quitting the pump at last, with the rest of his band, the Lakeman went
9571forward all panting, and sat himself down on the windlass; his face
9572fiery red, his eyes bloodshot, and wiping the profuse sweat from his
9573brow. Now what cozening fiend it was, gentlemen, that possessed Radney
9574to meddle with such a man in that corporeally exasperated state, I know
9575not; but so it happened. Intolerably striding along the deck, the mate
9576commanded him to get a broom and sweep down the planks, and also a
9577shovel, and remove some offensive matters consequent upon allowing a pig
9578to run at large.
9579
9580"Now, gentlemen, sweeping a ship's deck at sea is a piece of household
9581work which in all times but raging gales is regularly attended to every
9582evening; it has been known to be done in the case of ships actually
9583foundering at the time. Such, gentlemen, is the inflexibility of
9584sea-usages and the instinctive love of neatness in seamen; some of whom
9585would not willingly drown without first washing their faces. But in all
9586vessels this broom business is the prescriptive province of the boys,
9587if boys there be aboard. Besides, it was the stronger men in the Town-Ho
9588that had been divided into gangs, taking turns at the pumps; and being
9589the most athletic seaman of them all, Steelkilt had been regularly
9590assigned captain of one of the gangs; consequently he should have
9591been freed from any trivial business not connected with truly nautical
9592duties, such being the case with his comrades. I mention all these
9593particulars so that you may understand exactly how this affair stood
9594between the two men.
9595
9596"But there was more than this: the order about the shovel was almost as
9597plainly meant to sting and insult Steelkilt, as though Radney had spat
9598in his face. Any man who has gone sailor in a whale-ship will
9599understand this; and all this and doubtless much more, the Lakeman fully
9600comprehended when the mate uttered his command. But as he sat still for
9601a moment, and as he steadfastly looked into the mate's malignant eye and
9602perceived the stacks of powder-casks heaped up in him and the slow-match
9603silently burning along towards them; as he instinctively saw all
9604this, that strange forbearance and unwillingness to stir up the deeper
9605passionateness in any already ireful being--a repugnance most felt, when
9606felt at all, by really valiant men even when aggrieved--this nameless
9607phantom feeling, gentlemen, stole over Steelkilt.
9608
9609"Therefore, in his ordinary tone, only a little broken by the bodily
9610exhaustion he was temporarily in, he answered him saying that sweeping
9611the deck was not his business, and he would not do it. And then, without
9612at all alluding to the shovel, he pointed to three lads as the customary
9613sweepers; who, not being billeted at the pumps, had done little or
9614nothing all day. To this, Radney replied with an oath, in a most
9615domineering and outrageous manner unconditionally reiterating his
9616command; meanwhile advancing upon the still seated Lakeman, with an
9617uplifted cooper's club hammer which he had snatched from a cask near by.
9618
9619"Heated and irritated as he was by his spasmodic toil at the pumps, for
9620all his first nameless feeling of forbearance the sweating Steelkilt
9621could but ill brook this bearing in the mate; but somehow still
9622smothering the conflagration within him, without speaking he remained
9623doggedly rooted to his seat, till at last the incensed Radney shook the
9624hammer within a few inches of his face, furiously commanding him to do
9625his bidding.
9626
9627"Steelkilt rose, and slowly retreating round the windlass, steadily
9628followed by the mate with his menacing hammer, deliberately repeated his
9629intention not to obey. Seeing, however, that his forbearance had not
9630the slightest effect, by an awful and unspeakable intimation with his
9631twisted hand he warned off the foolish and infatuated man; but it was to
9632no purpose. And in this way the two went once slowly round the windlass;
9633when, resolved at last no longer to retreat, bethinking him that he had
9634now forborne as much as comported with his humor, the Lakeman paused on
9635the hatches and thus spoke to the officer:
9636
9637"'Mr. Radney, I will not obey you. Take that hammer away, or look to
9638yourself.' But the predestinated mate coming still closer to him, where
9639the Lakeman stood fixed, now shook the heavy hammer within an inch of
9640his teeth; meanwhile repeating a string of insufferable maledictions.
9641Retreating not the thousandth part of an inch; stabbing him in the eye
9642with the unflinching poniard of his glance, Steelkilt, clenching
9643his right hand behind him and creepingly drawing it back, told his
9644persecutor that if the hammer but grazed his cheek he (Steelkilt) would
9645murder him. But, gentlemen, the fool had been branded for the slaughter
9646by the gods. Immediately the hammer touched the cheek; the next instant
9647the lower jaw of the mate was stove in his head; he fell on the hatch
9648spouting blood like a whale.
9649
9650"Ere the cry could go aft Steelkilt was shaking one of the backstays
9651leading far aloft to where two of his comrades were standing their
9652mastheads. They were both Canallers.
9653
9654"'Canallers!' cried Don Pedro. 'We have seen many whale-ships in our
9655harbours, but never heard of your Canallers. Pardon: who and what are
9656they?'
9657
9658"'Canallers, Don, are the boatmen belonging to our grand Erie Canal. You
9659must have heard of it.'
9660
9661"'Nay, Senor; hereabouts in this dull, warm, most lazy, and hereditary
9662land, we know but little of your vigorous North.'
9663
9664"'Aye? Well then, Don, refill my cup. Your chicha's very fine; and
9665ere proceeding further I will tell ye what our Canallers are; for such
9666information may throw side-light upon my story.'
9667
9668"For three hundred and sixty miles, gentlemen, through the entire
9669breadth of the state of New York; through numerous populous cities and
9670most thriving villages; through long, dismal, uninhabited swamps, and
9671affluent, cultivated fields, unrivalled for fertility; by billiard-room
9672and bar-room; through the holy-of-holies of great forests; on Roman
9673arches over Indian rivers; through sun and shade; by happy hearts or
9674broken; through all the wide contrasting scenery of those noble Mohawk
9675counties; and especially, by rows of snow-white chapels, whose spires
9676stand almost like milestones, flows one continual stream of Venetianly
9677corrupt and often lawless life. There's your true Ashantee, gentlemen;
9678there howl your pagans; where you ever find them, next door to you;
9679under the long-flung shadow, and the snug patronising lee of churches.
9680For by some curious fatality, as it is often noted of your metropolitan
9681freebooters that they ever encamp around the halls of justice, so
9682sinners, gentlemen, most abound in holiest vicinities.
9683
9684"'Is that a friar passing?' said Don Pedro, looking downwards into the
9685crowded plazza, with humorous concern.
9686
9687"'Well for our northern friend, Dame Isabella's Inquisition wanes in
9688Lima,' laughed Don Sebastian. 'Proceed, Senor.'
9689
9690"'A moment! Pardon!' cried another of the company. 'In the name of all
9691us Limeese, I but desire to express to you, sir sailor, that we have by
9692no means overlooked your delicacy in not substituting present Lima
9693for distant Venice in your corrupt comparison. Oh! do not bow and look
9694surprised; you know the proverb all along this coast--"Corrupt as
9695Lima." It but bears out your saying, too; churches more plentiful than
9696billiard-tables, and for ever open--and "Corrupt as Lima." So, too,
9697Venice; I have been there; the holy city of the blessed evangelist, St.
9698Mark!--St. Dominic, purge it! Your cup! Thanks: here I refill; now, you
9699pour out again.'
9700
9701"Freely depicted in his own vocation, gentlemen, the Canaller would make
9702a fine dramatic hero, so abundantly and picturesquely wicked is he. Like
9703Mark Antony, for days and days along his green-turfed, flowery Nile,
9704he indolently floats, openly toying with his red-cheeked Cleopatra,
9705ripening his apricot thigh upon the sunny deck. But ashore, all this
9706effeminacy is dashed. The brigandish guise which the Canaller so proudly
9707sports; his slouched and gaily-ribboned hat betoken his grand features.
9708A terror to the smiling innocence of the villages through which he
9709floats; his swart visage and bold swagger are not unshunned in cities.
9710Once a vagabond on his own canal, I have received good turns from one of
9711these Canallers; I thank him heartily; would fain be not ungrateful;
9712but it is often one of the prime redeeming qualities of your man of
9713violence, that at times he has as stiff an arm to back a poor stranger
9714in a strait, as to plunder a wealthy one. In sum, gentlemen, what the
9715wildness of this canal life is, is emphatically evinced by this; that
9716our wild whale-fishery contains so many of its most finished graduates,
9717and that scarce any race of mankind, except Sydney men, are so much
9718distrusted by our whaling captains. Nor does it at all diminish the
9719curiousness of this matter, that to many thousands of our rural boys and
9720young men born along its line, the probationary life of the Grand Canal
9721furnishes the sole transition between quietly reaping in a Christian
9722corn-field, and recklessly ploughing the waters of the most barbaric
9723seas.
9724
9725"'I see! I see!' impetuously exclaimed Don Pedro, spilling his chicha
9726upon his silvery ruffles. 'No need to travel! The world's one Lima. I
9727had thought, now, that at your temperate North the generations were cold
9728and holy as the hills.--But the story.'
9729
9730"I left off, gentlemen, where the Lakeman shook the backstay. Hardly
9731had he done so, when he was surrounded by the three junior mates and the
9732four harpooneers, who all crowded him to the deck. But sliding down the
9733ropes like baleful comets, the two Canallers rushed into the uproar, and
9734sought to drag their man out of it towards the forecastle. Others of the
9735sailors joined with them in this attempt, and a twisted turmoil ensued;
9736while standing out of harm's way, the valiant captain danced up and down
9737with a whale-pike, calling upon his officers to manhandle that atrocious
9738scoundrel, and smoke him along to the quarter-deck. At intervals, he ran
9739close up to the revolving border of the confusion, and prying into
9740the heart of it with his pike, sought to prick out the object of his
9741resentment. But Steelkilt and his desperadoes were too much for them
9742all; they succeeded in gaining the forecastle deck, where, hastily
9743slewing about three or four large casks in a line with the windlass,
9744these sea-Parisians entrenched themselves behind the barricade.
9745
9746"'Come out of that, ye pirates!' roared the captain, now menacing them
9747with a pistol in each hand, just brought to him by the steward. 'Come
9748out of that, ye cut-throats!'
9749
9750"Steelkilt leaped on the barricade, and striding up and down there,
9751defied the worst the pistols could do; but gave the captain to
9752understand distinctly, that his (Steelkilt's) death would be the signal
9753for a murderous mutiny on the part of all hands. Fearing in his heart
9754lest this might prove but too true, the captain a little desisted, but
9755still commanded the insurgents instantly to return to their duty.
9756
9757"'Will you promise not to touch us, if we do?' demanded their
9758ringleader.
9759
9760"'Turn to! turn to!--I make no promise;--to your duty! Do you want to
9761sink the ship, by knocking off at a time like this? Turn to!' and he
9762once more raised a pistol.
9763
9764"'Sink the ship?' cried Steelkilt. 'Aye, let her sink. Not a man of us
9765turns to, unless you swear not to raise a rope-yarn against us. What say
9766ye, men?' turning to his comrades. A fierce cheer was their response.
9767
9768"The Lakeman now patrolled the barricade, all the while keeping his eye
9769on the Captain, and jerking out such sentences as these:--'It's not our
9770fault; we didn't want it; I told him to take his hammer away; it was
9771boy's business; he might have known me before this; I told him not to
9772prick the buffalo; I believe I have broken a finger here against his
9773cursed jaw; ain't those mincing knives down in the forecastle there,
9774men? look to those handspikes, my hearties. Captain, by God, look to
9775yourself; say the word; don't be a fool; forget it all; we are ready
9776to turn to; treat us decently, and we're your men; but we won't be
9777flogged.'
9778
9779"'Turn to! I make no promises, turn to, I say!'
9780
9781"'Look ye, now,' cried the Lakeman, flinging out his arm towards him,
9782'there are a few of us here (and I am one of them) who have shipped
9783for the cruise, d'ye see; now as you well know, sir, we can claim our
9784discharge as soon as the anchor is down; so we don't want a row; it's
9785not our interest; we want to be peaceable; we are ready to work, but we
9786won't be flogged.'
9787
9788"'Turn to!' roared the Captain.
9789
9790"Steelkilt glanced round him a moment, and then said:--'I tell you what
9791it is now, Captain, rather than kill ye, and be hung for such a shabby
9792rascal, we won't lift a hand against ye unless ye attack us; but till
9793you say the word about not flogging us, we don't do a hand's turn.'
9794
9795"'Down into the forecastle then, down with ye, I'll keep ye there till
9796ye're sick of it. Down ye go.'
9797
9798"'Shall we?' cried the ringleader to his men. Most of them were against
9799it; but at length, in obedience to Steelkilt, they preceded him down
9800into their dark den, growlingly disappearing, like bears into a cave.
9801
9802"As the Lakeman's bare head was just level with the planks, the Captain
9803and his posse leaped the barricade, and rapidly drawing over the slide
9804of the scuttle, planted their group of hands upon it, and loudly called
9805for the steward to bring the heavy brass padlock belonging to the
9806companionway.
9807
9808"Then opening the slide a little, the Captain whispered something
9809down the crack, closed it, and turned the key upon them--ten in
9810number--leaving on deck some twenty or more, who thus far had remained
9811neutral.
9812
9813"All night a wide-awake watch was kept by all the officers, forward and
9814aft, especially about the forecastle scuttle and fore hatchway; at which
9815last place it was feared the insurgents might emerge, after breaking
9816through the bulkhead below. But the hours of darkness passed in peace;
9817the men who still remained at their duty toiling hard at the pumps,
9818whose clinking and clanking at intervals through the dreary night
9819dismally resounded through the ship.
9820
9821"At sunrise the Captain went forward, and knocking on the deck, summoned
9822the prisoners to work; but with a yell they refused. Water was then
9823lowered down to them, and a couple of handfuls of biscuit were tossed
9824after it; when again turning the key upon them and pocketing it, the
9825Captain returned to the quarter-deck. Twice every day for three days
9826this was repeated; but on the fourth morning a confused wrangling, and
9827then a scuffling was heard, as the customary summons was delivered; and
9828suddenly four men burst up from the forecastle, saying they were ready
9829to turn to. The fetid closeness of the air, and a famishing diet, united
9830perhaps to some fears of ultimate retribution, had constrained them to
9831surrender at discretion. Emboldened by this, the Captain reiterated his
9832demand to the rest, but Steelkilt shouted up to him a terrific hint to
9833stop his babbling and betake himself where he belonged. On the fifth
9834morning three others of the mutineers bolted up into the air from the
9835desperate arms below that sought to restrain them. Only three were left.
9836
9837"'Better turn to, now?' said the Captain with a heartless jeer.
9838
9839"'Shut us up again, will ye!' cried Steelkilt.
9840
9841"'Oh certainly,' said the Captain, and the key clicked.
9842
9843"It was at this point, gentlemen, that enraged by the defection of seven
9844of his former associates, and stung by the mocking voice that had last
9845hailed him, and maddened by his long entombment in a place as black as
9846the bowels of despair; it was then that Steelkilt proposed to the two
9847Canallers, thus far apparently of one mind with him, to burst out of
9848their hole at the next summoning of the garrison; and armed with their
9849keen mincing knives (long, crescentic, heavy implements with a handle
9850at each end) run amuck from the bowsprit to the taffrail; and if by any
9851devilishness of desperation possible, seize the ship. For himself, he
9852would do this, he said, whether they joined him or not. That was the
9853last night he should spend in that den. But the scheme met with no
9854opposition on the part of the other two; they swore they were ready for
9855that, or for any other mad thing, for anything in short but a surrender.
9856And what was more, they each insisted upon being the first man on deck,
9857when the time to make the rush should come. But to this their leader as
9858fiercely objected, reserving that priority for himself; particularly as
9859his two comrades would not yield, the one to the other, in the matter;
9860and both of them could not be first, for the ladder would but admit one
9861man at a time. And here, gentlemen, the foul play of these miscreants
9862must come out.
9863
9864"Upon hearing the frantic project of their leader, each in his own
9865separate soul had suddenly lighted, it would seem, upon the same piece
9866of treachery, namely: to be foremost in breaking out, in order to be
9867the first of the three, though the last of the ten, to surrender; and
9868thereby secure whatever small chance of pardon such conduct might merit.
9869But when Steelkilt made known his determination still to lead them to
9870the last, they in some way, by some subtle chemistry of villany, mixed
9871their before secret treacheries together; and when their leader
9872fell into a doze, verbally opened their souls to each other in three
9873sentences; and bound the sleeper with cords, and gagged him with cords;
9874and shrieked out for the Captain at midnight.
9875
9876"Thinking murder at hand, and smelling in the dark for the blood, he and
9877all his armed mates and harpooneers rushed for the forecastle. In a
9878few minutes the scuttle was opened, and, bound hand and foot, the still
9879struggling ringleader was shoved up into the air by his perfidious
9880allies, who at once claimed the honour of securing a man who had been
9881fully ripe for murder. But all these were collared, and dragged along
9882the deck like dead cattle; and, side by side, were seized up into the
9883mizzen rigging, like three quarters of meat, and there they hung till
9884morning. 'Damn ye,' cried the Captain, pacing to and fro before them,
9885'the vultures would not touch ye, ye villains!'
9886
9887"At sunrise he summoned all hands; and separating those who had rebelled
9888from those who had taken no part in the mutiny, he told the former that
9889he had a good mind to flog them all round--thought, upon the whole,
9890he would do so--he ought to--justice demanded it; but for the present,
9891considering their timely surrender, he would let them go with a
9892reprimand, which he accordingly administered in the vernacular.
9893
9894"'But as for you, ye carrion rogues,' turning to the three men in the
9895rigging--'for you, I mean to mince ye up for the try-pots;' and,
9896seizing a rope, he applied it with all his might to the backs of the
9897two traitors, till they yelled no more, but lifelessly hung their heads
9898sideways, as the two crucified thieves are drawn.
9899
9900"'My wrist is sprained with ye!' he cried, at last; 'but there is still
9901rope enough left for you, my fine bantam, that wouldn't give up. Take
9902that gag from his mouth, and let us hear what he can say for himself.'
9903
9904"For a moment the exhausted mutineer made a tremulous motion of his
9905cramped jaws, and then painfully twisting round his head, said in a sort
9906of hiss, 'What I say is this--and mind it well--if you flog me, I murder
9907you!'
9908
9909"'Say ye so? then see how ye frighten me'--and the Captain drew off with
9910the rope to strike.
9911
9912"'Best not,' hissed the Lakeman.
9913
9914"'But I must,'--and the rope was once more drawn back for the stroke.
9915
9916"Steelkilt here hissed out something, inaudible to all but the Captain;
9917who, to the amazement of all hands, started back, paced the deck rapidly
9918two or three times, and then suddenly throwing down his rope, said, 'I
9919won't do it--let him go--cut him down: d'ye hear?'
9920
9921"But as the junior mates were hurrying to execute the order, a pale man,
9922with a bandaged head, arrested them--Radney the chief mate. Ever since
9923the blow, he had lain in his berth; but that morning, hearing the tumult
9924on the deck, he had crept out, and thus far had watched the whole
9925scene. Such was the state of his mouth, that he could hardly speak;
9926but mumbling something about his being willing and able to do what the
9927captain dared not attempt, he snatched the rope and advanced to his
9928pinioned foe.
9929
9930"'You are a coward!' hissed the Lakeman.
9931
9932"'So I am, but take that.' The mate was in the very act of striking,
9933when another hiss stayed his uplifted arm. He paused: and then pausing
9934no more, made good his word, spite of Steelkilt's threat, whatever that
9935might have been. The three men were then cut down, all hands were turned
9936to, and, sullenly worked by the moody seamen, the iron pumps clanged as
9937before.
9938
9939"Just after dark that day, when one watch had retired below, a clamor
9940was heard in the forecastle; and the two trembling traitors running up,
9941besieged the cabin door, saying they durst not consort with the crew.
9942Entreaties, cuffs, and kicks could not drive them back, so at their own
9943instance they were put down in the ship's run for salvation. Still, no
9944sign of mutiny reappeared among the rest. On the contrary, it seemed,
9945that mainly at Steelkilt's instigation, they had resolved to maintain
9946the strictest peacefulness, obey all orders to the last, and, when the
9947ship reached port, desert her in a body. But in order to insure the
9948speediest end to the voyage, they all agreed to another thing--namely,
9949not to sing out for whales, in case any should be discovered. For,
9950spite of her leak, and spite of all her other perils, the Town-Ho still
9951maintained her mast-heads, and her captain was just as willing to
9952lower for a fish that moment, as on the day his craft first struck the
9953cruising ground; and Radney the mate was quite as ready to change his
9954berth for a boat, and with his bandaged mouth seek to gag in death the
9955vital jaw of the whale.
9956
9957"But though the Lakeman had induced the seamen to adopt this sort of
9958passiveness in their conduct, he kept his own counsel (at least till all
9959was over) concerning his own proper and private revenge upon the man who
9960had stung him in the ventricles of his heart. He was in Radney the chief
9961mate's watch; and as if the infatuated man sought to run more than
9962half way to meet his doom, after the scene at the rigging, he insisted,
9963against the express counsel of the captain, upon resuming the head
9964of his watch at night. Upon this, and one or two other circumstances,
9965Steelkilt systematically built the plan of his revenge.
9966
9967"During the night, Radney had an unseamanlike way of sitting on the
9968bulwarks of the quarter-deck, and leaning his arm upon the gunwale of
9969the boat which was hoisted up there, a little above the ship's side.
9970In this attitude, it was well known, he sometimes dozed. There was a
9971considerable vacancy between the boat and the ship, and down between
9972this was the sea. Steelkilt calculated his time, and found that his next
9973trick at the helm would come round at two o'clock, in the morning of the
9974third day from that in which he had been betrayed. At his leisure,
9975he employed the interval in braiding something very carefully in his
9976watches below.
9977
9978"'What are you making there?' said a shipmate.
9979
9980"'What do you think? what does it look like?'
9981
9982"'Like a lanyard for your bag; but it's an odd one, seems to me.'
9983
9984"'Yes, rather oddish,' said the Lakeman, holding it at arm's length
9985before him; 'but I think it will answer. Shipmate, I haven't enough
9986twine,--have you any?'
9987
9988"But there was none in the forecastle.
9989
9990"'Then I must get some from old Rad;' and he rose to go aft.
9991
9992"'You don't mean to go a begging to HIM!' said a sailor.
9993
9994"'Why not? Do you think he won't do me a turn, when it's to help himself
9995in the end, shipmate?' and going to the mate, he looked at him
9996quietly, and asked him for some twine to mend his hammock. It was given
9997him--neither twine nor lanyard were seen again; but the next night
9998an iron ball, closely netted, partly rolled from the pocket of the
9999Lakeman's monkey jacket, as he was tucking the coat into his hammock for
10000a pillow. Twenty-four hours after, his trick at the silent helm--nigh
10001to the man who was apt to doze over the grave always ready dug to
10002the seaman's hand--that fatal hour was then to come; and in the
10003fore-ordaining soul of Steelkilt, the mate was already stark and
10004stretched as a corpse, with his forehead crushed in.
10005
10006"But, gentlemen, a fool saved the would-be murderer from the bloody
10007deed he had planned. Yet complete revenge he had, and without being the
10008avenger. For by a mysterious fatality, Heaven itself seemed to step in
10009to take out of his hands into its own the damning thing he would have
10010done.
10011
10012"It was just between daybreak and sunrise of the morning of the second
10013day, when they were washing down the decks, that a stupid Teneriffe man,
10014drawing water in the main-chains, all at once shouted out, 'There she
10015rolls! there she rolls!' Jesu, what a whale! It was Moby Dick.
10016
10017"'Moby Dick!' cried Don Sebastian; 'St. Dominic! Sir sailor, but do
10018whales have christenings? Whom call you Moby Dick?'
10019
10020"'A very white, and famous, and most deadly immortal monster, Don;--but
10021that would be too long a story.'
10022
10023"'How? how?' cried all the young Spaniards, crowding.
10024
10025"'Nay, Dons, Dons--nay, nay! I cannot rehearse that now. Let me get more
10026into the air, Sirs.'
10027
10028"'The chicha! the chicha!' cried Don Pedro; 'our vigorous friend looks
10029faint;--fill up his empty glass!'
10030
10031"No need, gentlemen; one moment, and I proceed.--Now, gentlemen,
10032so suddenly perceiving the snowy whale within fifty yards of the
10033ship--forgetful of the compact among the crew--in the excitement of the
10034moment, the Teneriffe man had instinctively and involuntarily lifted
10035his voice for the monster, though for some little time past it had been
10036plainly beheld from the three sullen mast-heads. All was now a phrensy.
10037'The White Whale--the White Whale!' was the cry from captain, mates,
10038and harpooneers, who, undeterred by fearful rumours, were all anxious
10039to capture so famous and precious a fish; while the dogged crew eyed
10040askance, and with curses, the appalling beauty of the vast milky mass,
10041that lit up by a horizontal spangling sun, shifted and glistened like
10042a living opal in the blue morning sea. Gentlemen, a strange fatality
10043pervades the whole career of these events, as if verily mapped out
10044before the world itself was charted. The mutineer was the bowsman of the
10045mate, and when fast to a fish, it was his duty to sit next him, while
10046Radney stood up with his lance in the prow, and haul in or slacken
10047the line, at the word of command. Moreover, when the four boats were
10048lowered, the mate's got the start; and none howled more fiercely with
10049delight than did Steelkilt, as he strained at his oar. After a stiff
10050pull, their harpooneer got fast, and, spear in hand, Radney sprang to
10051the bow. He was always a furious man, it seems, in a boat. And now his
10052bandaged cry was, to beach him on the whale's topmost back. Nothing
10053loath, his bowsman hauled him up and up, through a blinding foam that
10054blent two whitenesses together; till of a sudden the boat struck as
10055against a sunken ledge, and keeling over, spilled out the standing mate.
10056That instant, as he fell on the whale's slippery back, the boat righted,
10057and was dashed aside by the swell, while Radney was tossed over into the
10058sea, on the other flank of the whale. He struck out through the spray,
10059and, for an instant, was dimly seen through that veil, wildly seeking to
10060remove himself from the eye of Moby Dick. But the whale rushed round
10061in a sudden maelstrom; seized the swimmer between his jaws; and rearing
10062high up with him, plunged headlong again, and went down.
10063
10064"Meantime, at the first tap of the boat's bottom, the Lakeman had
10065slackened the line, so as to drop astern from the whirlpool; calmly
10066looking on, he thought his own thoughts. But a sudden, terrific,
10067downward jerking of the boat, quickly brought his knife to the line. He
10068cut it; and the whale was free. But, at some distance, Moby Dick rose
10069again, with some tatters of Radney's red woollen shirt, caught in the
10070teeth that had destroyed him. All four boats gave chase again; but the
10071whale eluded them, and finally wholly disappeared.
10072
10073"In good time, the Town-Ho reached her port--a savage, solitary
10074place--where no civilized creature resided. There, headed by the
10075Lakeman, all but five or six of the foremastmen deliberately deserted
10076among the palms; eventually, as it turned out, seizing a large double
10077war-canoe of the savages, and setting sail for some other harbor.
10078
10079"The ship's company being reduced to but a handful, the captain called
10080upon the Islanders to assist him in the laborious business of heaving
10081down the ship to stop the leak. But to such unresting vigilance over
10082their dangerous allies was this small band of whites necessitated, both
10083by night and by day, and so extreme was the hard work they underwent,
10084that upon the vessel being ready again for sea, they were in such a
10085weakened condition that the captain durst not put off with them in so
10086heavy a vessel. After taking counsel with his officers, he anchored the
10087ship as far off shore as possible; loaded and ran out his two cannon
10088from the bows; stacked his muskets on the poop; and warning the
10089Islanders not to approach the ship at their peril, took one man with
10090him, and setting the sail of his best whale-boat, steered straight
10091before the wind for Tahiti, five hundred miles distant, to procure a
10092reinforcement to his crew.
10093
10094"On the fourth day of the sail, a large canoe was descried, which seemed
10095to have touched at a low isle of corals. He steered away from it; but
10096the savage craft bore down on him; and soon the voice of Steelkilt
10097hailed him to heave to, or he would run him under water. The captain
10098presented a pistol. With one foot on each prow of the yoked war-canoes,
10099the Lakeman laughed him to scorn; assuring him that if the pistol so
10100much as clicked in the lock, he would bury him in bubbles and foam.
10101
10102"'What do you want of me?' cried the captain.
10103
10104"'Where are you bound? and for what are you bound?' demanded Steelkilt;
10105'no lies.'
10106
10107"'I am bound to Tahiti for more men.'
10108
10109"'Very good. Let me board you a moment--I come in peace.' With that he
10110leaped from the canoe, swam to the boat; and climbing the gunwale, stood
10111face to face with the captain.
10112
10113"'Cross your arms, sir; throw back your head. Now, repeat after me.
10114As soon as Steelkilt leaves me, I swear to beach this boat on yonder
10115island, and remain there six days. If I do not, may lightning strike
10116me!'
10117
10118"'A pretty scholar,' laughed the Lakeman. 'Adios, Senor!' and leaping
10119into the sea, he swam back to his comrades.
10120
10121"Watching the boat till it was fairly beached, and drawn up to the
10122roots of the cocoa-nut trees, Steelkilt made sail again, and in due time
10123arrived at Tahiti, his own place of destination. There, luck befriended
10124him; two ships were about to sail for France, and were providentially
10125in want of precisely that number of men which the sailor headed. They
10126embarked; and so for ever got the start of their former captain, had he
10127been at all minded to work them legal retribution.
10128
10129"Some ten days after the French ships sailed, the whale-boat arrived,
10130and the captain was forced to enlist some of the more civilized
10131Tahitians, who had been somewhat used to the sea. Chartering a small
10132native schooner, he returned with them to his vessel; and finding all
10133right there, again resumed his cruisings.
10134
10135"Where Steelkilt now is, gentlemen, none know; but upon the island of
10136Nantucket, the widow of Radney still turns to the sea which refuses
10137to give up its dead; still in dreams sees the awful white whale that
10138destroyed him.
10139
10140"'Are you through?' said Don Sebastian, quietly.
10141
10142"'I am, Don.'
10143
10144"'Then I entreat you, tell me if to the best of your own convictions,
10145this your story is in substance really true? It is so passing wonderful!
10146Did you get it from an unquestionable source? Bear with me if I seem to
10147press.'
10148
10149"'Also bear with all of us, sir sailor; for we all join in Don
10150Sebastian's suit,' cried the company, with exceeding interest.
10151
10152"'Is there a copy of the Holy Evangelists in the Golden Inn, gentlemen?'
10153
10154"'Nay,' said Don Sebastian; 'but I know a worthy priest near by, who
10155will quickly procure one for me. I go for it; but are you well advised?
10156this may grow too serious.'
10157
10158"'Will you be so good as to bring the priest also, Don?'
10159
10160"'Though there are no Auto-da-Fe's in Lima now,' said one of the company
10161to another; 'I fear our sailor friend runs risk of the archiepiscopacy.
10162Let us withdraw more out of the moonlight. I see no need of this.'
10163
10164"'Excuse me for running after you, Don Sebastian; but may I also beg
10165that you will be particular in procuring the largest sized Evangelists
10166you can.'
10167
10168"'This is the priest, he brings you the Evangelists,' said Don Sebastian,
10169gravely, returning with a tall and solemn figure.
10170
10171"'Let me remove my hat. Now, venerable priest, further into the light,
10172and hold the Holy Book before me that I may touch it.
10173
10174"'So help me Heaven, and on my honour the story I have told ye,
10175gentlemen, is in substance and its great items, true. I know it to be
10176true; it happened on this ball; I trod the ship; I knew the crew; I have
10177seen and talked with Steelkilt since the death of Radney.'"
10178
10179
10180
10181CHAPTER 55. Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales.
10182
10183
10184I shall ere long paint to you as well as one can without canvas,
10185something like the true form of the whale as he actually appears to the
10186eye of the whaleman when in his own absolute body the whale is moored
10187alongside the whale-ship so that he can be fairly stepped upon there.
10188It may be worth while, therefore, previously to advert to those
10189curious imaginary portraits of him which even down to the present day
10190confidently challenge the faith of the landsman. It is time to set the
10191world right in this matter, by proving such pictures of the whale all
10192wrong.
10193
10194It may be that the primal source of all those pictorial delusions will
10195be found among the oldest Hindoo, Egyptian, and Grecian sculptures. For
10196ever since those inventive but unscrupulous times when on the marble
10197panellings of temples, the pedestals of statues, and on shields,
10198medallions, cups, and coins, the dolphin was drawn in scales of
10199chain-armor like Saladin's, and a helmeted head like St. George's; ever
10200since then has something of the same sort of license prevailed, not
10201only in most popular pictures of the whale, but in many scientific
10202presentations of him.
10203
10204Now, by all odds, the most ancient extant portrait anyways purporting to
10205be the whale's, is to be found in the famous cavern-pagoda of Elephanta,
10206in India. The Brahmins maintain that in the almost endless sculptures of
10207that immemorial pagoda, all the trades and pursuits, every conceivable
10208avocation of man, were prefigured ages before any of them actually came
10209into being. No wonder then, that in some sort our noble profession of
10210whaling should have been there shadowed forth. The Hindoo whale
10211referred to, occurs in a separate department of the wall, depicting the
10212incarnation of Vishnu in the form of leviathan, learnedly known as the
10213Matse Avatar. But though this sculpture is half man and half whale, so
10214as only to give the tail of the latter, yet that small section of him is
10215all wrong. It looks more like the tapering tail of an anaconda, than the
10216broad palms of the true whale's majestic flukes.
10217
10218But go to the old Galleries, and look now at a great Christian painter's
10219portrait of this fish; for he succeeds no better than the antediluvian
10220Hindoo. It is Guido's picture of Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the
10221sea-monster or whale. Where did Guido get the model of such a strange
10222creature as that? Nor does Hogarth, in painting the same scene in his
10223own "Perseus Descending," make out one whit better. The huge corpulence
10224of that Hogarthian monster undulates on the surface, scarcely drawing
10225one inch of water. It has a sort of howdah on its back, and its
10226distended tusked mouth into which the billows are rolling, might be
10227taken for the Traitors' Gate leading from the Thames by water into the
10228Tower. Then, there are the Prodromus whales of old Scotch Sibbald, and
10229Jonah's whale, as depicted in the prints of old Bibles and the cuts of
10230old primers. What shall be said of these? As for the book-binder's whale
10231winding like a vine-stalk round the stock of a descending anchor--as
10232stamped and gilded on the backs and title-pages of many books both
10233old and new--that is a very picturesque but purely fabulous creature,
10234imitated, I take it, from the like figures on antique vases.
10235Though universally denominated a dolphin, I nevertheless call this
10236book-binder's fish an attempt at a whale; because it was so intended
10237when the device was first introduced. It was introduced by an old
10238Italian publisher somewhere about the 15th century, during the Revival
10239of Learning; and in those days, and even down to a comparatively
10240late period, dolphins were popularly supposed to be a species of the
10241Leviathan.
10242
10243In the vignettes and other embellishments of some ancient books you will
10244at times meet with very curious touches at the whale, where all manner
10245of spouts, jets d'eau, hot springs and cold, Saratoga and Baden-Baden,
10246come bubbling up from his unexhausted brain. In the title-page of the
10247original edition of the "Advancement of Learning" you will find some
10248curious whales.
10249
10250But quitting all these unprofessional attempts, let us glance at those
10251pictures of leviathan purporting to be sober, scientific delineations,
10252by those who know. In old Harris's collection of voyages there are some
10253plates of whales extracted from a Dutch book of voyages, A.D. 1671,
10254entitled "A Whaling Voyage to Spitzbergen in the ship Jonas in the
10255Whale, Peter Peterson of Friesland, master." In one of those plates the
10256whales, like great rafts of logs, are represented lying among ice-isles,
10257with white bears running over their living backs. In another plate, the
10258prodigious blunder is made of representing the whale with perpendicular
10259flukes.
10260
10261Then again, there is an imposing quarto, written by one Captain Colnett,
10262a Post Captain in the English navy, entitled "A Voyage round Cape Horn
10263into the South Seas, for the purpose of extending the Spermaceti Whale
10264Fisheries." In this book is an outline purporting to be a "Picture of
10265a Physeter or Spermaceti whale, drawn by scale from one killed on the
10266coast of Mexico, August, 1793, and hoisted on deck." I doubt not the
10267captain had this veracious picture taken for the benefit of his marines.
10268To mention but one thing about it, let me say that it has an eye which
10269applied, according to the accompanying scale, to a full grown sperm
10270whale, would make the eye of that whale a bow-window some five feet
10271long. Ah, my gallant captain, why did ye not give us Jonah looking out
10272of that eye!
10273
10274Nor are the most conscientious compilations of Natural History for
10275the benefit of the young and tender, free from the same heinousness of
10276mistake. Look at that popular work "Goldsmith's Animated Nature." In the
10277abridged London edition of 1807, there are plates of an alleged "whale"
10278and a "narwhale." I do not wish to seem inelegant, but this unsightly
10279whale looks much like an amputated sow; and, as for the narwhale, one
10280glimpse at it is enough to amaze one, that in this nineteenth century
10281such a hippogriff could be palmed for genuine upon any intelligent
10282public of schoolboys.
10283
10284Then, again, in 1825, Bernard Germain, Count de Lacepede, a great
10285naturalist, published a scientific systemized whale book, wherein are
10286several pictures of the different species of the Leviathan. All these
10287are not only incorrect, but the picture of the Mysticetus or Greenland
10288whale (that is to say, the Right whale), even Scoresby, a long
10289experienced man as touching that species, declares not to have its
10290counterpart in nature.
10291
10292But the placing of the cap-sheaf to all this blundering business was
10293reserved for the scientific Frederick Cuvier, brother to the famous
10294Baron. In 1836, he published a Natural History of Whales, in which he
10295gives what he calls a picture of the Sperm Whale. Before showing that
10296picture to any Nantucketer, you had best provide for your summary
10297retreat from Nantucket. In a word, Frederick Cuvier's Sperm Whale is not
10298a Sperm Whale, but a squash. Of course, he never had the benefit of
10299a whaling voyage (such men seldom have), but whence he derived that
10300picture, who can tell? Perhaps he got it as his scientific predecessor
10301in the same field, Desmarest, got one of his authentic abortions; that
10302is, from a Chinese drawing. And what sort of lively lads with the pencil
10303those Chinese are, many queer cups and saucers inform us.
10304
10305As for the sign-painters' whales seen in the streets hanging over the
10306shops of oil-dealers, what shall be said of them? They are generally
10307Richard III. whales, with dromedary humps, and very savage; breakfasting
10308on three or four sailor tarts, that is whaleboats full of mariners:
10309their deformities floundering in seas of blood and blue paint.
10310
10311But these manifold mistakes in depicting the whale are not so very
10312surprising after all. Consider! Most of the scientific drawings have
10313been taken from the stranded fish; and these are about as correct as a
10314drawing of a wrecked ship, with broken back, would correctly represent
10315the noble animal itself in all its undashed pride of hull and spars.
10316Though elephants have stood for their full-lengths, the living Leviathan
10317has never yet fairly floated himself for his portrait. The living whale,
10318in his full majesty and significance, is only to be seen at sea in
10319unfathomable waters; and afloat the vast bulk of him is out of sight,
10320like a launched line-of-battle ship; and out of that element it is a
10321thing eternally impossible for mortal man to hoist him bodily into the
10322air, so as to preserve all his mighty swells and undulations. And, not
10323to speak of the highly presumable difference of contour between a young
10324sucking whale and a full-grown Platonian Leviathan; yet, even in the
10325case of one of those young sucking whales hoisted to a ship's deck, such
10326is then the outlandish, eel-like, limbered, varying shape of him, that
10327his precise expression the devil himself could not catch.
10328
10329But it may be fancied, that from the naked skeleton of the stranded
10330whale, accurate hints may be derived touching his true form. Not at all.
10331For it is one of the more curious things about this Leviathan, that
10332his skeleton gives very little idea of his general shape. Though Jeremy
10333Bentham's skeleton, which hangs for candelabra in the library of one of
10334his executors, correctly conveys the idea of a burly-browed utilitarian
10335old gentleman, with all Jeremy's other leading personal characteristics;
10336yet nothing of this kind could be inferred from any leviathan's
10337articulated bones. In fact, as the great Hunter says, the mere skeleton
10338of the whale bears the same relation to the fully invested and padded
10339animal as the insect does to the chrysalis that so roundingly envelopes
10340it. This peculiarity is strikingly evinced in the head, as in some
10341part of this book will be incidentally shown. It is also very curiously
10342displayed in the side fin, the bones of which almost exactly answer to
10343the bones of the human hand, minus only the thumb. This fin has four
10344regular bone-fingers, the index, middle, ring, and little finger. But
10345all these are permanently lodged in their fleshy covering, as the human
10346fingers in an artificial covering. "However recklessly the whale may
10347sometimes serve us," said humorous Stubb one day, "he can never be truly
10348said to handle us without mittens."
10349
10350For all these reasons, then, any way you may look at it, you must needs
10351conclude that the great Leviathan is that one creature in the world
10352which must remain unpainted to the last. True, one portrait may hit
10353the mark much nearer than another, but none can hit it with any very
10354considerable degree of exactness. So there is no earthly way of finding
10355out precisely what the whale really looks like. And the only mode in
10356which you can derive even a tolerable idea of his living contour, is
10357by going a whaling yourself; but by so doing, you run no small risk of
10358being eternally stove and sunk by him. Wherefore, it seems to me you had
10359best not be too fastidious in your curiosity touching this Leviathan.
10360
10361
10362
10363CHAPTER 56. Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True
10364Pictures of Whaling Scenes.
10365
10366
10367In connexion with the monstrous pictures of whales, I am strongly
10368tempted here to enter upon those still more monstrous stories of
10369them which are to be found in certain books, both ancient and modern,
10370especially in Pliny, Purchas, Hackluyt, Harris, Cuvier, etc. But I pass
10371that matter by.
10372
10373I know of only four published outlines of the great Sperm Whale;
10374Colnett's, Huggins's, Frederick Cuvier's, and Beale's. In the previous
10375chapter Colnett and Cuvier have been referred to. Huggins's is far
10376better than theirs; but, by great odds, Beale's is the best. All Beale's
10377drawings of this whale are good, excepting the middle figure in the
10378picture of three whales in various attitudes, capping his second
10379chapter. His frontispiece, boats attacking Sperm Whales, though no
10380doubt calculated to excite the civil scepticism of some parlor men, is
10381admirably correct and life-like in its general effect. Some of the Sperm
10382Whale drawings in J. Ross Browne are pretty correct in contour; but they
10383are wretchedly engraved. That is not his fault though.
10384
10385Of the Right Whale, the best outline pictures are in Scoresby; but they
10386are drawn on too small a scale to convey a desirable impression. He has
10387but one picture of whaling scenes, and this is a sad deficiency, because
10388it is by such pictures only, when at all well done, that you can derive
10389anything like a truthful idea of the living whale as seen by his living
10390hunters.
10391
10392But, taken for all in all, by far the finest, though in some details
10393not the most correct, presentations of whales and whaling scenes to
10394be anywhere found, are two large French engravings, well executed,
10395and taken from paintings by one Garnery. Respectively, they represent
10396attacks on the Sperm and Right Whale. In the first engraving a noble
10397Sperm Whale is depicted in full majesty of might, just risen beneath
10398the boat from the profundities of the ocean, and bearing high in the air
10399upon his back the terrific wreck of the stoven planks. The prow of
10400the boat is partially unbroken, and is drawn just balancing upon
10401the monster's spine; and standing in that prow, for that one single
10402incomputable flash of time, you behold an oarsman, half shrouded by the
10403incensed boiling spout of the whale, and in the act of leaping, as if
10404from a precipice. The action of the whole thing is wonderfully good and
10405true. The half-emptied line-tub floats on the whitened sea; the wooden
10406poles of the spilled harpoons obliquely bob in it; the heads of the
10407swimming crew are scattered about the whale in contrasting expressions
10408of affright; while in the black stormy distance the ship is bearing down
10409upon the scene. Serious fault might be found with the anatomical details
10410of this whale, but let that pass; since, for the life of me, I could not
10411draw so good a one.
10412
10413In the second engraving, the boat is in the act of drawing alongside
10414the barnacled flank of a large running Right Whale, that rolls his black
10415weedy bulk in the sea like some mossy rock-slide from the Patagonian
10416cliffs. His jets are erect, full, and black like soot; so that from so
10417abounding a smoke in the chimney, you would think there must be a brave
10418supper cooking in the great bowels below. Sea fowls are pecking at the
10419small crabs, shell-fish, and other sea candies and maccaroni, which the
10420Right Whale sometimes carries on his pestilent back. And all the while
10421the thick-lipped leviathan is rushing through the deep, leaving tons of
10422tumultuous white curds in his wake, and causing the slight boat to rock
10423in the swells like a skiff caught nigh the paddle-wheels of an ocean
10424steamer. Thus, the foreground is all raging commotion; but behind, in
10425admirable artistic contrast, is the glassy level of a sea becalmed, the
10426drooping unstarched sails of the powerless ship, and the inert mass of
10427a dead whale, a conquered fortress, with the flag of capture lazily
10428hanging from the whale-pole inserted into his spout-hole.
10429
10430Who Garnery the painter is, or was, I know not. But my life for it he
10431was either practically conversant with his subject, or else marvellously
10432tutored by some experienced whaleman. The French are the lads for
10433painting action. Go and gaze upon all the paintings of Europe, and
10434where will you find such a gallery of living and breathing commotion
10435on canvas, as in that triumphal hall at Versailles; where the beholder
10436fights his way, pell-mell, through the consecutive great battles of
10437France; where every sword seems a flash of the Northern Lights, and the
10438successive armed kings and Emperors dash by, like a charge of crowned
10439centaurs? Not wholly unworthy of a place in that gallery, are these sea
10440battle-pieces of Garnery.
10441
10442The natural aptitude of the French for seizing the picturesqueness of
10443things seems to be peculiarly evinced in what paintings and engravings
10444they have of their whaling scenes. With not one tenth of England's
10445experience in the fishery, and not the thousandth part of that of the
10446Americans, they have nevertheless furnished both nations with the only
10447finished sketches at all capable of conveying the real spirit of
10448the whale hunt. For the most part, the English and American whale
10449draughtsmen seem entirely content with presenting the mechanical outline
10450of things, such as the vacant profile of the whale; which, so far as
10451picturesqueness of effect is concerned, is about tantamount to sketching
10452the profile of a pyramid. Even Scoresby, the justly renowned Right
10453whaleman, after giving us a stiff full length of the Greenland whale,
10454and three or four delicate miniatures of narwhales and porpoises, treats
10455us to a series of classical engravings of boat hooks, chopping knives,
10456and grapnels; and with the microscopic diligence of a Leuwenhoeck
10457submits to the inspection of a shivering world ninety-six fac-similes of
10458magnified Arctic snow crystals. I mean no disparagement to the excellent
10459voyager (I honour him for a veteran), but in so important a matter it
10460was certainly an oversight not to have procured for every crystal a
10461sworn affidavit taken before a Greenland Justice of the Peace.
10462
10463In addition to those fine engravings from Garnery, there are two other
10464French engravings worthy of note, by some one who subscribes himself
10465"H. Durand." One of them, though not precisely adapted to our present
10466purpose, nevertheless deserves mention on other accounts. It is a quiet
10467noon-scene among the isles of the Pacific; a French whaler anchored,
10468inshore, in a calm, and lazily taking water on board; the loosened sails
10469of the ship, and the long leaves of the palms in the background, both
10470drooping together in the breezeless air. The effect is very fine, when
10471considered with reference to its presenting the hardy fishermen under
10472one of their few aspects of oriental repose. The other engraving is
10473quite a different affair: the ship hove-to upon the open sea, and in the
10474very heart of the Leviathanic life, with a Right Whale alongside; the
10475vessel (in the act of cutting-in) hove over to the monster as if to a
10476quay; and a boat, hurriedly pushing off from this scene of activity, is
10477about giving chase to whales in the distance. The harpoons and lances
10478lie levelled for use; three oarsmen are just setting the mast in its
10479hole; while from a sudden roll of the sea, the little craft stands
10480half-erect out of the water, like a rearing horse. From the ship, the
10481smoke of the torments of the boiling whale is going up like the smoke
10482over a village of smithies; and to windward, a black cloud, rising up
10483with earnest of squalls and rains, seems to quicken the activity of the
10484excited seamen.
10485
10486
10487
10488CHAPTER 57. Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in
10489Stone; in Mountains; in Stars.
10490
10491
10492On Tower-hill, as you go down to the London docks, you may have seen a
10493crippled beggar (or KEDGER, as the sailors say) holding a painted board
10494before him, representing the tragic scene in which he lost his leg.
10495There are three whales and three boats; and one of the boats (presumed
10496to contain the missing leg in all its original integrity) is being
10497crunched by the jaws of the foremost whale. Any time these ten years,
10498they tell me, has that man held up that picture, and exhibited that
10499stump to an incredulous world. But the time of his justification has
10500now come. His three whales are as good whales as were ever published in
10501Wapping, at any rate; and his stump as unquestionable a stump as any you
10502will find in the western clearings. But, though for ever mounted on
10503that stump, never a stump-speech does the poor whaleman make; but, with
10504downcast eyes, stands ruefully contemplating his own amputation.
10505
10506Throughout the Pacific, and also in Nantucket, and New Bedford, and
10507Sag Harbor, you will come across lively sketches of whales and
10508whaling-scenes, graven by the fishermen themselves on Sperm Whale-teeth,
10509or ladies' busks wrought out of the Right Whale-bone, and other
10510like skrimshander articles, as the whalemen call the numerous little
10511ingenious contrivances they elaborately carve out of the rough material,
10512in their hours of ocean leisure. Some of them have little boxes
10513of dentistical-looking implements, specially intended for the
10514skrimshandering business. But, in general, they toil with their
10515jack-knives alone; and, with that almost omnipotent tool of the sailor,
10516they will turn you out anything you please, in the way of a mariner's
10517fancy.
10518
10519Long exile from Christendom and civilization inevitably restores a man
10520to that condition in which God placed him, i.e. what is called savagery.
10521Your true whale-hunter is as much a savage as an Iroquois. I myself am a
10522savage, owning no allegiance but to the King of the Cannibals; and ready
10523at any moment to rebel against him.
10524
10525Now, one of the peculiar characteristics of the savage in his domestic
10526hours, is his wonderful patience of industry. An ancient Hawaiian
10527war-club or spear-paddle, in its full multiplicity and elaboration of
10528carving, is as great a trophy of human perseverance as a Latin lexicon.
10529For, with but a bit of broken sea-shell or a shark's tooth, that
10530miraculous intricacy of wooden net-work has been achieved; and it has
10531cost steady years of steady application.
10532
10533As with the Hawaiian savage, so with the white sailor-savage. With the
10534same marvellous patience, and with the same single shark's tooth, of
10535his one poor jack-knife, he will carve you a bit of bone sculpture, not
10536quite as workmanlike, but as close packed in its maziness of design,
10537as the Greek savage, Achilles's shield; and full of barbaric spirit
10538and suggestiveness, as the prints of that fine old Dutch savage, Albert
10539Durer.
10540
10541Wooden whales, or whales cut in profile out of the small dark slabs of
10542the noble South Sea war-wood, are frequently met with in the forecastles
10543of American whalers. Some of them are done with much accuracy.
10544
10545At some old gable-roofed country houses you will see brass whales hung
10546by the tail for knockers to the road-side door. When the porter is
10547sleepy, the anvil-headed whale would be best. But these knocking
10548whales are seldom remarkable as faithful essays. On the spires of some
10549old-fashioned churches you will see sheet-iron whales placed there for
10550weather-cocks; but they are so elevated, and besides that are to all
10551intents and purposes so labelled with "HANDS OFF!" you cannot examine
10552them closely enough to decide upon their merit.
10553
10554In bony, ribby regions of the earth, where at the base of high broken
10555cliffs masses of rock lie strewn in fantastic groupings upon the
10556plain, you will often discover images as of the petrified forms of the
10557Leviathan partly merged in grass, which of a windy day breaks against
10558them in a surf of green surges.
10559
10560Then, again, in mountainous countries where the traveller is continually
10561girdled by amphitheatrical heights; here and there from some lucky
10562point of view you will catch passing glimpses of the profiles of
10563whales defined along the undulating ridges. But you must be a thorough
10564whaleman, to see these sights; and not only that, but if you wish
10565to return to such a sight again, you must be sure and take the exact
10566intersecting latitude and longitude of your first stand-point, else
10567so chance-like are such observations of the hills, that your precise,
10568previous stand-point would require a laborious re-discovery; like the
10569Soloma Islands, which still remain incognita, though once high-ruffed
10570Mendanna trod them and old Figuera chronicled them.
10571
10572Nor when expandingly lifted by your subject, can you fail to trace out
10573great whales in the starry heavens, and boats in pursuit of them; as
10574when long filled with thoughts of war the Eastern nations saw armies
10575locked in battle among the clouds. Thus at the North have I chased
10576Leviathan round and round the Pole with the revolutions of the bright
10577points that first defined him to me. And beneath the effulgent Antarctic
10578skies I have boarded the Argo-Navis, and joined the chase against the
10579starry Cetus far beyond the utmost stretch of Hydrus and the Flying
10580Fish.
10581
10582With a frigate's anchors for my bridle-bitts and fasces of harpoons for
10583spurs, would I could mount that whale and leap the topmost skies, to
10584see whether the fabled heavens with all their countless tents really lie
10585encamped beyond my mortal sight!
10586
10587
10588
10589CHAPTER 58. Brit.
10590
10591
10592Steering north-eastward from the Crozetts, we fell in with vast meadows
10593of brit, the minute, yellow substance, upon which the Right Whale
10594largely feeds. For leagues and leagues it undulated round us, so that we
10595seemed to be sailing through boundless fields of ripe and golden wheat.
10596
10597On the second day, numbers of Right Whales were seen, who, secure from
10598the attack of a Sperm Whaler like the Pequod, with open jaws sluggishly
10599swam through the brit, which, adhering to the fringing fibres of that
10600wondrous Venetian blind in their mouths, was in that manner separated
10601from the water that escaped at the lip.
10602
10603As morning mowers, who side by side slowly and seethingly advance
10604their scythes through the long wet grass of marshy meads; even so these
10605monsters swam, making a strange, grassy, cutting sound; and leaving
10606behind them endless swaths of blue upon the yellow sea.*
10607
10608
10609*That part of the sea known among whalemen as the "Brazil Banks" does
10610not bear that name as the Banks of Newfoundland do, because of there
10611being shallows and soundings there, but because of this remarkable
10612meadow-like appearance, caused by the vast drifts of brit continually
10613floating in those latitudes, where the Right Whale is often chased.
10614
10615
10616But it was only the sound they made as they parted the brit which at all
10617reminded one of mowers. Seen from the mast-heads, especially when they
10618paused and were stationary for a while, their vast black forms looked
10619more like lifeless masses of rock than anything else. And as in the
10620great hunting countries of India, the stranger at a distance will
10621sometimes pass on the plains recumbent elephants without knowing them
10622to be such, taking them for bare, blackened elevations of the soil; even
10623so, often, with him, who for the first time beholds this species of the
10624leviathans of the sea. And even when recognised at last, their immense
10625magnitude renders it very hard really to believe that such bulky masses
10626of overgrowth can possibly be instinct, in all parts, with the same sort
10627of life that lives in a dog or a horse.
10628
10629Indeed, in other respects, you can hardly regard any creatures of the
10630deep with the same feelings that you do those of the shore. For though
10631some old naturalists have maintained that all creatures of the land are
10632of their kind in the sea; and though taking a broad general view of
10633the thing, this may very well be; yet coming to specialties, where, for
10634example, does the ocean furnish any fish that in disposition answers to
10635the sagacious kindness of the dog? The accursed shark alone can in any
10636generic respect be said to bear comparative analogy to him.
10637
10638But though, to landsmen in general, the native inhabitants of the
10639seas have ever been regarded with emotions unspeakably unsocial and
10640repelling; though we know the sea to be an everlasting terra incognita,
10641so that Columbus sailed over numberless unknown worlds to discover his
10642one superficial western one; though, by vast odds, the most terrific
10643of all mortal disasters have immemorially and indiscriminately befallen
10644tens and hundreds of thousands of those who have gone upon the waters;
10645though but a moment's consideration will teach, that however baby man
10646may brag of his science and skill, and however much, in a flattering
10647future, that science and skill may augment; yet for ever and for ever,
10648to the crack of doom, the sea will insult and murder him, and pulverize
10649the stateliest, stiffest frigate he can make; nevertheless, by the
10650continual repetition of these very impressions, man has lost that sense
10651of the full awfulness of the sea which aboriginally belongs to it.
10652
10653The first boat we read of, floated on an ocean, that with Portuguese
10654vengeance had whelmed a whole world without leaving so much as a widow.
10655That same ocean rolls now; that same ocean destroyed the wrecked ships
10656of last year. Yea, foolish mortals, Noah's flood is not yet subsided;
10657two thirds of the fair world it yet covers.
10658
10659Wherein differ the sea and the land, that a miracle upon one is not a
10660miracle upon the other? Preternatural terrors rested upon the Hebrews,
10661when under the feet of Korah and his company the live ground opened
10662and swallowed them up for ever; yet not a modern sun ever sets, but in
10663precisely the same manner the live sea swallows up ships and crews.
10664
10665But not only is the sea such a foe to man who is an alien to it, but it
10666is also a fiend to its own off-spring; worse than the Persian host who
10667murdered his own guests; sparing not the creatures which itself hath
10668spawned. Like a savage tigress that tossing in the jungle overlays her
10669own cubs, so the sea dashes even the mightiest whales against the rocks,
10670and leaves them there side by side with the split wrecks of ships. No
10671mercy, no power but its own controls it. Panting and snorting like a mad
10672battle steed that has lost its rider, the masterless ocean overruns the
10673globe.
10674
10675Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide
10676under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden
10677beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish
10678brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the
10679dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more,
10680the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each
10681other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.
10682
10683Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile
10684earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a
10685strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean
10686surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular
10687Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the
10688half known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst
10689never return!
10690
10691
10692CHAPTER 59. Squid.
10693
10694
10695Slowly wading through the meadows of brit, the Pequod still held on her
10696way north-eastward towards the island of Java; a gentle air impelling
10697her keel, so that in the surrounding serenity her three tall tapering
10698masts mildly waved to that languid breeze, as three mild palms on a
10699plain. And still, at wide intervals in the silvery night, the lonely,
10700alluring jet would be seen.
10701
10702But one transparent blue morning, when a stillness almost preternatural
10703spread over the sea, however unattended with any stagnant calm; when
10704the long burnished sun-glade on the waters seemed a golden finger laid
10705across them, enjoining some secrecy; when the slippered waves whispered
10706together as they softly ran on; in this profound hush of the visible
10707sphere a strange spectre was seen by Daggoo from the main-mast-head.
10708
10709In the distance, a great white mass lazily rose, and rising higher and
10710higher, and disentangling itself from the azure, at last gleamed before
10711our prow like a snow-slide, new slid from the hills. Thus glistening
10712for a moment, as slowly it subsided, and sank. Then once more arose,
10713and silently gleamed. It seemed not a whale; and yet is this Moby Dick?
10714thought Daggoo. Again the phantom went down, but on re-appearing once
10715more, with a stiletto-like cry that startled every man from his nod, the
10716negro yelled out--"There! there again! there she breaches! right ahead!
10717The White Whale, the White Whale!"
10718
10719Upon this, the seamen rushed to the yard-arms, as in swarming-time the
10720bees rush to the boughs. Bare-headed in the sultry sun, Ahab stood on
10721the bowsprit, and with one hand pushed far behind in readiness to wave
10722his orders to the helmsman, cast his eager glance in the direction
10723indicated aloft by the outstretched motionless arm of Daggoo.
10724
10725Whether the flitting attendance of the one still and solitary jet had
10726gradually worked upon Ahab, so that he was now prepared to connect the
10727ideas of mildness and repose with the first sight of the particular
10728whale he pursued; however this was, or whether his eagerness betrayed
10729him; whichever way it might have been, no sooner did he distinctly
10730perceive the white mass, than with a quick intensity he instantly gave
10731orders for lowering.
10732
10733The four boats were soon on the water; Ahab's in advance, and all
10734swiftly pulling towards their prey. Soon it went down, and while, with
10735oars suspended, we were awaiting its reappearance, lo! in the same
10736spot where it sank, once more it slowly rose. Almost forgetting for
10737the moment all thoughts of Moby Dick, we now gazed at the most wondrous
10738phenomenon which the secret seas have hitherto revealed to mankind.
10739A vast pulpy mass, furlongs in length and breadth, of a glancing
10740cream-colour, lay floating on the water, innumerable long arms radiating
10741from its centre, and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas, as
10742if blindly to clutch at any hapless object within reach. No perceptible
10743face or front did it have; no conceivable token of either sensation or
10744instinct; but undulated there on the billows, an unearthly, formless,
10745chance-like apparition of life.
10746
10747As with a low sucking sound it slowly disappeared again, Starbuck still
10748gazing at the agitated waters where it had sunk, with a wild voice
10749exclaimed--"Almost rather had I seen Moby Dick and fought him, than to
10750have seen thee, thou white ghost!"
10751
10752"What was it, Sir?" said Flask.
10753
10754"The great live squid, which, they say, few whale-ships ever beheld, and
10755returned to their ports to tell of it."
10756
10757But Ahab said nothing; turning his boat, he sailed back to the vessel;
10758the rest as silently following.
10759
10760Whatever superstitions the sperm whalemen in general have connected with
10761the sight of this object, certain it is, that a glimpse of it being
10762so very unusual, that circumstance has gone far to invest it with
10763portentousness. So rarely is it beheld, that though one and all of them
10764declare it to be the largest animated thing in the ocean, yet very few
10765of them have any but the most vague ideas concerning its true nature and
10766form; notwithstanding, they believe it to furnish to the sperm whale
10767his only food. For though other species of whales find their food above
10768water, and may be seen by man in the act of feeding, the spermaceti
10769whale obtains his whole food in unknown zones below the surface; and
10770only by inference is it that any one can tell of what, precisely, that
10771food consists. At times, when closely pursued, he will disgorge what
10772are supposed to be the detached arms of the squid; some of them thus
10773exhibited exceeding twenty and thirty feet in length. They fancy that
10774the monster to which these arms belonged ordinarily clings by them to
10775the bed of the ocean; and that the sperm whale, unlike other species, is
10776supplied with teeth in order to attack and tear it.
10777
10778There seems some ground to imagine that the great Kraken of Bishop
10779Pontoppodan may ultimately resolve itself into Squid. The manner in
10780which the Bishop describes it, as alternately rising and sinking, with
10781some other particulars he narrates, in all this the two correspond.
10782But much abatement is necessary with respect to the incredible bulk he
10783assigns it.
10784
10785By some naturalists who have vaguely heard rumors of the mysterious
10786creature, here spoken of, it is included among the class of cuttle-fish,
10787to which, indeed, in certain external respects it would seem to belong,
10788but only as the Anak of the tribe.
10789
10790
10791
10792CHAPTER 60. The Line.
10793
10794
10795With reference to the whaling scene shortly to be described, as well as
10796for the better understanding of all similar scenes elsewhere presented,
10797I have here to speak of the magical, sometimes horrible whale-line.
10798
10799The line originally used in the fishery was of the best hemp, slightly
10800vapoured with tar, not impregnated with it, as in the case of ordinary
10801ropes; for while tar, as ordinarily used, makes the hemp more pliable to
10802the rope-maker, and also renders the rope itself more convenient to the
10803sailor for common ship use; yet, not only would the ordinary quantity
10804too much stiffen the whale-line for the close coiling to which it must
10805be subjected; but as most seamen are beginning to learn, tar in general
10806by no means adds to the rope's durability or strength, however much it
10807may give it compactness and gloss.
10808
10809Of late years the Manilla rope has in the American fishery almost
10810entirely superseded hemp as a material for whale-lines; for, though not
10811so durable as hemp, it is stronger, and far more soft and elastic; and
10812I will add (since there is an aesthetics in all things), is much more
10813handsome and becoming to the boat, than hemp. Hemp is a dusky, dark
10814fellow, a sort of Indian; but Manilla is as a golden-haired Circassian
10815to behold.
10816
10817The whale-line is only two-thirds of an inch in thickness. At first
10818sight, you would not think it so strong as it really is. By experiment
10819its one and fifty yarns will each suspend a weight of one hundred and
10820twenty pounds; so that the whole rope will bear a strain nearly equal
10821to three tons. In length, the common sperm whale-line measures something
10822over two hundred fathoms. Towards the stern of the boat it is spirally
10823coiled away in the tub, not like the worm-pipe of a still though, but so
10824as to form one round, cheese-shaped mass of densely bedded "sheaves," or
10825layers of concentric spiralizations, without any hollow but the "heart,"
10826or minute vertical tube formed at the axis of the cheese. As the least
10827tangle or kink in the coiling would, in running out, infallibly take
10828somebody's arm, leg, or entire body off, the utmost precaution is used
10829in stowing the line in its tub. Some harpooneers will consume almost an
10830entire morning in this business, carrying the line high aloft and then
10831reeving it downwards through a block towards the tub, so as in the act
10832of coiling to free it from all possible wrinkles and twists.
10833
10834In the English boats two tubs are used instead of one; the same line
10835being continuously coiled in both tubs. There is some advantage in this;
10836because these twin-tubs being so small they fit more readily into the
10837boat, and do not strain it so much; whereas, the American tub, nearly
10838three feet in diameter and of proportionate depth, makes a rather bulky
10839freight for a craft whose planks are but one half-inch in thickness; for
10840the bottom of the whale-boat is like critical ice, which will bear up
10841a considerable distributed weight, but not very much of a concentrated
10842one. When the painted canvas cover is clapped on the American line-tub,
10843the boat looks as if it were pulling off with a prodigious great
10844wedding-cake to present to the whales.
10845
10846Both ends of the line are exposed; the lower end terminating in an
10847eye-splice or loop coming up from the bottom against the side of the
10848tub, and hanging over its edge completely disengaged from everything.
10849This arrangement of the lower end is necessary on two accounts. First:
10850In order to facilitate the fastening to it of an additional line from a
10851neighboring boat, in case the stricken whale should sound so deep as
10852to threaten to carry off the entire line originally attached to the
10853harpoon. In these instances, the whale of course is shifted like a mug
10854of ale, as it were, from the one boat to the other; though the
10855first boat always hovers at hand to assist its consort. Second: This
10856arrangement is indispensable for common safety's sake; for were the
10857lower end of the line in any way attached to the boat, and were the
10858whale then to run the line out to the end almost in a single, smoking
10859minute as he sometimes does, he would not stop there, for the doomed
10860boat would infallibly be dragged down after him into the profundity of
10861the sea; and in that case no town-crier would ever find her again.
10862
10863Before lowering the boat for the chase, the upper end of the line is
10864taken aft from the tub, and passing round the loggerhead there, is again
10865carried forward the entire length of the boat, resting crosswise upon
10866the loom or handle of every man's oar, so that it jogs against his wrist
10867in rowing; and also passing between the men, as they alternately sit at
10868the opposite gunwales, to the leaded chocks or grooves in the extreme
10869pointed prow of the boat, where a wooden pin or skewer the size of a
10870common quill, prevents it from slipping out. From the chocks it hangs
10871in a slight festoon over the bows, and is then passed inside the boat
10872again; and some ten or twenty fathoms (called box-line) being coiled
10873upon the box in the bows, it continues its way to the gunwale still a
10874little further aft, and is then attached to the short-warp--the rope
10875which is immediately connected with the harpoon; but previous to that
10876connexion, the short-warp goes through sundry mystifications too tedious
10877to detail.
10878
10879Thus the whale-line folds the whole boat in its complicated coils,
10880twisting and writhing around it in almost every direction. All the
10881oarsmen are involved in its perilous contortions; so that to the timid
10882eye of the landsman, they seem as Indian jugglers, with the deadliest
10883snakes sportively festooning their limbs. Nor can any son of mortal
10884woman, for the first time, seat himself amid those hempen intricacies,
10885and while straining his utmost at the oar, bethink him that at any
10886unknown instant the harpoon may be darted, and all these horrible
10887contortions be put in play like ringed lightnings; he cannot be thus
10888circumstanced without a shudder that makes the very marrow in his bones
10889to quiver in him like a shaken jelly. Yet habit--strange thing! what
10890cannot habit accomplish?--Gayer sallies, more merry mirth, better jokes,
10891and brighter repartees, you never heard over your mahogany, than you
10892will hear over the half-inch white cedar of the whale-boat, when thus
10893hung in hangman's nooses; and, like the six burghers of Calais before
10894King Edward, the six men composing the crew pull into the jaws of death,
10895with a halter around every neck, as you may say.
10896
10897Perhaps a very little thought will now enable you to account for
10898those repeated whaling disasters--some few of which are casually
10899chronicled--of this man or that man being taken out of the boat by the
10900line, and lost. For, when the line is darting out, to be seated then in
10901the boat, is like being seated in the midst of the manifold whizzings
10902of a steam-engine in full play, when every flying beam, and shaft, and
10903wheel, is grazing you. It is worse; for you cannot sit motionless in the
10904heart of these perils, because the boat is rocking like a cradle, and
10905you are pitched one way and the other, without the slightest warning;
10906and only by a certain self-adjusting buoyancy and simultaneousness of
10907volition and action, can you escape being made a Mazeppa of, and run
10908away with where the all-seeing sun himself could never pierce you out.
10909
10910Again: as the profound calm which only apparently precedes and
10911prophesies of the storm, is perhaps more awful than the storm itself;
10912for, indeed, the calm is but the wrapper and envelope of the storm; and
10913contains it in itself, as the seemingly harmless rifle holds the fatal
10914powder, and the ball, and the explosion; so the graceful repose of the
10915line, as it silently serpentines about the oarsmen before being brought
10916into actual play--this is a thing which carries more of true terror than
10917any other aspect of this dangerous affair. But why say more? All men
10918live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their
10919necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death,
10920that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life.
10921And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would
10922not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before
10923your evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side.
10924
10925
10926
10927CHAPTER 61. Stubb Kills a Whale.
10928
10929
10930If to Starbuck the apparition of the Squid was a thing of portents, to
10931Queequeg it was quite a different object.
10932
10933"When you see him 'quid," said the savage, honing his harpoon in the bow
10934of his hoisted boat, "then you quick see him 'parm whale."
10935
10936The next day was exceedingly still and sultry, and with nothing special
10937to engage them, the Pequod's crew could hardly resist the spell of sleep
10938induced by such a vacant sea. For this part of the Indian Ocean through
10939which we then were voyaging is not what whalemen call a lively ground;
10940that is, it affords fewer glimpses of porpoises, dolphins, flying-fish,
10941and other vivacious denizens of more stirring waters, than those off the
10942Rio de la Plata, or the in-shore ground off Peru.
10943
10944It was my turn to stand at the foremast-head; and with my shoulders
10945leaning against the slackened royal shrouds, to and fro I idly swayed in
10946what seemed an enchanted air. No resolution could withstand it; in that
10947dreamy mood losing all consciousness, at last my soul went out of my
10948body; though my body still continued to sway as a pendulum will, long
10949after the power which first moved it is withdrawn.
10950
10951Ere forgetfulness altogether came over me, I had noticed that the seamen
10952at the main and mizzen-mast-heads were already drowsy. So that at last
10953all three of us lifelessly swung from the spars, and for every swing
10954that we made there was a nod from below from the slumbering helmsman.
10955The waves, too, nodded their indolent crests; and across the wide trance
10956of the sea, east nodded to west, and the sun over all.
10957
10958Suddenly bubbles seemed bursting beneath my closed eyes; like vices my
10959hands grasped the shrouds; some invisible, gracious agency preserved me;
10960with a shock I came back to life. And lo! close under our lee, not forty
10961fathoms off, a gigantic Sperm Whale lay rolling in the water like the
10962capsized hull of a frigate, his broad, glossy back, of an Ethiopian hue,
10963glistening in the sun's rays like a mirror. But lazily undulating in
10964the trough of the sea, and ever and anon tranquilly spouting his vapoury
10965jet, the whale looked like a portly burgher smoking his pipe of a warm
10966afternoon. But that pipe, poor whale, was thy last. As if struck by some
10967enchanter's wand, the sleepy ship and every sleeper in it all at once
10968started into wakefulness; and more than a score of voices from all parts
10969of the vessel, simultaneously with the three notes from aloft, shouted
10970forth the accustomed cry, as the great fish slowly and regularly spouted
10971the sparkling brine into the air.
10972
10973"Clear away the boats! Luff!" cried Ahab. And obeying his own order, he
10974dashed the helm down before the helmsman could handle the spokes.
10975
10976The sudden exclamations of the crew must have alarmed the whale; and ere
10977the boats were down, majestically turning, he swam away to the leeward,
10978but with such a steady tranquillity, and making so few ripples as he
10979swam, that thinking after all he might not as yet be alarmed, Ahab gave
10980orders that not an oar should be used, and no man must speak but in
10981whispers. So seated like Ontario Indians on the gunwales of the boats,
10982we swiftly but silently paddled along; the calm not admitting of the
10983noiseless sails being set. Presently, as we thus glided in chase, the
10984monster perpendicularly flitted his tail forty feet into the air, and
10985then sank out of sight like a tower swallowed up.
10986
10987"There go flukes!" was the cry, an announcement immediately followed by
10988Stubb's producing his match and igniting his pipe, for now a respite was
10989granted. After the full interval of his sounding had elapsed, the whale
10990rose again, and being now in advance of the smoker's boat, and much
10991nearer to it than to any of the others, Stubb counted upon the honour
10992of the capture. It was obvious, now, that the whale had at length become
10993aware of his pursuers. All silence of cautiousness was therefore no
10994longer of use. Paddles were dropped, and oars came loudly into play. And
10995still puffing at his pipe, Stubb cheered on his crew to the assault.
10996
10997Yes, a mighty change had come over the fish. All alive to his jeopardy,
10998he was going "head out"; that part obliquely projecting from the mad
10999yeast which he brewed.*
11000
11001
11002*It will be seen in some other place of what a very light substance
11003the entire interior of the sperm whale's enormous head consists. Though
11004apparently the most massive, it is by far the most buoyant part about
11005him. So that with ease he elevates it in the air, and invariably does
11006so when going at his utmost speed. Besides, such is the breadth of the
11007upper part of the front of his head, and such the tapering cut-water
11008formation of the lower part, that by obliquely elevating his head, he
11009thereby may be said to transform himself from a bluff-bowed sluggish
11010galliot into a sharppointed New York pilot-boat.
11011
11012
11013"Start her, start her, my men! Don't hurry yourselves; take plenty of
11014time--but start her; start her like thunder-claps, that's all," cried
11015Stubb, spluttering out the smoke as he spoke. "Start her, now; give 'em
11016the long and strong stroke, Tashtego. Start her, Tash, my boy--start
11017her, all; but keep cool, keep cool--cucumbers is the word--easy,
11018easy--only start her like grim death and grinning devils, and raise the
11019buried dead perpendicular out of their graves, boys--that's all. Start
11020her!"
11021
11022"Woo-hoo! Wa-hee!" screamed the Gay-Header in reply, raising some
11023old war-whoop to the skies; as every oarsman in the strained boat
11024involuntarily bounced forward with the one tremendous leading stroke
11025which the eager Indian gave.
11026
11027But his wild screams were answered by others quite as wild. "Kee-hee!
11028Kee-hee!" yelled Daggoo, straining forwards and backwards on his seat,
11029like a pacing tiger in his cage.
11030
11031"Ka-la! Koo-loo!" howled Queequeg, as if smacking his lips over a
11032mouthful of Grenadier's steak. And thus with oars and yells the keels
11033cut the sea. Meanwhile, Stubb retaining his place in the van, still
11034encouraged his men to the onset, all the while puffing the smoke from
11035his mouth. Like desperadoes they tugged and they strained, till the
11036welcome cry was heard--"Stand up, Tashtego!--give it to him!" The
11037harpoon was hurled. "Stern all!" The oarsmen backed water; the same
11038moment something went hot and hissing along every one of their wrists.
11039It was the magical line. An instant before, Stubb had swiftly caught two
11040additional turns with it round the loggerhead, whence, by reason of its
11041increased rapid circlings, a hempen blue smoke now jetted up and mingled
11042with the steady fumes from his pipe. As the line passed round and
11043round the loggerhead; so also, just before reaching that point, it
11044blisteringly passed through and through both of Stubb's hands, from
11045which the hand-cloths, or squares of quilted canvas sometimes worn at
11046these times, had accidentally dropped. It was like holding an enemy's
11047sharp two-edged sword by the blade, and that enemy all the time striving
11048to wrest it out of your clutch.
11049
11050"Wet the line! wet the line!" cried Stubb to the tub oarsman (him seated
11051by the tub) who, snatching off his hat, dashed sea-water into it.* More
11052turns were taken, so that the line began holding its place. The boat now
11053flew through the boiling water like a shark all fins. Stubb and Tashtego
11054here changed places--stem for stern--a staggering business truly in that
11055rocking commotion.
11056
11057
11058*Partly to show the indispensableness of this act, it may here be
11059stated, that, in the old Dutch fishery, a mop was used to dash the
11060running line with water; in many other ships, a wooden piggin, or
11061bailer, is set apart for that purpose. Your hat, however, is the most
11062convenient.
11063
11064
11065From the vibrating line extending the entire length of the upper part of
11066the boat, and from its now being more tight than a harpstring, you would
11067have thought the craft had two keels--one cleaving the water, the other
11068the air--as the boat churned on through both opposing elements at once.
11069A continual cascade played at the bows; a ceaseless whirling eddy in
11070her wake; and, at the slightest motion from within, even but of a little
11071finger, the vibrating, cracking craft canted over her spasmodic gunwale
11072into the sea. Thus they rushed; each man with might and main clinging
11073to his seat, to prevent being tossed to the foam; and the tall form of
11074Tashtego at the steering oar crouching almost double, in order to bring
11075down his centre of gravity. Whole Atlantics and Pacifics seemed passed
11076as they shot on their way, till at length the whale somewhat slackened
11077his flight.
11078
11079"Haul in--haul in!" cried Stubb to the bowsman! and, facing round
11080towards the whale, all hands began pulling the boat up to him, while yet
11081the boat was being towed on. Soon ranging up by his flank, Stubb, firmly
11082planting his knee in the clumsy cleat, darted dart after dart into the
11083flying fish; at the word of command, the boat alternately sterning
11084out of the way of the whale's horrible wallow, and then ranging up for
11085another fling.
11086
11087The red tide now poured from all sides of the monster like brooks down a
11088hill. His tormented body rolled not in brine but in blood, which bubbled
11089and seethed for furlongs behind in their wake. The slanting sun playing
11090upon this crimson pond in the sea, sent back its reflection into every
11091face, so that they all glowed to each other like red men. And all
11092the while, jet after jet of white smoke was agonizingly shot from the
11093spiracle of the whale, and vehement puff after puff from the mouth of
11094the excited headsman; as at every dart, hauling in upon his crooked
11095lance (by the line attached to it), Stubb straightened it again and
11096again, by a few rapid blows against the gunwale, then again and again
11097sent it into the whale.
11098
11099"Pull up--pull up!" he now cried to the bowsman, as the waning whale
11100relaxed in his wrath. "Pull up!--close to!" and the boat ranged along
11101the fish's flank. When reaching far over the bow, Stubb slowly churned
11102his long sharp lance into the fish, and kept it there, carefully
11103churning and churning, as if cautiously seeking to feel after some gold
11104watch that the whale might have swallowed, and which he was fearful of
11105breaking ere he could hook it out. But that gold watch he sought was the
11106innermost life of the fish. And now it is struck; for, starting from
11107his trance into that unspeakable thing called his "flurry," the monster
11108horribly wallowed in his blood, overwrapped himself in impenetrable,
11109mad, boiling spray, so that the imperilled craft, instantly dropping
11110astern, had much ado blindly to struggle out from that phrensied
11111twilight into the clear air of the day.
11112
11113And now abating in his flurry, the whale once more rolled out into view;
11114surging from side to side; spasmodically dilating and contracting his
11115spout-hole, with sharp, cracking, agonized respirations. At last, gush
11116after gush of clotted red gore, as if it had been the purple lees of red
11117wine, shot into the frighted air; and falling back again, ran dripping
11118down his motionless flanks into the sea. His heart had burst!
11119
11120"He's dead, Mr. Stubb," said Daggoo.
11121
11122"Yes; both pipes smoked out!" and withdrawing his own from his mouth,
11123Stubb scattered the dead ashes over the water; and, for a moment, stood
11124thoughtfully eyeing the vast corpse he had made.
11125
11126
11127
11128CHAPTER 62. The Dart.
11129
11130
11131A word concerning an incident in the last chapter.
11132
11133According to the invariable usage of the fishery, the whale-boat pushes
11134off from the ship, with the headsman or whale-killer as temporary
11135steersman, and the harpooneer or whale-fastener pulling the foremost
11136oar, the one known as the harpooneer-oar. Now it needs a strong, nervous
11137arm to strike the first iron into the fish; for often, in what is called
11138a long dart, the heavy implement has to be flung to the distance of
11139twenty or thirty feet. But however prolonged and exhausting the chase,
11140the harpooneer is expected to pull his oar meanwhile to the uttermost;
11141indeed, he is expected to set an example of superhuman activity to the
11142rest, not only by incredible rowing, but by repeated loud and intrepid
11143exclamations; and what it is to keep shouting at the top of one's
11144compass, while all the other muscles are strained and half started--what
11145that is none know but those who have tried it. For one, I cannot bawl
11146very heartily and work very recklessly at one and the same time. In this
11147straining, bawling state, then, with his back to the fish, all at once
11148the exhausted harpooneer hears the exciting cry--"Stand up, and give it
11149to him!" He now has to drop and secure his oar, turn round on his
11150centre half way, seize his harpoon from the crotch, and with what little
11151strength may remain, he essays to pitch it somehow into the whale. No
11152wonder, taking the whole fleet of whalemen in a body, that out of fifty
11153fair chances for a dart, not five are successful; no wonder that so many
11154hapless harpooneers are madly cursed and disrated; no wonder that some
11155of them actually burst their blood-vessels in the boat; no wonder that
11156some sperm whalemen are absent four years with four barrels; no wonder
11157that to many ship owners, whaling is but a losing concern; for it is the
11158harpooneer that makes the voyage, and if you take the breath out of his
11159body how can you expect to find it there when most wanted!
11160
11161Again, if the dart be successful, then at the second critical instant,
11162that is, when the whale starts to run, the boatheader and harpooneer
11163likewise start to running fore and aft, to the imminent jeopardy of
11164themselves and every one else. It is then they change places; and
11165the headsman, the chief officer of the little craft, takes his proper
11166station in the bows of the boat.
11167
11168Now, I care not who maintains the contrary, but all this is both foolish
11169and unnecessary. The headsman should stay in the bows from first to
11170last; he should both dart the harpoon and the lance, and no rowing
11171whatever should be expected of him, except under circumstances obvious
11172to any fisherman. I know that this would sometimes involve a slight loss
11173of speed in the chase; but long experience in various whalemen of more
11174than one nation has convinced me that in the vast majority of failures
11175in the fishery, it has not by any means been so much the speed of the
11176whale as the before described exhaustion of the harpooneer that has
11177caused them.
11178
11179To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooneers of this
11180world must start to their feet from out of idleness, and not from out of
11181toil.
11182
11183
11184
11185CHAPTER 63. The Crotch.
11186
11187
11188Out of the trunk, the branches grow; out of them, the twigs. So, in
11189productive subjects, grow the chapters.
11190
11191The crotch alluded to on a previous page deserves independent mention.
11192It is a notched stick of a peculiar form, some two feet in length, which
11193is perpendicularly inserted into the starboard gunwale near the bow,
11194for the purpose of furnishing a rest for the wooden extremity of the
11195harpoon, whose other naked, barbed end slopingly projects from the prow.
11196Thereby the weapon is instantly at hand to its hurler, who snatches it
11197up as readily from its rest as a backwoodsman swings his rifle from
11198the wall. It is customary to have two harpoons reposing in the crotch,
11199respectively called the first and second irons.
11200
11201But these two harpoons, each by its own cord, are both connected with
11202the line; the object being this: to dart them both, if possible, one
11203instantly after the other into the same whale; so that if, in the coming
11204drag, one should draw out, the other may still retain a hold. It is a
11205doubling of the chances. But it very often happens that owing to the
11206instantaneous, violent, convulsive running of the whale upon receiving
11207the first iron, it becomes impossible for the harpooneer, however
11208lightning-like in his movements, to pitch the second iron into him.
11209Nevertheless, as the second iron is already connected with the line,
11210and the line is running, hence that weapon must, at all events, be
11211anticipatingly tossed out of the boat, somehow and somewhere; else the
11212most terrible jeopardy would involve all hands. Tumbled into the water,
11213it accordingly is in such cases; the spare coils of box line (mentioned
11214in a preceding chapter) making this feat, in most instances, prudently
11215practicable. But this critical act is not always unattended with the
11216saddest and most fatal casualties.
11217
11218Furthermore: you must know that when the second iron is thrown
11219overboard, it thenceforth becomes a dangling, sharp-edged terror,
11220skittishly curvetting about both boat and whale, entangling the lines,
11221or cutting them, and making a prodigious sensation in all directions.
11222Nor, in general, is it possible to secure it again until the whale is
11223fairly captured and a corpse.
11224
11225Consider, now, how it must be in the case of four boats all engaging
11226one unusually strong, active, and knowing whale; when owing to these
11227qualities in him, as well as to the thousand concurring accidents of
11228such an audacious enterprise, eight or ten loose second irons may be
11229simultaneously dangling about him. For, of course, each boat is supplied
11230with several harpoons to bend on to the line should the first one
11231be ineffectually darted without recovery. All these particulars are
11232faithfully narrated here, as they will not fail to elucidate several
11233most important, however intricate passages, in scenes hereafter to be
11234painted.
11235
11236
11237
11238CHAPTER 64. Stubb's Supper.
11239
11240
11241Stubb's whale had been killed some distance from the ship. It was
11242a calm; so, forming a tandem of three boats, we commenced the slow
11243business of towing the trophy to the Pequod. And now, as we eighteen men
11244with our thirty-six arms, and one hundred and eighty thumbs and fingers,
11245slowly toiled hour after hour upon that inert, sluggish corpse in the
11246sea; and it seemed hardly to budge at all, except at long intervals;
11247good evidence was hereby furnished of the enormousness of the mass we
11248moved. For, upon the great canal of Hang-Ho, or whatever they call
11249it, in China, four or five laborers on the foot-path will draw a bulky
11250freighted junk at the rate of a mile an hour; but this grand argosy we
11251towed heavily forged along, as if laden with pig-lead in bulk.
11252
11253Darkness came on; but three lights up and down in the Pequod's
11254main-rigging dimly guided our way; till drawing nearer we saw Ahab
11255dropping one of several more lanterns over the bulwarks. Vacantly eyeing
11256the heaving whale for a moment, he issued the usual orders for securing
11257it for the night, and then handing his lantern to a seaman, went his way
11258into the cabin, and did not come forward again until morning.
11259
11260Though, in overseeing the pursuit of this whale, Captain Ahab had
11261evinced his customary activity, to call it so; yet now that the creature
11262was dead, some vague dissatisfaction, or impatience, or despair, seemed
11263working in him; as if the sight of that dead body reminded him that
11264Moby Dick was yet to be slain; and though a thousand other whales were
11265brought to his ship, all that would not one jot advance his grand,
11266monomaniac object. Very soon you would have thought from the sound on
11267the Pequod's decks, that all hands were preparing to cast anchor in
11268the deep; for heavy chains are being dragged along the deck, and thrust
11269rattling out of the port-holes. But by those clanking links, the vast
11270corpse itself, not the ship, is to be moored. Tied by the head to the
11271stern, and by the tail to the bows, the whale now lies with its black
11272hull close to the vessel's and seen through the darkness of the night,
11273which obscured the spars and rigging aloft, the two--ship and whale,
11274seemed yoked together like colossal bullocks, whereof one reclines while
11275the other remains standing.*
11276
11277
11278*A little item may as well be related here. The strongest and most
11279reliable hold which the ship has upon the whale when moored alongside,
11280is by the flukes or tail; and as from its greater density that part
11281is relatively heavier than any other (excepting the side-fins), its
11282flexibility even in death, causes it to sink low beneath the surface; so
11283that with the hand you cannot get at it from the boat, in order to
11284put the chain round it. But this difficulty is ingeniously overcome: a
11285small, strong line is prepared with a wooden float at its outer end, and
11286a weight in its middle, while the other end is secured to the ship. By
11287adroit management the wooden float is made to rise on the other side
11288of the mass, so that now having girdled the whale, the chain is readily
11289made to follow suit; and being slipped along the body, is at last locked
11290fast round the smallest part of the tail, at the point of junction with
11291its broad flukes or lobes.
11292
11293
11294If moody Ahab was now all quiescence, at least so far as could be known
11295on deck, Stubb, his second mate, flushed with conquest, betrayed an
11296unusual but still good-natured excitement. Such an unwonted bustle was
11297he in that the staid Starbuck, his official superior, quietly resigned
11298to him for the time the sole management of affairs. One small, helping
11299cause of all this liveliness in Stubb, was soon made strangely manifest.
11300Stubb was a high liver; he was somewhat intemperately fond of the whale
11301as a flavorish thing to his palate.
11302
11303"A steak, a steak, ere I sleep! You, Daggoo! overboard you go, and cut
11304me one from his small!"
11305
11306Here be it known, that though these wild fishermen do not, as a general
11307thing, and according to the great military maxim, make the enemy defray
11308the current expenses of the war (at least before realizing the proceeds
11309of the voyage), yet now and then you find some of these Nantucketers
11310who have a genuine relish for that particular part of the Sperm Whale
11311designated by Stubb; comprising the tapering extremity of the body.
11312
11313About midnight that steak was cut and cooked; and lighted by two
11314lanterns of sperm oil, Stubb stoutly stood up to his spermaceti supper
11315at the capstan-head, as if that capstan were a sideboard. Nor was Stubb
11316the only banqueter on whale's flesh that night. Mingling their mumblings
11317with his own mastications, thousands on thousands of sharks, swarming
11318round the dead leviathan, smackingly feasted on its fatness. The few
11319sleepers below in their bunks were often startled by the sharp slapping
11320of their tails against the hull, within a few inches of the sleepers'
11321hearts. Peering over the side you could just see them (as before you
11322heard them) wallowing in the sullen, black waters, and turning over on
11323their backs as they scooped out huge globular pieces of the whale of the
11324bigness of a human head. This particular feat of the shark seems all
11325but miraculous. How at such an apparently unassailable surface, they
11326contrive to gouge out such symmetrical mouthfuls, remains a part of the
11327universal problem of all things. The mark they thus leave on the whale,
11328may best be likened to the hollow made by a carpenter in countersinking
11329for a screw.
11330
11331Though amid all the smoking horror and diabolism of a sea-fight, sharks
11332will be seen longingly gazing up to the ship's decks, like hungry dogs
11333round a table where red meat is being carved, ready to bolt down
11334every killed man that is tossed to them; and though, while the valiant
11335butchers over the deck-table are thus cannibally carving each other's
11336live meat with carving-knives all gilded and tasselled, the sharks,
11337also, with their jewel-hilted mouths, are quarrelsomely carving away
11338under the table at the dead meat; and though, were you to turn the whole
11339affair upside down, it would still be pretty much the same thing, that
11340is to say, a shocking sharkish business enough for all parties; and
11341though sharks also are the invariable outriders of all slave ships
11342crossing the Atlantic, systematically trotting alongside, to be handy in
11343case a parcel is to be carried anywhere, or a dead slave to be decently
11344buried; and though one or two other like instances might be set down,
11345touching the set terms, places, and occasions, when sharks do most
11346socially congregate, and most hilariously feast; yet is there no
11347conceivable time or occasion when you will find them in such countless
11348numbers, and in gayer or more jovial spirits, than around a dead sperm
11349whale, moored by night to a whaleship at sea. If you have never
11350seen that sight, then suspend your decision about the propriety of
11351devil-worship, and the expediency of conciliating the devil.
11352
11353But, as yet, Stubb heeded not the mumblings of the banquet that was
11354going on so nigh him, no more than the sharks heeded the smacking of his
11355own epicurean lips.
11356
11357"Cook, cook!--where's that old Fleece?" he cried at length, widening
11358his legs still further, as if to form a more secure base for his supper;
11359and, at the same time darting his fork into the dish, as if stabbing
11360with his lance; "cook, you cook!--sail this way, cook!"
11361
11362The old black, not in any very high glee at having been previously
11363roused from his warm hammock at a most unseasonable hour, came shambling
11364along from his galley, for, like many old blacks, there was something
11365the matter with his knee-pans, which he did not keep well scoured like
11366his other pans; this old Fleece, as they called him, came shuffling and
11367limping along, assisting his step with his tongs, which, after a clumsy
11368fashion, were made of straightened iron hoops; this old Ebony floundered
11369along, and in obedience to the word of command, came to a dead stop on
11370the opposite side of Stubb's sideboard; when, with both hands folded
11371before him, and resting on his two-legged cane, he bowed his arched back
11372still further over, at the same time sideways inclining his head, so as
11373to bring his best ear into play.
11374
11375"Cook," said Stubb, rapidly lifting a rather reddish morsel to his
11376mouth, "don't you think this steak is rather overdone? You've been
11377beating this steak too much, cook; it's too tender. Don't I always say
11378that to be good, a whale-steak must be tough? There are those sharks
11379now over the side, don't you see they prefer it tough and rare? What a
11380shindy they are kicking up! Cook, go and talk to 'em; tell 'em they are
11381welcome to help themselves civilly, and in moderation, but they must
11382keep quiet. Blast me, if I can hear my own voice. Away, cook, and
11383deliver my message. Here, take this lantern," snatching one from his
11384sideboard; "now then, go and preach to 'em!"
11385
11386Sullenly taking the offered lantern, old Fleece limped across the deck
11387to the bulwarks; and then, with one hand dropping his light low over the
11388sea, so as to get a good view of his congregation, with the other hand
11389he solemnly flourished his tongs, and leaning far over the side in a
11390mumbling voice began addressing the sharks, while Stubb, softly crawling
11391behind, overheard all that was said.
11392
11393"Fellow-critters: I'se ordered here to say dat you must stop dat dam
11394noise dare. You hear? Stop dat dam smackin' ob de lips! Massa Stubb say
11395dat you can fill your dam bellies up to de hatchings, but by Gor! you
11396must stop dat dam racket!"
11397
11398"Cook," here interposed Stubb, accompanying the word with a sudden slap
11399on the shoulder,--"Cook! why, damn your eyes, you mustn't swear that way
11400when you're preaching. That's no way to convert sinners, cook!"
11401
11402"Who dat? Den preach to him yourself," sullenly turning to go.
11403
11404"No, cook; go on, go on."
11405
11406"Well, den, Belubed fellow-critters:"--
11407
11408"Right!" exclaimed Stubb, approvingly, "coax 'em to it; try that," and
11409Fleece continued.
11410
11411"Do you is all sharks, and by natur wery woracious, yet I zay to you,
11412fellow-critters, dat dat woraciousness--'top dat dam slappin' ob de
11413tail! How you tink to hear, spose you keep up such a dam slappin' and
11414bitin' dare?"
11415
11416"Cook," cried Stubb, collaring him, "I won't have that swearing. Talk to
11417'em gentlemanly."
11418
11419Once more the sermon proceeded.
11420
11421"Your woraciousness, fellow-critters, I don't blame ye so much for; dat
11422is natur, and can't be helped; but to gobern dat wicked natur, dat is de
11423pint. You is sharks, sartin; but if you gobern de shark in you, why den
11424you be angel; for all angel is not'ing more dan de shark well goberned.
11425Now, look here, bred'ren, just try wonst to be cibil, a helping
11426yourselbs from dat whale. Don't be tearin' de blubber out your
11427neighbour's mout, I say. Is not one shark dood right as toder to dat
11428whale? And, by Gor, none on you has de right to dat whale; dat whale
11429belong to some one else. I know some o' you has berry brig mout, brigger
11430dan oders; but den de brig mouts sometimes has de small bellies; so dat
11431de brigness of de mout is not to swaller wid, but to bit off de blubber
11432for de small fry ob sharks, dat can't get into de scrouge to help
11433demselves."
11434
11435"Well done, old Fleece!" cried Stubb, "that's Christianity; go on."
11436
11437"No use goin' on; de dam willains will keep a scougin' and slappin' each
11438oder, Massa Stubb; dey don't hear one word; no use a-preaching to
11439such dam g'uttons as you call 'em, till dare bellies is full, and dare
11440bellies is bottomless; and when dey do get 'em full, dey wont hear you
11441den; for den dey sink in the sea, go fast to sleep on de coral, and
11442can't hear noting at all, no more, for eber and eber."
11443
11444"Upon my soul, I am about of the same opinion; so give the benediction,
11445Fleece, and I'll away to my supper."
11446
11447Upon this, Fleece, holding both hands over the fishy mob, raised his
11448shrill voice, and cried--
11449
11450"Cussed fellow-critters! Kick up de damndest row as ever you can; fill
11451your dam bellies 'till dey bust--and den die."
11452
11453"Now, cook," said Stubb, resuming his supper at the capstan; "stand
11454just where you stood before, there, over against me, and pay particular
11455attention."
11456
11457"All 'dention," said Fleece, again stooping over upon his tongs in the
11458desired position.
11459
11460"Well," said Stubb, helping himself freely meanwhile; "I shall now go
11461back to the subject of this steak. In the first place, how old are you,
11462cook?"
11463
11464"What dat do wid de 'teak," said the old black, testily.
11465
11466"Silence! How old are you, cook?"
11467
11468"'Bout ninety, dey say," he gloomily muttered.
11469
11470"And you have lived in this world hard upon one hundred years, cook,
11471and don't know yet how to cook a whale-steak?" rapidly bolting another
11472mouthful at the last word, so that morsel seemed a continuation of the
11473question. "Where were you born, cook?"
11474
11475"'Hind de hatchway, in ferry-boat, goin' ober de Roanoke."
11476
11477"Born in a ferry-boat! That's queer, too. But I want to know what
11478country you were born in, cook!"
11479
11480"Didn't I say de Roanoke country?" he cried sharply.
11481
11482"No, you didn't, cook; but I'll tell you what I'm coming to, cook.
11483You must go home and be born over again; you don't know how to cook a
11484whale-steak yet."
11485
11486"Bress my soul, if I cook noder one," he growled, angrily, turning round
11487to depart.
11488
11489"Come back here, cook;--here, hand me those tongs;--now take that bit of
11490steak there, and tell me if you think that steak cooked as it should be?
11491Take it, I say"--holding the tongs towards him--"take it, and taste it."
11492
11493Faintly smacking his withered lips over it for a moment, the old negro
11494muttered, "Best cooked 'teak I eber taste; joosy, berry joosy."
11495
11496"Cook," said Stubb, squaring himself once more; "do you belong to the
11497church?"
11498
11499"Passed one once in Cape-Down," said the old man sullenly.
11500
11501"And you have once in your life passed a holy church in Cape-Town, where
11502you doubtless overheard a holy parson addressing his hearers as his
11503beloved fellow-creatures, have you, cook! And yet you come here, and
11504tell me such a dreadful lie as you did just now, eh?" said Stubb. "Where
11505do you expect to go to, cook?"
11506
11507"Go to bed berry soon," he mumbled, half-turning as he spoke.
11508
11509"Avast! heave to! I mean when you die, cook. It's an awful question. Now
11510what's your answer?"
11511
11512"When dis old brack man dies," said the negro slowly, changing his whole
11513air and demeanor, "he hisself won't go nowhere; but some bressed angel
11514will come and fetch him."
11515
11516"Fetch him? How? In a coach and four, as they fetched Elijah? And fetch
11517him where?"
11518
11519"Up dere," said Fleece, holding his tongs straight over his head, and
11520keeping it there very solemnly.
11521
11522"So, then, you expect to go up into our main-top, do you, cook, when you
11523are dead? But don't you know the higher you climb, the colder it gets?
11524Main-top, eh?"
11525
11526"Didn't say dat t'all," said Fleece, again in the sulks.
11527
11528"You said up there, didn't you? and now look yourself, and see where
11529your tongs are pointing. But, perhaps you expect to get into heaven by
11530crawling through the lubber's hole, cook; but, no, no, cook, you don't
11531get there, except you go the regular way, round by the rigging. It's a
11532ticklish business, but must be done, or else it's no go. But none of
11533us are in heaven yet. Drop your tongs, cook, and hear my orders. Do ye
11534hear? Hold your hat in one hand, and clap t'other a'top of your heart,
11535when I'm giving my orders, cook. What! that your heart, there?--that's
11536your gizzard! Aloft! aloft!--that's it--now you have it. Hold it there
11537now, and pay attention."
11538
11539"All 'dention," said the old black, with both hands placed as desired,
11540vainly wriggling his grizzled head, as if to get both ears in front at
11541one and the same time.
11542
11543"Well then, cook, you see this whale-steak of yours was so very bad,
11544that I have put it out of sight as soon as possible; you see that, don't
11545you? Well, for the future, when you cook another whale-steak for my
11546private table here, the capstan, I'll tell you what to do so as not to
11547spoil it by overdoing. Hold the steak in one hand, and show a live coal
11548to it with the other; that done, dish it; d'ye hear? And now to-morrow,
11549cook, when we are cutting in the fish, be sure you stand by to get
11550the tips of his fins; have them put in pickle. As for the ends of the
11551flukes, have them soused, cook. There, now ye may go."
11552
11553But Fleece had hardly got three paces off, when he was recalled.
11554
11555"Cook, give me cutlets for supper to-morrow night in the mid-watch.
11556D'ye hear? away you sail, then.--Halloa! stop! make a bow before you
11557go.--Avast heaving again! Whale-balls for breakfast--don't forget."
11558
11559"Wish, by gor! whale eat him, 'stead of him eat whale. I'm bressed if
11560he ain't more of shark dan Massa Shark hisself," muttered the old man,
11561limping away; with which sage ejaculation he went to his hammock.
11562
11563
11564
11565CHAPTER 65. The Whale as a Dish.
11566
11567
11568That mortal man should feed upon the creature that feeds his lamp, and,
11569like Stubb, eat him by his own light, as you may say; this seems so
11570outlandish a thing that one must needs go a little into the history and
11571philosophy of it.
11572
11573It is upon record, that three centuries ago the tongue of the Right
11574Whale was esteemed a great delicacy in France, and commanded large
11575prices there. Also, that in Henry VIIIth's time, a certain cook of the
11576court obtained a handsome reward for inventing an admirable sauce to be
11577eaten with barbacued porpoises, which, you remember, are a species of
11578whale. Porpoises, indeed, are to this day considered fine eating. The
11579meat is made into balls about the size of billiard balls, and being well
11580seasoned and spiced might be taken for turtle-balls or veal balls.
11581The old monks of Dunfermline were very fond of them. They had a great
11582porpoise grant from the crown.
11583
11584The fact is, that among his hunters at least, the whale would by all
11585hands be considered a noble dish, were there not so much of him; but
11586when you come to sit down before a meat-pie nearly one hundred feet
11587long, it takes away your appetite. Only the most unprejudiced of men
11588like Stubb, nowadays partake of cooked whales; but the Esquimaux are not
11589so fastidious. We all know how they live upon whales, and have rare
11590old vintages of prime old train oil. Zogranda, one of their most famous
11591doctors, recommends strips of blubber for infants, as being exceedingly
11592juicy and nourishing. And this reminds me that certain Englishmen, who
11593long ago were accidentally left in Greenland by a whaling vessel--that
11594these men actually lived for several months on the mouldy scraps of
11595whales which had been left ashore after trying out the blubber. Among
11596the Dutch whalemen these scraps are called "fritters"; which, indeed,
11597they greatly resemble, being brown and crisp, and smelling something
11598like old Amsterdam housewives' dough-nuts or oly-cooks, when fresh. They
11599have such an eatable look that the most self-denying stranger can hardly
11600keep his hands off.
11601
11602But what further depreciates the whale as a civilized dish, is his
11603exceeding richness. He is the great prize ox of the sea, too fat to be
11604delicately good. Look at his hump, which would be as fine eating as
11605the buffalo's (which is esteemed a rare dish), were it not such a solid
11606pyramid of fat. But the spermaceti itself, how bland and creamy that
11607is; like the transparent, half-jellied, white meat of a cocoanut in the
11608third month of its growth, yet far too rich to supply a substitute for
11609butter. Nevertheless, many whalemen have a method of absorbing it into
11610some other substance, and then partaking of it. In the long try
11611watches of the night it is a common thing for the seamen to dip their
11612ship-biscuit into the huge oil-pots and let them fry there awhile. Many
11613a good supper have I thus made.
11614
11615In the case of a small Sperm Whale the brains are accounted a fine dish.
11616The casket of the skull is broken into with an axe, and the two plump,
11617whitish lobes being withdrawn (precisely resembling two large puddings),
11618they are then mixed with flour, and cooked into a most delectable mess,
11619in flavor somewhat resembling calves' head, which is quite a dish among
11620some epicures; and every one knows that some young bucks among the
11621epicures, by continually dining upon calves' brains, by and by get to
11622have a little brains of their own, so as to be able to tell a
11623calf's head from their own heads; which, indeed, requires uncommon
11624discrimination. And that is the reason why a young buck with an
11625intelligent looking calf's head before him, is somehow one of the
11626saddest sights you can see. The head looks a sort of reproachfully at
11627him, with an "Et tu Brute!" expression.
11628
11629It is not, perhaps, entirely because the whale is so excessively
11630unctuous that landsmen seem to regard the eating of him with abhorrence;
11631that appears to result, in some way, from the consideration before
11632mentioned: i.e. that a man should eat a newly murdered thing of the sea,
11633and eat it too by its own light. But no doubt the first man that ever
11634murdered an ox was regarded as a murderer; perhaps he was hung; and if
11635he had been put on his trial by oxen, he certainly would have been; and
11636he certainly deserved it if any murderer does. Go to the meat-market
11637of a Saturday night and see the crowds of live bipeds staring up at the
11638long rows of dead quadrupeds. Does not that sight take a tooth out of
11639the cannibal's jaw? Cannibals? who is not a cannibal? I tell you it will
11640be more tolerable for the Fejee that salted down a lean missionary in
11641his cellar against a coming famine; it will be more tolerable for that
11642provident Fejee, I say, in the day of judgment, than for thee, civilized
11643and enlightened gourmand, who nailest geese to the ground and feastest
11644on their bloated livers in thy pate-de-foie-gras.
11645
11646But Stubb, he eats the whale by its own light, does he? and that is
11647adding insult to injury, is it? Look at your knife-handle, there, my
11648civilized and enlightened gourmand dining off that roast beef, what is
11649that handle made of?--what but the bones of the brother of the very ox
11650you are eating? And what do you pick your teeth with, after devouring
11651that fat goose? With a feather of the same fowl. And with what quill did
11652the Secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Cruelty to Ganders
11653formally indite his circulars? It is only within the last month or two
11654that that society passed a resolution to patronise nothing but steel
11655pens.
11656
11657
11658
11659CHAPTER 66. The Shark Massacre.
11660
11661
11662When in the Southern Fishery, a captured Sperm Whale, after long and
11663weary toil, is brought alongside late at night, it is not, as a general
11664thing at least, customary to proceed at once to the business of cutting
11665him in. For that business is an exceedingly laborious one; is not very
11666soon completed; and requires all hands to set about it. Therefore, the
11667common usage is to take in all sail; lash the helm a'lee; and then send
11668every one below to his hammock till daylight, with the reservation that,
11669until that time, anchor-watches shall be kept; that is, two and two for
11670an hour, each couple, the crew in rotation shall mount the deck to see
11671that all goes well.
11672
11673But sometimes, especially upon the Line in the Pacific, this plan will
11674not answer at all; because such incalculable hosts of sharks gather
11675round the moored carcase, that were he left so for six hours, say, on a
11676stretch, little more than the skeleton would be visible by morning.
11677In most other parts of the ocean, however, where these fish do not so
11678largely abound, their wondrous voracity can be at times considerably
11679diminished, by vigorously stirring them up with sharp whaling-spades,
11680a procedure notwithstanding, which, in some instances, only seems to
11681tickle them into still greater activity. But it was not thus in the
11682present case with the Pequod's sharks; though, to be sure, any man
11683unaccustomed to such sights, to have looked over her side that night,
11684would have almost thought the whole round sea was one huge cheese, and
11685those sharks the maggots in it.
11686
11687Nevertheless, upon Stubb setting the anchor-watch after his supper was
11688concluded; and when, accordingly, Queequeg and a forecastle seaman
11689came on deck, no small excitement was created among the sharks; for
11690immediately suspending the cutting stages over the side, and lowering
11691three lanterns, so that they cast long gleams of light over the turbid
11692sea, these two mariners, darting their long whaling-spades, kept up an
11693incessant murdering of the sharks,* by striking the keen steel deep
11694into their skulls, seemingly their only vital part. But in the foamy
11695confusion of their mixed and struggling hosts, the marksmen could not
11696always hit their mark; and this brought about new revelations of the
11697incredible ferocity of the foe. They viciously snapped, not only at each
11698other's disembowelments, but like flexible bows, bent round, and bit
11699their own; till those entrails seemed swallowed over and over again by
11700the same mouth, to be oppositely voided by the gaping wound. Nor was
11701this all. It was unsafe to meddle with the corpses and ghosts of these
11702creatures. A sort of generic or Pantheistic vitality seemed to lurk in
11703their very joints and bones, after what might be called the individual
11704life had departed. Killed and hoisted on deck for the sake of his skin,
11705one of these sharks almost took poor Queequeg's hand off, when he tried
11706to shut down the dead lid of his murderous jaw.
11707
11708
11709*The whaling-spade used for cutting-in is made of the very best steel;
11710is about the bigness of a man's spread hand; and in general shape,
11711corresponds to the garden implement after which it is named; only its
11712sides are perfectly flat, and its upper end considerably narrower than
11713the lower. This weapon is always kept as sharp as possible; and when
11714being used is occasionally honed, just like a razor. In its socket, a
11715stiff pole, from twenty to thirty feet long, is inserted for a handle.
11716
11717
11718"Queequeg no care what god made him shark," said the savage, agonizingly
11719lifting his hand up and down; "wedder Fejee god or Nantucket god; but de
11720god wat made shark must be one dam Ingin."
11721
11722
11723
11724CHAPTER 67. Cutting In.
11725
11726
11727It was a Saturday night, and such a Sabbath as followed! Ex officio
11728professors of Sabbath breaking are all whalemen. The ivory Pequod was
11729turned into what seemed a shamble; every sailor a butcher. You would
11730have thought we were offering up ten thousand red oxen to the sea gods.
11731
11732In the first place, the enormous cutting tackles, among other ponderous
11733things comprising a cluster of blocks generally painted green, and which
11734no single man can possibly lift--this vast bunch of grapes was swayed up
11735to the main-top and firmly lashed to the lower mast-head, the strongest
11736point anywhere above a ship's deck. The end of the hawser-like rope
11737winding through these intricacies, was then conducted to the windlass,
11738and the huge lower block of the tackles was swung over the whale; to
11739this block the great blubber hook, weighing some one hundred pounds, was
11740attached. And now suspended in stages over the side, Starbuck and Stubb,
11741the mates, armed with their long spades, began cutting a hole in the
11742body for the insertion of the hook just above the nearest of the two
11743side-fins. This done, a broad, semicircular line is cut round the hole,
11744the hook is inserted, and the main body of the crew striking up a wild
11745chorus, now commence heaving in one dense crowd at the windlass. When
11746instantly, the entire ship careens over on her side; every bolt in
11747her starts like the nail-heads of an old house in frosty weather; she
11748trembles, quivers, and nods her frighted mast-heads to the sky. More
11749and more she leans over to the whale, while every gasping heave of the
11750windlass is answered by a helping heave from the billows; till at last,
11751a swift, startling snap is heard; with a great swash the ship rolls
11752upwards and backwards from the whale, and the triumphant tackle rises
11753into sight dragging after it the disengaged semicircular end of the
11754first strip of blubber. Now as the blubber envelopes the whale precisely
11755as the rind does an orange, so is it stripped off from the body
11756precisely as an orange is sometimes stripped by spiralizing it. For the
11757strain constantly kept up by the windlass continually keeps the whale
11758rolling over and over in the water, and as the blubber in one strip
11759uniformly peels off along the line called the "scarf," simultaneously
11760cut by the spades of Starbuck and Stubb, the mates; and just as fast as
11761it is thus peeled off, and indeed by that very act itself, it is all the
11762time being hoisted higher and higher aloft till its upper end grazes the
11763main-top; the men at the windlass then cease heaving, and for a moment
11764or two the prodigious blood-dripping mass sways to and fro as if let
11765down from the sky, and every one present must take good heed to dodge
11766it when it swings, else it may box his ears and pitch him headlong
11767overboard.
11768
11769One of the attending harpooneers now advances with a long, keen weapon
11770called a boarding-sword, and watching his chance he dexterously slices
11771out a considerable hole in the lower part of the swaying mass. Into this
11772hole, the end of the second alternating great tackle is then hooked
11773so as to retain a hold upon the blubber, in order to prepare for what
11774follows. Whereupon, this accomplished swordsman, warning all hands to
11775stand off, once more makes a scientific dash at the mass, and with a few
11776sidelong, desperate, lunging slicings, severs it completely in twain;
11777so that while the short lower part is still fast, the long upper strip,
11778called a blanket-piece, swings clear, and is all ready for lowering.
11779The heavers forward now resume their song, and while the one tackle is
11780peeling and hoisting a second strip from the whale, the other is slowly
11781slackened away, and down goes the first strip through the main hatchway
11782right beneath, into an unfurnished parlor called the blubber-room. Into
11783this twilight apartment sundry nimble hands keep coiling away the long
11784blanket-piece as if it were a great live mass of plaited serpents.
11785And thus the work proceeds; the two tackles hoisting and lowering
11786simultaneously; both whale and windlass heaving, the heavers singing,
11787the blubber-room gentlemen coiling, the mates scarfing, the ship
11788straining, and all hands swearing occasionally, by way of assuaging the
11789general friction.
11790
11791
11792
11793CHAPTER 68. The Blanket.
11794
11795
11796I have given no small attention to that not unvexed subject, the skin of
11797the whale. I have had controversies about it with experienced whalemen
11798afloat, and learned naturalists ashore. My original opinion remains
11799unchanged; but it is only an opinion.
11800
11801The question is, what and where is the skin of the whale? Already you
11802know what his blubber is. That blubber is something of the consistence
11803of firm, close-grained beef, but tougher, more elastic and compact, and
11804ranges from eight or ten to twelve and fifteen inches in thickness.
11805
11806Now, however preposterous it may at first seem to talk of any creature's
11807skin as being of that sort of consistence and thickness, yet in point
11808of fact these are no arguments against such a presumption; because you
11809cannot raise any other dense enveloping layer from the whale's body but
11810that same blubber; and the outermost enveloping layer of any animal, if
11811reasonably dense, what can that be but the skin? True, from the unmarred
11812dead body of the whale, you may scrape off with your hand an infinitely
11813thin, transparent substance, somewhat resembling the thinnest shreds
11814of isinglass, only it is almost as flexible and soft as satin; that is,
11815previous to being dried, when it not only contracts and thickens, but
11816becomes rather hard and brittle. I have several such dried bits, which
11817I use for marks in my whale-books. It is transparent, as I said before;
11818and being laid upon the printed page, I have sometimes pleased myself
11819with fancying it exerted a magnifying influence. At any rate, it is
11820pleasant to read about whales through their own spectacles, as you may
11821say. But what I am driving at here is this. That same infinitely thin,
11822isinglass substance, which, I admit, invests the entire body of the
11823whale, is not so much to be regarded as the skin of the creature, as
11824the skin of the skin, so to speak; for it were simply ridiculous to say,
11825that the proper skin of the tremendous whale is thinner and more tender
11826than the skin of a new-born child. But no more of this.
11827
11828Assuming the blubber to be the skin of the whale; then, when this skin,
11829as in the case of a very large Sperm Whale, will yield the bulk of one
11830hundred barrels of oil; and, when it is considered that, in quantity, or
11831rather weight, that oil, in its expressed state, is only three fourths,
11832and not the entire substance of the coat; some idea may hence be had
11833of the enormousness of that animated mass, a mere part of whose mere
11834integument yields such a lake of liquid as that. Reckoning ten barrels
11835to the ton, you have ten tons for the net weight of only three quarters
11836of the stuff of the whale's skin.
11837
11838In life, the visible surface of the Sperm Whale is not the least among
11839the many marvels he presents. Almost invariably it is all over obliquely
11840crossed and re-crossed with numberless straight marks in thick array,
11841something like those in the finest Italian line engravings. But these
11842marks do not seem to be impressed upon the isinglass substance above
11843mentioned, but seem to be seen through it, as if they were engraved
11844upon the body itself. Nor is this all. In some instances, to the quick,
11845observant eye, those linear marks, as in a veritable engraving, but
11846afford the ground for far other delineations. These are hieroglyphical;
11847that is, if you call those mysterious cyphers on the walls of pyramids
11848hieroglyphics, then that is the proper word to use in the present
11849connexion. By my retentive memory of the hieroglyphics upon one Sperm
11850Whale in particular, I was much struck with a plate representing the old
11851Indian characters chiselled on the famous hieroglyphic palisades on
11852the banks of the Upper Mississippi. Like those mystic rocks, too, the
11853mystic-marked whale remains undecipherable. This allusion to the Indian
11854rocks reminds me of another thing. Besides all the other phenomena which
11855the exterior of the Sperm Whale presents, he not seldom displays the
11856back, and more especially his flanks, effaced in great part of the
11857regular linear appearance, by reason of numerous rude scratches,
11858altogether of an irregular, random aspect. I should say that those New
11859England rocks on the sea-coast, which Agassiz imagines to bear the marks
11860of violent scraping contact with vast floating icebergs--I should say,
11861that those rocks must not a little resemble the Sperm Whale in this
11862particular. It also seems to me that such scratches in the whale are
11863probably made by hostile contact with other whales; for I have most
11864remarked them in the large, full-grown bulls of the species.
11865
11866A word or two more concerning this matter of the skin or blubber of
11867the whale. It has already been said, that it is stript from him in long
11868pieces, called blanket-pieces. Like most sea-terms, this one is very
11869happy and significant. For the whale is indeed wrapt up in his blubber
11870as in a real blanket or counterpane; or, still better, an Indian poncho
11871slipt over his head, and skirting his extremity. It is by reason of this
11872cosy blanketing of his body, that the whale is enabled to keep himself
11873comfortable in all weathers, in all seas, times, and tides. What would
11874become of a Greenland whale, say, in those shuddering, icy seas of the
11875North, if unsupplied with his cosy surtout? True, other fish are
11876found exceedingly brisk in those Hyperborean waters; but these, be it
11877observed, are your cold-blooded, lungless fish, whose very bellies
11878are refrigerators; creatures, that warm themselves under the lee of
11879an iceberg, as a traveller in winter would bask before an inn fire;
11880whereas, like man, the whale has lungs and warm blood. Freeze his blood,
11881and he dies. How wonderful is it then--except after explanation--that
11882this great monster, to whom corporeal warmth is as indispensable as it
11883is to man; how wonderful that he should be found at home, immersed
11884to his lips for life in those Arctic waters! where, when seamen fall
11885overboard, they are sometimes found, months afterwards, perpendicularly
11886frozen into the hearts of fields of ice, as a fly is found glued
11887in amber. But more surprising is it to know, as has been proved by
11888experiment, that the blood of a Polar whale is warmer than that of a
11889Borneo negro in summer.
11890
11891It does seem to me, that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong
11892individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls, and the rare
11893virtue of interior spaciousness. Oh, man! admire and model thyself after
11894the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in
11895this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood
11896fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter's, and like the
11897great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own.
11898
11899But how easy and how hopeless to teach these fine things! Of erections,
11900how few are domed like St. Peter's! of creatures, how few vast as the
11901whale!
11902
11903
11904
11905CHAPTER 69. The Funeral.
11906
11907
11908Haul in the chains! Let the carcase go astern!
11909
11910The vast tackles have now done their duty. The peeled white body of the
11911beheaded whale flashes like a marble sepulchre; though changed in hue,
11912it has not perceptibly lost anything in bulk. It is still colossal.
11913Slowly it floats more and more away, the water round it torn and
11914splashed by the insatiate sharks, and the air above vexed with rapacious
11915flights of screaming fowls, whose beaks are like so many insulting
11916poniards in the whale. The vast white headless phantom floats further
11917and further from the ship, and every rod that it so floats, what seem
11918square roods of sharks and cubic roods of fowls, augment the murderous
11919din. For hours and hours from the almost stationary ship that hideous
11920sight is seen. Beneath the unclouded and mild azure sky, upon the fair
11921face of the pleasant sea, wafted by the joyous breezes, that great mass
11922of death floats on and on, till lost in infinite perspectives.
11923
11924There's a most doleful and most mocking funeral! The sea-vultures all in
11925pious mourning, the air-sharks all punctiliously in black or speckled.
11926In life but few of them would have helped the whale, I ween, if
11927peradventure he had needed it; but upon the banquet of his funeral they
11928most piously do pounce. Oh, horrible vultureism of earth! from which not
11929the mightiest whale is free.
11930
11931Nor is this the end. Desecrated as the body is, a vengeful ghost
11932survives and hovers over it to scare. Espied by some timid man-of-war or
11933blundering discovery-vessel from afar, when the distance obscuring the
11934swarming fowls, nevertheless still shows the white mass floating in
11935the sun, and the white spray heaving high against it; straightway the
11936whale's unharming corpse, with trembling fingers is set down in the
11937log--SHOALS, ROCKS, AND BREAKERS HEREABOUTS: BEWARE! And for years
11938afterwards, perhaps, ships shun the place; leaping over it as silly
11939sheep leap over a vacuum, because their leader originally leaped there
11940when a stick was held. There's your law of precedents; there's your
11941utility of traditions; there's the story of your obstinate survival of
11942old beliefs never bottomed on the earth, and now not even hovering in
11943the air! There's orthodoxy!
11944
11945Thus, while in life the great whale's body may have been a real terror
11946to his foes, in his death his ghost becomes a powerless panic to a
11947world.
11948
11949Are you a believer in ghosts, my friend? There are other ghosts than
11950the Cock-Lane one, and far deeper men than Doctor Johnson who believe in
11951them.
11952
11953
11954
11955CHAPTER 70. The Sphynx.
11956
11957
11958It should not have been omitted that previous to completely stripping
11959the body of the leviathan, he was beheaded. Now, the beheading of the
11960Sperm Whale is a scientific anatomical feat, upon which experienced
11961whale surgeons very much pride themselves: and not without reason.
11962
11963Consider that the whale has nothing that can properly be called a neck;
11964on the contrary, where his head and body seem to join, there, in that
11965very place, is the thickest part of him. Remember, also, that the
11966surgeon must operate from above, some eight or ten feet intervening
11967between him and his subject, and that subject almost hidden in a
11968discoloured, rolling, and oftentimes tumultuous and bursting sea. Bear
11969in mind, too, that under these untoward circumstances he has to cut many
11970feet deep in the flesh; and in that subterraneous manner, without so
11971much as getting one single peep into the ever-contracting gash thus
11972made, he must skilfully steer clear of all adjacent, interdicted parts,
11973and exactly divide the spine at a critical point hard by its insertion
11974into the skull. Do you not marvel, then, at Stubb's boast, that he
11975demanded but ten minutes to behead a sperm whale?
11976
11977When first severed, the head is dropped astern and held there by a cable
11978till the body is stripped. That done, if it belong to a small whale
11979it is hoisted on deck to be deliberately disposed of. But, with a full
11980grown leviathan this is impossible; for the sperm whale's head embraces
11981nearly one third of his entire bulk, and completely to suspend such a
11982burden as that, even by the immense tackles of a whaler, this were as
11983vain a thing as to attempt weighing a Dutch barn in jewellers' scales.
11984
11985The Pequod's whale being decapitated and the body stripped, the head was
11986hoisted against the ship's side--about half way out of the sea, so that
11987it might yet in great part be buoyed up by its native element. And there
11988with the strained craft steeply leaning over to it, by reason of the
11989enormous downward drag from the lower mast-head, and every yard-arm
11990on that side projecting like a crane over the waves; there, that
11991blood-dripping head hung to the Pequod's waist like the giant
11992Holofernes's from the girdle of Judith.
11993
11994When this last task was accomplished it was noon, and the seamen went
11995below to their dinner. Silence reigned over the before tumultuous but
11996now deserted deck. An intense copper calm, like a universal yellow
11997lotus, was more and more unfolding its noiseless measureless leaves upon
11998the sea.
11999
12000A short space elapsed, and up into this noiselessness came Ahab alone
12001from his cabin. Taking a few turns on the quarter-deck, he paused to
12002gaze over the side, then slowly getting into the main-chains he
12003took Stubb's long spade--still remaining there after the whale's
12004Decapitation--and striking it into the lower part of the half-suspended
12005mass, placed its other end crutch-wise under one arm, and so stood
12006leaning over with eyes attentively fixed on this head.
12007
12008It was a black and hooded head; and hanging there in the midst of so
12009intense a calm, it seemed the Sphynx's in the desert. "Speak, thou vast
12010and venerable head," muttered Ahab, "which, though ungarnished with a
12011beard, yet here and there lookest hoary with mosses; speak, mighty head,
12012and tell us the secret thing that is in thee. Of all divers, thou hast
12013dived the deepest. That head upon which the upper sun now gleams, has
12014moved amid this world's foundations. Where unrecorded names and navies
12015rust, and untold hopes and anchors rot; where in her murderous hold this
12016frigate earth is ballasted with bones of millions of the drowned; there,
12017in that awful water-land, there was thy most familiar home. Thou hast
12018been where bell or diver never went; hast slept by many a sailor's side,
12019where sleepless mothers would give their lives to lay them down. Thou
12020saw'st the locked lovers when leaping from their flaming ship; heart
12021to heart they sank beneath the exulting wave; true to each other, when
12022heaven seemed false to them. Thou saw'st the murdered mate when tossed
12023by pirates from the midnight deck; for hours he fell into the deeper
12024midnight of the insatiate maw; and his murderers still sailed on
12025unharmed--while swift lightnings shivered the neighboring ship that
12026would have borne a righteous husband to outstretched, longing arms. O
12027head! thou hast seen enough to split the planets and make an infidel of
12028Abraham, and not one syllable is thine!"
12029
12030"Sail ho!" cried a triumphant voice from the main-mast-head.
12031
12032"Aye? Well, now, that's cheering," cried Ahab, suddenly erecting
12033himself, while whole thunder-clouds swept aside from his brow.
12034"That lively cry upon this deadly calm might almost convert a better
12035man.--Where away?"
12036
12037"Three points on the starboard bow, sir, and bringing down her breeze to
12038us!
12039
12040"Better and better, man. Would now St. Paul would come along that way,
12041and to my breezelessness bring his breeze! O Nature, and O soul of man!
12042how far beyond all utterance are your linked analogies! not the smallest
12043atom stirs or lives on matter, but has its cunning duplicate in mind."
12044
12045
12046
12047CHAPTER 71. The Jeroboam's Story.
12048
12049
12050Hand in hand, ship and breeze blew on; but the breeze came faster than
12051the ship, and soon the Pequod began to rock.
12052
12053By and by, through the glass the stranger's boats and manned mast-heads
12054proved her a whale-ship. But as she was so far to windward, and shooting
12055by, apparently making a passage to some other ground, the Pequod could
12056not hope to reach her. So the signal was set to see what response would
12057be made.
12058
12059Here be it said, that like the vessels of military marines, the ships of
12060the American Whale Fleet have each a private signal; all which signals
12061being collected in a book with the names of the respective vessels
12062attached, every captain is provided with it. Thereby, the whale
12063commanders are enabled to recognise each other upon the ocean, even at
12064considerable distances and with no small facility.
12065
12066The Pequod's signal was at last responded to by the stranger's setting
12067her own; which proved the ship to be the Jeroboam of Nantucket. Squaring
12068her yards, she bore down, ranged abeam under the Pequod's lee, and
12069lowered a boat; it soon drew nigh; but, as the side-ladder was being
12070rigged by Starbuck's order to accommodate the visiting captain, the
12071stranger in question waved his hand from his boat's stern in token
12072of that proceeding being entirely unnecessary. It turned out that
12073the Jeroboam had a malignant epidemic on board, and that Mayhew, her
12074captain, was fearful of infecting the Pequod's company. For, though
12075himself and boat's crew remained untainted, and though his ship was half
12076a rifle-shot off, and an incorruptible sea and air rolling and flowing
12077between; yet conscientiously adhering to the timid quarantine of the
12078land, he peremptorily refused to come into direct contact with the
12079Pequod.
12080
12081But this did by no means prevent all communications. Preserving an
12082interval of some few yards between itself and the ship, the Jeroboam's
12083boat by the occasional use of its oars contrived to keep parallel to the
12084Pequod, as she heavily forged through the sea (for by this time it blew
12085very fresh), with her main-topsail aback; though, indeed, at times by
12086the sudden onset of a large rolling wave, the boat would be pushed some
12087way ahead; but would be soon skilfully brought to her proper bearings
12088again. Subject to this, and other the like interruptions now and then, a
12089conversation was sustained between the two parties; but at intervals not
12090without still another interruption of a very different sort.
12091
12092Pulling an oar in the Jeroboam's boat, was a man of a singular
12093appearance, even in that wild whaling life where individual notabilities
12094make up all totalities. He was a small, short, youngish man, sprinkled
12095all over his face with freckles, and wearing redundant yellow hair. A
12096long-skirted, cabalistically-cut coat of a faded walnut tinge enveloped
12097him; the overlapping sleeves of which were rolled up on his wrists. A
12098deep, settled, fanatic delirium was in his eyes.
12099
12100So soon as this figure had been first descried, Stubb had
12101exclaimed--"That's he! that's he!--the long-togged scaramouch the
12102Town-Ho's company told us of!" Stubb here alluded to a strange story
12103told of the Jeroboam, and a certain man among her crew, some time
12104previous when the Pequod spoke the Town-Ho. According to this account
12105and what was subsequently learned, it seemed that the scaramouch in
12106question had gained a wonderful ascendency over almost everybody in the
12107Jeroboam. His story was this:
12108
12109He had been originally nurtured among the crazy society of Neskyeuna
12110Shakers, where he had been a great prophet; in their cracked, secret
12111meetings having several times descended from heaven by the way of a
12112trap-door, announcing the speedy opening of the seventh vial, which he
12113carried in his vest-pocket; but, which, instead of containing gunpowder,
12114was supposed to be charged with laudanum. A strange, apostolic whim
12115having seized him, he had left Neskyeuna for Nantucket, where, with
12116that cunning peculiar to craziness, he assumed a steady, common-sense
12117exterior, and offered himself as a green-hand candidate for the
12118Jeroboam's whaling voyage. They engaged him; but straightway upon
12119the ship's getting out of sight of land, his insanity broke out in a
12120freshet. He announced himself as the archangel Gabriel, and commanded
12121the captain to jump overboard. He published his manifesto, whereby
12122he set himself forth as the deliverer of the isles of the sea and
12123vicar-general of all Oceanica. The unflinching earnestness with which he
12124declared these things;--the dark, daring play of his sleepless, excited
12125imagination, and all the preternatural terrors of real delirium, united
12126to invest this Gabriel in the minds of the majority of the ignorant
12127crew, with an atmosphere of sacredness. Moreover, they were afraid of
12128him. As such a man, however, was not of much practical use in the ship,
12129especially as he refused to work except when he pleased, the incredulous
12130captain would fain have been rid of him; but apprised that that
12131individual's intention was to land him in the first convenient port, the
12132archangel forthwith opened all his seals and vials--devoting the ship
12133and all hands to unconditional perdition, in case this intention was
12134carried out. So strongly did he work upon his disciples among the crew,
12135that at last in a body they went to the captain and told him if Gabriel
12136was sent from the ship, not a man of them would remain. He was therefore
12137forced to relinquish his plan. Nor would they permit Gabriel to be any
12138way maltreated, say or do what he would; so that it came to pass that
12139Gabriel had the complete freedom of the ship. The consequence of all
12140this was, that the archangel cared little or nothing for the captain and
12141mates; and since the epidemic had broken out, he carried a higher hand
12142than ever; declaring that the plague, as he called it, was at his sole
12143command; nor should it be stayed but according to his good pleasure.
12144The sailors, mostly poor devils, cringed, and some of them fawned before
12145him; in obedience to his instructions, sometimes rendering him personal
12146homage, as to a god. Such things may seem incredible; but, however
12147wondrous, they are true. Nor is the history of fanatics half so striking
12148in respect to the measureless self-deception of the fanatic himself, as
12149his measureless power of deceiving and bedevilling so many others. But
12150it is time to return to the Pequod.
12151
12152"I fear not thy epidemic, man," said Ahab from the bulwarks, to Captain
12153Mayhew, who stood in the boat's stern; "come on board."
12154
12155But now Gabriel started to his feet.
12156
12157"Think, think of the fevers, yellow and bilious! Beware of the horrible
12158plague!"
12159
12160"Gabriel! Gabriel!" cried Captain Mayhew; "thou must either--" But
12161that instant a headlong wave shot the boat far ahead, and its seethings
12162drowned all speech.
12163
12164"Hast thou seen the White Whale?" demanded Ahab, when the boat drifted
12165back.
12166
12167"Think, think of thy whale-boat, stoven and sunk! Beware of the horrible
12168tail!"
12169
12170"I tell thee again, Gabriel, that--" But again the boat tore ahead as if
12171dragged by fiends. Nothing was said for some moments, while a succession
12172of riotous waves rolled by, which by one of those occasional caprices
12173of the seas were tumbling, not heaving it. Meantime, the hoisted sperm
12174whale's head jogged about very violently, and Gabriel was seen eyeing
12175it with rather more apprehensiveness than his archangel nature seemed to
12176warrant.
12177
12178When this interlude was over, Captain Mayhew began a dark story
12179concerning Moby Dick; not, however, without frequent interruptions from
12180Gabriel, whenever his name was mentioned, and the crazy sea that seemed
12181leagued with him.
12182
12183It seemed that the Jeroboam had not long left home, when upon speaking
12184a whale-ship, her people were reliably apprised of the existence of Moby
12185Dick, and the havoc he had made. Greedily sucking in this intelligence,
12186Gabriel solemnly warned the captain against attacking the White
12187Whale, in case the monster should be seen; in his gibbering insanity,
12188pronouncing the White Whale to be no less a being than the Shaker God
12189incarnated; the Shakers receiving the Bible. But when, some year or two
12190afterwards, Moby Dick was fairly sighted from the mast-heads, Macey, the
12191chief mate, burned with ardour to encounter him; and the captain himself
12192being not unwilling to let him have the opportunity, despite all
12193the archangel's denunciations and forewarnings, Macey succeeded in
12194persuading five men to man his boat. With them he pushed off; and, after
12195much weary pulling, and many perilous, unsuccessful onsets, he at last
12196succeeded in getting one iron fast. Meantime, Gabriel, ascending to
12197the main-royal mast-head, was tossing one arm in frantic gestures, and
12198hurling forth prophecies of speedy doom to the sacrilegious assailants
12199of his divinity. Now, while Macey, the mate, was standing up in his
12200boat's bow, and with all the reckless energy of his tribe was venting
12201his wild exclamations upon the whale, and essaying to get a fair chance
12202for his poised lance, lo! a broad white shadow rose from the sea; by its
12203quick, fanning motion, temporarily taking the breath out of the bodies
12204of the oarsmen. Next instant, the luckless mate, so full of furious
12205life, was smitten bodily into the air, and making a long arc in his
12206descent, fell into the sea at the distance of about fifty yards. Not a
12207chip of the boat was harmed, nor a hair of any oarsman's head; but the
12208mate for ever sank.
12209
12210It is well to parenthesize here, that of the fatal accidents in the
12211Sperm-Whale Fishery, this kind is perhaps almost as frequent as any.
12212Sometimes, nothing is injured but the man who is thus annihilated;
12213oftener the boat's bow is knocked off, or the thigh-board, in which the
12214headsman stands, is torn from its place and accompanies the body. But
12215strangest of all is the circumstance, that in more instances than one,
12216when the body has been recovered, not a single mark of violence is
12217discernible; the man being stark dead.
12218
12219The whole calamity, with the falling form of Macey, was plainly descried
12220from the ship. Raising a piercing shriek--"The vial! the vial!" Gabriel
12221called off the terror-stricken crew from the further hunting of the
12222whale. This terrible event clothed the archangel with added influence;
12223because his credulous disciples believed that he had specifically
12224fore-announced it, instead of only making a general prophecy, which any
12225one might have done, and so have chanced to hit one of many marks in the
12226wide margin allowed. He became a nameless terror to the ship.
12227
12228Mayhew having concluded his narration, Ahab put such questions to
12229him, that the stranger captain could not forbear inquiring whether he
12230intended to hunt the White Whale, if opportunity should offer. To which
12231Ahab answered--"Aye." Straightway, then, Gabriel once more started
12232to his feet, glaring upon the old man, and vehemently exclaimed, with
12233downward pointed finger--"Think, think of the blasphemer--dead, and down
12234there!--beware of the blasphemer's end!"
12235
12236Ahab stolidly turned aside; then said to Mayhew, "Captain, I have
12237just bethought me of my letter-bag; there is a letter for one of thy
12238officers, if I mistake not. Starbuck, look over the bag."
12239
12240Every whale-ship takes out a goodly number of letters for various ships,
12241whose delivery to the persons to whom they may be addressed, depends
12242upon the mere chance of encountering them in the four oceans. Thus,
12243most letters never reach their mark; and many are only received after
12244attaining an age of two or three years or more.
12245
12246Soon Starbuck returned with a letter in his hand. It was sorely tumbled,
12247damp, and covered with a dull, spotted, green mould, in consequence
12248of being kept in a dark locker of the cabin. Of such a letter, Death
12249himself might well have been the post-boy.
12250
12251"Can'st not read it?" cried Ahab. "Give it me, man. Aye, aye, it's but
12252a dim scrawl;--what's this?" As he was studying it out, Starbuck took a
12253long cutting-spade pole, and with his knife slightly split the end, to
12254insert the letter there, and in that way, hand it to the boat, without
12255its coming any closer to the ship.
12256
12257Meantime, Ahab holding the letter, muttered, "Mr. Har--yes, Mr.
12258Harry--(a woman's pinny hand,--the man's wife, I'll wager)--Aye--Mr.
12259Harry Macey, Ship Jeroboam;--why it's Macey, and he's dead!"
12260
12261"Poor fellow! poor fellow! and from his wife," sighed Mayhew; "but let
12262me have it."
12263
12264"Nay, keep it thyself," cried Gabriel to Ahab; "thou art soon going that
12265way."
12266
12267"Curses throttle thee!" yelled Ahab. "Captain Mayhew, stand by now to
12268receive it"; and taking the fatal missive from Starbuck's hands, he
12269caught it in the slit of the pole, and reached it over towards the boat.
12270But as he did so, the oarsmen expectantly desisted from rowing; the boat
12271drifted a little towards the ship's stern; so that, as if by magic, the
12272letter suddenly ranged along with Gabriel's eager hand. He clutched it
12273in an instant, seized the boat-knife, and impaling the letter on it,
12274sent it thus loaded back into the ship. It fell at Ahab's feet. Then
12275Gabriel shrieked out to his comrades to give way with their oars, and in
12276that manner the mutinous boat rapidly shot away from the Pequod.
12277
12278As, after this interlude, the seamen resumed their work upon the jacket
12279of the whale, many strange things were hinted in reference to this wild
12280affair.
12281
12282
12283
12284CHAPTER 72. The Monkey-Rope.
12285
12286
12287In the tumultuous business of cutting-in and attending to a whale, there
12288is much running backwards and forwards among the crew. Now hands are
12289wanted here, and then again hands are wanted there. There is no staying
12290in any one place; for at one and the same time everything has to be done
12291everywhere. It is much the same with him who endeavors the description
12292of the scene. We must now retrace our way a little. It was mentioned
12293that upon first breaking ground in the whale's back, the blubber-hook
12294was inserted into the original hole there cut by the spades of the
12295mates. But how did so clumsy and weighty a mass as that same hook
12296get fixed in that hole? It was inserted there by my particular friend
12297Queequeg, whose duty it was, as harpooneer, to descend upon the
12298monster's back for the special purpose referred to. But in very many
12299cases, circumstances require that the harpooneer shall remain on the
12300whale till the whole flensing or stripping operation is concluded. The
12301whale, be it observed, lies almost entirely submerged, excepting the
12302immediate parts operated upon. So down there, some ten feet below the
12303level of the deck, the poor harpooneer flounders about, half on the
12304whale and half in the water, as the vast mass revolves like a tread-mill
12305beneath him. On the occasion in question, Queequeg figured in the
12306Highland costume--a shirt and socks--in which to my eyes, at least,
12307he appeared to uncommon advantage; and no one had a better chance to
12308observe him, as will presently be seen.
12309
12310Being the savage's bowsman, that is, the person who pulled the bow-oar
12311in his boat (the second one from forward), it was my cheerful duty to
12312attend upon him while taking that hard-scrabble scramble upon the dead
12313whale's back. You have seen Italian organ-boys holding a dancing-ape by
12314a long cord. Just so, from the ship's steep side, did I hold Queequeg
12315down there in the sea, by what is technically called in the fishery
12316a monkey-rope, attached to a strong strip of canvas belted round his
12317waist.
12318
12319It was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we
12320proceed further, it must be said that the monkey-rope was fast at
12321both ends; fast to Queequeg's broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow
12322leather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time, were
12323wedded; and should poor Queequeg sink to rise no more, then both usage
12324and honour demanded, that instead of cutting the cord, it should drag
12325me down in his wake. So, then, an elongated Siamese ligature united us.
12326Queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother; nor could I any way get
12327rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond entailed.
12328
12329So strongly and metaphysically did I conceive of my situation then, that
12330while earnestly watching his motions, I seemed distinctly to perceive
12331that my own individuality was now merged in a joint stock company of
12332two; that my free will had received a mortal wound; and that another's
12333mistake or misfortune might plunge innocent me into unmerited disaster
12334and death. Therefore, I saw that here was a sort of interregnum in
12335Providence; for its even-handed equity never could have so gross an
12336injustice. And yet still further pondering--while I jerked him now
12337and then from between the whale and ship, which would threaten to jam
12338him--still further pondering, I say, I saw that this situation of mine
12339was the precise situation of every mortal that breathes; only, in most
12340cases, he, one way or other, has this Siamese connexion with a plurality
12341of other mortals. If your banker breaks, you snap; if your apothecary by
12342mistake sends you poison in your pills, you die. True, you may say
12343that, by exceeding caution, you may possibly escape these and the
12344multitudinous other evil chances of life. But handle Queequeg's
12345monkey-rope heedfully as I would, sometimes he jerked it so, that I came
12346very near sliding overboard. Nor could I possibly forget that, do what I
12347would, I only had the management of one end of it.*
12348
12349
12350*The monkey-rope is found in all whalers; but it was only in the Pequod
12351that the monkey and his holder were ever tied together. This improvement
12352upon the original usage was introduced by no less a man than Stubb,
12353in order to afford the imperilled harpooneer the strongest possible
12354guarantee for the faithfulness and vigilance of his monkey-rope holder.
12355
12356
12357I have hinted that I would often jerk poor Queequeg from between the
12358whale and the ship--where he would occasionally fall, from the incessant
12359rolling and swaying of both. But this was not the only jamming jeopardy
12360he was exposed to. Unappalled by the massacre made upon them during the
12361night, the sharks now freshly and more keenly allured by the before pent
12362blood which began to flow from the carcass--the rabid creatures swarmed
12363round it like bees in a beehive.
12364
12365And right in among those sharks was Queequeg; who often pushed them
12366aside with his floundering feet. A thing altogether incredible were
12367it not that attracted by such prey as a dead whale, the otherwise
12368miscellaneously carnivorous shark will seldom touch a man.
12369
12370Nevertheless, it may well be believed that since they have such a
12371ravenous finger in the pie, it is deemed but wise to look sharp to them.
12372Accordingly, besides the monkey-rope, with which I now and then jerked
12373the poor fellow from too close a vicinity to the maw of what seemed
12374a peculiarly ferocious shark--he was provided with still another
12375protection. Suspended over the side in one of the stages, Tashtego
12376and Daggoo continually flourished over his head a couple of keen
12377whale-spades, wherewith they slaughtered as many sharks as they could
12378reach. This procedure of theirs, to be sure, was very disinterested and
12379benevolent of them. They meant Queequeg's best happiness, I admit; but
12380in their hasty zeal to befriend him, and from the circumstance that both
12381he and the sharks were at times half hidden by the blood-muddled water,
12382those indiscreet spades of theirs would come nearer amputating a leg
12383than a tail. But poor Queequeg, I suppose, straining and gasping there
12384with that great iron hook--poor Queequeg, I suppose, only prayed to his
12385Yojo, and gave up his life into the hands of his gods.
12386
12387Well, well, my dear comrade and twin-brother, thought I, as I drew in
12388and then slacked off the rope to every swell of the sea--what matters
12389it, after all? Are you not the precious image of each and all of us men
12390in this whaling world? That unsounded ocean you gasp in, is Life; those
12391sharks, your foes; those spades, your friends; and what between sharks
12392and spades you are in a sad pickle and peril, poor lad.
12393
12394But courage! there is good cheer in store for you, Queequeg. For now, as
12395with blue lips and blood-shot eyes the exhausted savage at last climbs
12396up the chains and stands all dripping and involuntarily trembling over
12397the side; the steward advances, and with a benevolent, consolatory
12398glance hands him--what? Some hot Cognac? No! hands him, ye gods! hands
12399him a cup of tepid ginger and water!
12400
12401"Ginger? Do I smell ginger?" suspiciously asked Stubb, coming near.
12402"Yes, this must be ginger," peering into the as yet untasted cup. Then
12403standing as if incredulous for a while, he calmly walked towards the
12404astonished steward slowly saying, "Ginger? ginger? and will you have
12405the goodness to tell me, Mr. Dough-Boy, where lies the virtue of ginger?
12406Ginger! is ginger the sort of fuel you use, Dough-boy, to kindle a fire
12407in this shivering cannibal? Ginger!--what the devil is ginger?
12408Sea-coal? firewood?--lucifer matches?--tinder?--gunpowder?--what the
12409devil is ginger, I say, that you offer this cup to our poor Queequeg
12410here."
12411
12412"There is some sneaking Temperance Society movement about this
12413business," he suddenly added, now approaching Starbuck, who had just
12414come from forward. "Will you look at that kannakin, sir; smell of it,
12415if you please." Then watching the mate's countenance, he added, "The
12416steward, Mr. Starbuck, had the face to offer that calomel and jalap
12417to Queequeg, there, this instant off the whale. Is the steward an
12418apothecary, sir? and may I ask whether this is the sort of bitters by
12419which he blows back the life into a half-drowned man?"
12420
12421"I trust not," said Starbuck, "it is poor stuff enough."
12422
12423"Aye, aye, steward," cried Stubb, "we'll teach you to drug a
12424harpooneer; none of your apothecary's medicine here; you want to poison
12425us, do ye? You have got out insurances on our lives and want to murder
12426us all, and pocket the proceeds, do ye?"
12427
12428"It was not me," cried Dough-Boy, "it was Aunt Charity that brought the
12429ginger on board; and bade me never give the harpooneers any spirits, but
12430only this ginger-jub--so she called it."
12431
12432"Ginger-jub! you gingerly rascal! take that! and run along with ye
12433to the lockers, and get something better. I hope I do no wrong, Mr.
12434Starbuck. It is the captain's orders--grog for the harpooneer on a
12435whale."
12436
12437"Enough," replied Starbuck, "only don't hit him again, but--"
12438
12439"Oh, I never hurt when I hit, except when I hit a whale or something of
12440that sort; and this fellow's a weazel. What were you about saying, sir?"
12441
12442"Only this: go down with him, and get what thou wantest thyself."
12443
12444When Stubb reappeared, he came with a dark flask in one hand, and a sort
12445of tea-caddy in the other. The first contained strong spirits, and was
12446handed to Queequeg; the second was Aunt Charity's gift, and that was
12447freely given to the waves.
12448
12449
12450
12451CHAPTER 73. Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk
12452Over Him.
12453
12454
12455It must be borne in mind that all this time we have a Sperm Whale's
12456prodigious head hanging to the Pequod's side. But we must let it
12457continue hanging there a while till we can get a chance to attend to it.
12458For the present other matters press, and the best we can do now for the
12459head, is to pray heaven the tackles may hold.
12460
12461Now, during the past night and forenoon, the Pequod had gradually
12462drifted into a sea, which, by its occasional patches of yellow brit,
12463gave unusual tokens of the vicinity of Right Whales, a species of the
12464Leviathan that but few supposed to be at this particular time lurking
12465anywhere near. And though all hands commonly disdained the capture of
12466those inferior creatures; and though the Pequod was not commissioned to
12467cruise for them at all, and though she had passed numbers of them near
12468the Crozetts without lowering a boat; yet now that a Sperm Whale
12469had been brought alongside and beheaded, to the surprise of all, the
12470announcement was made that a Right Whale should be captured that day, if
12471opportunity offered.
12472
12473Nor was this long wanting. Tall spouts were seen to leeward; and two
12474boats, Stubb's and Flask's, were detached in pursuit. Pulling further
12475and further away, they at last became almost invisible to the men at
12476the mast-head. But suddenly in the distance, they saw a great heap of
12477tumultuous white water, and soon after news came from aloft that one or
12478both the boats must be fast. An interval passed and the boats were in
12479plain sight, in the act of being dragged right towards the ship by the
12480towing whale. So close did the monster come to the hull, that at
12481first it seemed as if he meant it malice; but suddenly going down in a
12482maelstrom, within three rods of the planks, he wholly disappeared from
12483view, as if diving under the keel. "Cut, cut!" was the cry from the
12484ship to the boats, which, for one instant, seemed on the point of being
12485brought with a deadly dash against the vessel's side. But having plenty
12486of line yet in the tubs, and the whale not sounding very rapidly, they
12487paid out abundance of rope, and at the same time pulled with all their
12488might so as to get ahead of the ship. For a few minutes the struggle was
12489intensely critical; for while they still slacked out the tightened line
12490in one direction, and still plied their oars in another, the contending
12491strain threatened to take them under. But it was only a few feet advance
12492they sought to gain. And they stuck to it till they did gain it; when
12493instantly, a swift tremor was felt running like lightning along the
12494keel, as the strained line, scraping beneath the ship, suddenly rose
12495to view under her bows, snapping and quivering; and so flinging off its
12496drippings, that the drops fell like bits of broken glass on the water,
12497while the whale beyond also rose to sight, and once more the boats were
12498free to fly. But the fagged whale abated his speed, and blindly altering
12499his course, went round the stern of the ship towing the two boats after
12500him, so that they performed a complete circuit.
12501
12502Meantime, they hauled more and more upon their lines, till close
12503flanking him on both sides, Stubb answered Flask with lance for
12504lance; and thus round and round the Pequod the battle went, while the
12505multitudes of sharks that had before swum round the Sperm Whale's body,
12506rushed to the fresh blood that was spilled, thirstily drinking at every
12507new gash, as the eager Israelites did at the new bursting fountains that
12508poured from the smitten rock.
12509
12510At last his spout grew thick, and with a frightful roll and vomit, he
12511turned upon his back a corpse.
12512
12513While the two headsmen were engaged in making fast cords to his flukes,
12514and in other ways getting the mass in readiness for towing, some
12515conversation ensued between them.
12516
12517"I wonder what the old man wants with this lump of foul lard," said
12518Stubb, not without some disgust at the thought of having to do with so
12519ignoble a leviathan.
12520
12521"Wants with it?" said Flask, coiling some spare line in the boat's bow,
12522"did you never hear that the ship which but once has a Sperm Whale's
12523head hoisted on her starboard side, and at the same time a Right Whale's
12524on the larboard; did you never hear, Stubb, that that ship can never
12525afterwards capsize?"
12526
12527"Why not?
12528
12529"I don't know, but I heard that gamboge ghost of a Fedallah saying so,
12530and he seems to know all about ships' charms. But I sometimes think
12531he'll charm the ship to no good at last. I don't half like that chap,
12532Stubb. Did you ever notice how that tusk of his is a sort of carved into
12533a snake's head, Stubb?"
12534
12535"Sink him! I never look at him at all; but if ever I get a chance of a
12536dark night, and he standing hard by the bulwarks, and no one by; look
12537down there, Flask"--pointing into the sea with a peculiar motion of
12538both hands--"Aye, will I! Flask, I take that Fedallah to be the devil in
12539disguise. Do you believe that cock and bull story about his having been
12540stowed away on board ship? He's the devil, I say. The reason why you
12541don't see his tail, is because he tucks it up out of sight; he carries
12542it coiled away in his pocket, I guess. Blast him! now that I think of
12543it, he's always wanting oakum to stuff into the toes of his boots."
12544
12545"He sleeps in his boots, don't he? He hasn't got any hammock; but I've
12546seen him lay of nights in a coil of rigging."
12547
12548"No doubt, and it's because of his cursed tail; he coils it down, do ye
12549see, in the eye of the rigging."
12550
12551"What's the old man have so much to do with him for?"
12552
12553"Striking up a swap or a bargain, I suppose."
12554
12555"Bargain?--about what?"
12556
12557"Why, do ye see, the old man is hard bent after that White Whale, and
12558the devil there is trying to come round him, and get him to swap away
12559his silver watch, or his soul, or something of that sort, and then he'll
12560surrender Moby Dick."
12561
12562"Pooh! Stubb, you are skylarking; how can Fedallah do that?"
12563
12564"I don't know, Flask, but the devil is a curious chap, and a wicked
12565one, I tell ye. Why, they say as how he went a sauntering into the
12566old flag-ship once, switching his tail about devilish easy and
12567gentlemanlike, and inquiring if the old governor was at home. Well, he
12568was at home, and asked the devil what he wanted. The devil, switching
12569his hoofs, up and says, 'I want John.' 'What for?' says the old
12570governor. 'What business is that of yours,' says the devil, getting
12571mad,--'I want to use him.' 'Take him,' says the governor--and by the
12572Lord, Flask, if the devil didn't give John the Asiatic cholera before
12573he got through with him, I'll eat this whale in one mouthful. But look
12574sharp--ain't you all ready there? Well, then, pull ahead, and let's get
12575the whale alongside."
12576
12577"I think I remember some such story as you were telling," said Flask,
12578when at last the two boats were slowly advancing with their burden
12579towards the ship, "but I can't remember where."
12580
12581"Three Spaniards? Adventures of those three bloody-minded soladoes? Did
12582ye read it there, Flask? I guess ye did?"
12583
12584"No: never saw such a book; heard of it, though. But now, tell me,
12585Stubb, do you suppose that that devil you was speaking of just now, was
12586the same you say is now on board the Pequod?"
12587
12588"Am I the same man that helped kill this whale? Doesn't the devil live
12589for ever; who ever heard that the devil was dead? Did you ever see
12590any parson a wearing mourning for the devil? And if the devil has a
12591latch-key to get into the admiral's cabin, don't you suppose he can
12592crawl into a porthole? Tell me that, Mr. Flask?"
12593
12594"How old do you suppose Fedallah is, Stubb?"
12595
12596"Do you see that mainmast there?" pointing to the ship; "well, that's
12597the figure one; now take all the hoops in the Pequod's hold, and string
12598along in a row with that mast, for oughts, do you see; well, that
12599wouldn't begin to be Fedallah's age. Nor all the coopers in creation
12600couldn't show hoops enough to make oughts enough."
12601
12602"But see here, Stubb, I thought you a little boasted just now, that you
12603meant to give Fedallah a sea-toss, if you got a good chance. Now, if
12604he's so old as all those hoops of yours come to, and if he is going
12605to live for ever, what good will it do to pitch him overboard--tell me
12606that?
12607
12608"Give him a good ducking, anyhow."
12609
12610"But he'd crawl back."
12611
12612"Duck him again; and keep ducking him."
12613
12614"Suppose he should take it into his head to duck you, though--yes, and
12615drown you--what then?"
12616
12617"I should like to see him try it; I'd give him such a pair of black eyes
12618that he wouldn't dare to show his face in the admiral's cabin again for
12619a long while, let alone down in the orlop there, where he lives, and
12620hereabouts on the upper decks where he sneaks so much. Damn the devil,
12621Flask; so you suppose I'm afraid of the devil? Who's afraid of
12622him, except the old governor who daresn't catch him and put him in
12623double-darbies, as he deserves, but lets him go about kidnapping
12624people; aye, and signed a bond with him, that all the people the devil
12625kidnapped, he'd roast for him? There's a governor!"
12626
12627"Do you suppose Fedallah wants to kidnap Captain Ahab?"
12628
12629"Do I suppose it? You'll know it before long, Flask. But I am going now
12630to keep a sharp look-out on him; and if I see anything very suspicious
12631going on, I'll just take him by the nape of his neck, and say--Look
12632here, Beelzebub, you don't do it; and if he makes any fuss, by the Lord
12633I'll make a grab into his pocket for his tail, take it to the capstan,
12634and give him such a wrenching and heaving, that his tail will come short
12635off at the stump--do you see; and then, I rather guess when he finds
12636himself docked in that queer fashion, he'll sneak off without the poor
12637satisfaction of feeling his tail between his legs."
12638
12639"And what will you do with the tail, Stubb?"
12640
12641"Do with it? Sell it for an ox whip when we get home;--what else?"
12642
12643"Now, do you mean what you say, and have been saying all along, Stubb?"
12644
12645"Mean or not mean, here we are at the ship."
12646
12647The boats were here hailed, to tow the whale on the larboard side, where
12648fluke chains and other necessaries were already prepared for securing
12649him.
12650
12651"Didn't I tell you so?" said Flask; "yes, you'll soon see this right
12652whale's head hoisted up opposite that parmacetti's."
12653
12654In good time, Flask's saying proved true. As before, the Pequod steeply
12655leaned over towards the sperm whale's head, now, by the counterpoise of
12656both heads, she regained her even keel; though sorely strained, you may
12657well believe. So, when on one side you hoist in Locke's head, you go
12658over that way; but now, on the other side, hoist in Kant's and you come
12659back again; but in very poor plight. Thus, some minds for ever keep
12660trimming boat. Oh, ye foolish! throw all these thunder-heads overboard,
12661and then you will float light and right.
12662
12663In disposing of the body of a right whale, when brought alongside the
12664ship, the same preliminary proceedings commonly take place as in the
12665case of a sperm whale; only, in the latter instance, the head is cut off
12666whole, but in the former the lips and tongue are separately removed and
12667hoisted on deck, with all the well known black bone attached to what is
12668called the crown-piece. But nothing like this, in the present case,
12669had been done. The carcases of both whales had dropped astern; and
12670the head-laden ship not a little resembled a mule carrying a pair of
12671overburdening panniers.
12672
12673Meantime, Fedallah was calmly eyeing the right whale's head, and ever
12674and anon glancing from the deep wrinkles there to the lines in his own
12675hand. And Ahab chanced so to stand, that the Parsee occupied his shadow;
12676while, if the Parsee's shadow was there at all it seemed only to
12677blend with, and lengthen Ahab's. As the crew toiled on, Laplandish
12678speculations were bandied among them, concerning all these passing
12679things.
12680
12681
12682
12683CHAPTER 74. The Sperm Whale's Head--Contrasted View.
12684
12685
12686Here, now, are two great whales, laying their heads together; let us
12687join them, and lay together our own.
12688
12689Of the grand order of folio leviathans, the Sperm Whale and the Right
12690Whale are by far the most noteworthy. They are the only whales regularly
12691hunted by man. To the Nantucketer, they present the two extremes of all
12692the known varieties of the whale. As the external difference between
12693them is mainly observable in their heads; and as a head of each is this
12694moment hanging from the Pequod's side; and as we may freely go from one
12695to the other, by merely stepping across the deck:--where, I should like
12696to know, will you obtain a better chance to study practical cetology
12697than here?
12698
12699In the first place, you are struck by the general contrast between these
12700heads. Both are massive enough in all conscience; but there is a certain
12701mathematical symmetry in the Sperm Whale's which the Right Whale's sadly
12702lacks. There is more character in the Sperm Whale's head. As you behold
12703it, you involuntarily yield the immense superiority to him, in point
12704of pervading dignity. In the present instance, too, this dignity is
12705heightened by the pepper and salt colour of his head at the summit,
12706giving token of advanced age and large experience. In short, he is what
12707the fishermen technically call a "grey-headed whale."
12708
12709Let us now note what is least dissimilar in these heads--namely, the two
12710most important organs, the eye and the ear. Far back on the side of
12711the head, and low down, near the angle of either whale's jaw, if you
12712narrowly search, you will at last see a lashless eye, which you would
12713fancy to be a young colt's eye; so out of all proportion is it to the
12714magnitude of the head.
12715
12716Now, from this peculiar sideway position of the whale's eyes, it is
12717plain that he can never see an object which is exactly ahead, no more
12718than he can one exactly astern. In a word, the position of the whale's
12719eyes corresponds to that of a man's ears; and you may fancy, for
12720yourself, how it would fare with you, did you sideways survey objects
12721through your ears. You would find that you could only command some
12722thirty degrees of vision in advance of the straight side-line of sight;
12723and about thirty more behind it. If your bitterest foe were walking
12724straight towards you, with dagger uplifted in broad day, you would not
12725be able to see him, any more than if he were stealing upon you from
12726behind. In a word, you would have two backs, so to speak; but, at the
12727same time, also, two fronts (side fronts): for what is it that makes the
12728front of a man--what, indeed, but his eyes?
12729
12730Moreover, while in most other animals that I can now think of, the eyes
12731are so planted as imperceptibly to blend their visual power, so as to
12732produce one picture and not two to the brain; the peculiar position of
12733the whale's eyes, effectually divided as they are by many cubic feet of
12734solid head, which towers between them like a great mountain separating
12735two lakes in valleys; this, of course, must wholly separate the
12736impressions which each independent organ imparts. The whale, therefore,
12737must see one distinct picture on this side, and another distinct
12738picture on that side; while all between must be profound darkness and
12739nothingness to him. Man may, in effect, be said to look out on the world
12740from a sentry-box with two joined sashes for his window. But with the
12741whale, these two sashes are separately inserted, making two distinct
12742windows, but sadly impairing the view. This peculiarity of the whale's
12743eyes is a thing always to be borne in mind in the fishery; and to be
12744remembered by the reader in some subsequent scenes.
12745
12746A curious and most puzzling question might be started concerning this
12747visual matter as touching the Leviathan. But I must be content with a
12748hint. So long as a man's eyes are open in the light, the act of seeing
12749is involuntary; that is, he cannot then help mechanically seeing
12750whatever objects are before him. Nevertheless, any one's experience
12751will teach him, that though he can take in an undiscriminating sweep of
12752things at one glance, it is quite impossible for him, attentively,
12753and completely, to examine any two things--however large or however
12754small--at one and the same instant of time; never mind if they lie side
12755by side and touch each other. But if you now come to separate these two
12756objects, and surround each by a circle of profound darkness; then, in
12757order to see one of them, in such a manner as to bring your mind to
12758bear on it, the other will be utterly excluded from your contemporary
12759consciousness. How is it, then, with the whale? True, both his eyes,
12760in themselves, must simultaneously act; but is his brain so much more
12761comprehensive, combining, and subtle than man's, that he can at the same
12762moment of time attentively examine two distinct prospects, one on one
12763side of him, and the other in an exactly opposite direction? If he
12764can, then is it as marvellous a thing in him, as if a man were able
12765simultaneously to go through the demonstrations of two distinct problems
12766in Euclid. Nor, strictly investigated, is there any incongruity in this
12767comparison.
12768
12769It may be but an idle whim, but it has always seemed to me, that the
12770extraordinary vacillations of movement displayed by some whales when
12771beset by three or four boats; the timidity and liability to queer
12772frights, so common to such whales; I think that all this indirectly
12773proceeds from the helpless perplexity of volition, in which their
12774divided and diametrically opposite powers of vision must involve them.
12775
12776But the ear of the whale is full as curious as the eye. If you are an
12777entire stranger to their race, you might hunt over these two heads
12778for hours, and never discover that organ. The ear has no external leaf
12779whatever; and into the hole itself you can hardly insert a quill, so
12780wondrously minute is it. It is lodged a little behind the eye. With
12781respect to their ears, this important difference is to be observed
12782between the sperm whale and the right. While the ear of the former has
12783an external opening, that of the latter is entirely and evenly covered
12784over with a membrane, so as to be quite imperceptible from without.
12785
12786Is it not curious, that so vast a being as the whale should see the
12787world through so small an eye, and hear the thunder through an ear which
12788is smaller than a hare's? But if his eyes were broad as the lens of
12789Herschel's great telescope; and his ears capacious as the porches of
12790cathedrals; would that make him any longer of sight, or sharper of
12791hearing? Not at all.--Why then do you try to "enlarge" your mind?
12792Subtilize it.
12793
12794Let us now with whatever levers and steam-engines we have at hand, cant
12795over the sperm whale's head, that it may lie bottom up; then, ascending
12796by a ladder to the summit, have a peep down the mouth; and were it not
12797that the body is now completely separated from it, with a lantern we
12798might descend into the great Kentucky Mammoth Cave of his stomach. But
12799let us hold on here by this tooth, and look about us where we are. What
12800a really beautiful and chaste-looking mouth! from floor to ceiling,
12801lined, or rather papered with a glistening white membrane, glossy as
12802bridal satins.
12803
12804But come out now, and look at this portentous lower jaw, which seems
12805like the long narrow lid of an immense snuff-box, with the hinge at one
12806end, instead of one side. If you pry it up, so as to get it overhead,
12807and expose its rows of teeth, it seems a terrific portcullis; and such,
12808alas! it proves to many a poor wight in the fishery, upon whom these
12809spikes fall with impaling force. But far more terrible is it to behold,
12810when fathoms down in the sea, you see some sulky whale, floating there
12811suspended, with his prodigious jaw, some fifteen feet long, hanging
12812straight down at right-angles with his body, for all the world like a
12813ship's jib-boom. This whale is not dead; he is only dispirited; out of
12814sorts, perhaps; hypochondriac; and so supine, that the hinges of his
12815jaw have relaxed, leaving him there in that ungainly sort of plight, a
12816reproach to all his tribe, who must, no doubt, imprecate lock-jaws upon
12817him.
12818
12819In most cases this lower jaw--being easily unhinged by a practised
12820artist--is disengaged and hoisted on deck for the purpose of extracting
12821the ivory teeth, and furnishing a supply of that hard white whalebone
12822with which the fishermen fashion all sorts of curious articles,
12823including canes, umbrella-stocks, and handles to riding-whips.
12824
12825With a long, weary hoist the jaw is dragged on board, as if it were an
12826anchor; and when the proper time comes--some few days after the other
12827work--Queequeg, Daggoo, and Tashtego, being all accomplished dentists,
12828are set to drawing teeth. With a keen cutting-spade, Queequeg lances
12829the gums; then the jaw is lashed down to ringbolts, and a tackle being
12830rigged from aloft, they drag out these teeth, as Michigan oxen drag
12831stumps of old oaks out of wild wood lands. There are generally forty-two
12832teeth in all; in old whales, much worn down, but undecayed; nor filled
12833after our artificial fashion. The jaw is afterwards sawn into slabs, and
12834piled away like joists for building houses.
12835
12836
12837
12838CHAPTER 75. The Right Whale's Head--Contrasted View.
12839
12840
12841Crossing the deck, let us now have a good long look at the Right Whale's
12842head.
12843
12844As in general shape the noble Sperm Whale's head may be compared to a
12845Roman war-chariot (especially in front, where it is so broadly rounded);
12846so, at a broad view, the Right Whale's head bears a rather inelegant
12847resemblance to a gigantic galliot-toed shoe. Two hundred years ago an
12848old Dutch voyager likened its shape to that of a shoemaker's last. And
12849in this same last or shoe, that old woman of the nursery tale, with
12850the swarming brood, might very comfortably be lodged, she and all her
12851progeny.
12852
12853But as you come nearer to this great head it begins to assume different
12854aspects, according to your point of view. If you stand on its summit and
12855look at these two F-shaped spoutholes, you would take the whole head
12856for an enormous bass-viol, and these spiracles, the apertures in its
12857sounding-board. Then, again, if you fix your eye upon this strange,
12858crested, comb-like incrustation on the top of the mass--this green,
12859barnacled thing, which the Greenlanders call the "crown," and the
12860Southern fishers the "bonnet" of the Right Whale; fixing your eyes
12861solely on this, you would take the head for the trunk of some huge oak,
12862with a bird's nest in its crotch. At any rate, when you watch those live
12863crabs that nestle here on this bonnet, such an idea will be almost
12864sure to occur to you; unless, indeed, your fancy has been fixed by the
12865technical term "crown" also bestowed upon it; in which case you will
12866take great interest in thinking how this mighty monster is actually a
12867diademed king of the sea, whose green crown has been put together for
12868him in this marvellous manner. But if this whale be a king, he is a very
12869sulky looking fellow to grace a diadem. Look at that hanging lower lip!
12870what a huge sulk and pout is there! a sulk and pout, by carpenter's
12871measurement, about twenty feet long and five feet deep; a sulk and pout
12872that will yield you some 500 gallons of oil and more.
12873
12874A great pity, now, that this unfortunate whale should be hare-lipped.
12875The fissure is about a foot across. Probably the mother during an
12876important interval was sailing down the Peruvian coast, when earthquakes
12877caused the beach to gape. Over this lip, as over a slippery threshold,
12878we now slide into the mouth. Upon my word were I at Mackinaw, I should
12879take this to be the inside of an Indian wigwam. Good Lord! is this the
12880road that Jonah went? The roof is about twelve feet high, and runs to a
12881pretty sharp angle, as if there were a regular ridge-pole there; while
12882these ribbed, arched, hairy sides, present us with those wondrous, half
12883vertical, scimetar-shaped slats of whalebone, say three hundred on a
12884side, which depending from the upper part of the head or crown
12885bone, form those Venetian blinds which have elsewhere been cursorily
12886mentioned. The edges of these bones are fringed with hairy fibres,
12887through which the Right Whale strains the water, and in whose
12888intricacies he retains the small fish, when openmouthed he goes through
12889the seas of brit in feeding time. In the central blinds of bone, as they
12890stand in their natural order, there are certain curious marks, curves,
12891hollows, and ridges, whereby some whalemen calculate the creature's age,
12892as the age of an oak by its circular rings. Though the certainty of this
12893criterion is far from demonstrable, yet it has the savor of analogical
12894probability. At any rate, if we yield to it, we must grant a far greater
12895age to the Right Whale than at first glance will seem reasonable.
12896
12897In old times, there seem to have prevailed the most curious fancies
12898concerning these blinds. One voyager in Purchas calls them the wondrous
12899"whiskers" inside of the whale's mouth;* another, "hogs' bristles"; a
12900third old gentleman in Hackluyt uses the following elegant language:
12901"There are about two hundred and fifty fins growing on each side of his
12902upper CHOP, which arch over his tongue on each side of his mouth."
12903
12904
12905*This reminds us that the Right Whale really has a sort of whisker, or
12906rather a moustache, consisting of a few scattered white hairs on the
12907upper part of the outer end of the lower jaw. Sometimes these
12908tufts impart a rather brigandish expression to his otherwise solemn
12909countenance.
12910
12911
12912As every one knows, these same "hogs' bristles," "fins," "whiskers,"
12913"blinds," or whatever you please, furnish to the ladies their busks and
12914other stiffening contrivances. But in this particular, the demand has
12915long been on the decline. It was in Queen Anne's time that the bone was
12916in its glory, the farthingale being then all the fashion. And as those
12917ancient dames moved about gaily, though in the jaws of the whale, as
12918you may say; even so, in a shower, with the like thoughtlessness, do we
12919nowadays fly under the same jaws for protection; the umbrella being a
12920tent spread over the same bone.
12921
12922But now forget all about blinds and whiskers for a moment, and, standing
12923in the Right Whale's mouth, look around you afresh. Seeing all these
12924colonnades of bone so methodically ranged about, would you not think
12925you were inside of the great Haarlem organ, and gazing upon its
12926thousand pipes? For a carpet to the organ we have a rug of the softest
12927Turkey--the tongue, which is glued, as it were, to the floor of the
12928mouth. It is very fat and tender, and apt to tear in pieces in hoisting
12929it on deck. This particular tongue now before us; at a passing glance I
12930should say it was a six-barreler; that is, it will yield you about that
12931amount of oil.
12932
12933Ere this, you must have plainly seen the truth of what I started
12934with--that the Sperm Whale and the Right Whale have almost entirely
12935different heads. To sum up, then: in the Right Whale's there is no great
12936well of sperm; no ivory teeth at all; no long, slender mandible of a
12937lower jaw, like the Sperm Whale's. Nor in the Sperm Whale are there any
12938of those blinds of bone; no huge lower lip; and scarcely anything of a
12939tongue. Again, the Right Whale has two external spout-holes, the Sperm
12940Whale only one.
12941
12942Look your last, now, on these venerable hooded heads, while they yet lie
12943together; for one will soon sink, unrecorded, in the sea; the other will
12944not be very long in following.
12945
12946Can you catch the expression of the Sperm Whale's there? It is the same
12947he died with, only some of the longer wrinkles in the forehead seem
12948now faded away. I think his broad brow to be full of a prairie-like
12949placidity, born of a speculative indifference as to death. But mark the
12950other head's expression. See that amazing lower lip, pressed by accident
12951against the vessel's side, so as firmly to embrace the jaw. Does not
12952this whole head seem to speak of an enormous practical resolution in
12953facing death? This Right Whale I take to have been a Stoic; the Sperm
12954Whale, a Platonian, who might have taken up Spinoza in his latter years.
12955
12956
12957
12958CHAPTER 76. The Battering-Ram.
12959
12960
12961Ere quitting, for the nonce, the Sperm Whale's head, I would have
12962you, as a sensible physiologist, simply--particularly remark its front
12963aspect, in all its compacted collectedness. I would have you investigate
12964it now with the sole view of forming to yourself some unexaggerated,
12965intelligent estimate of whatever battering-ram power may be lodged
12966there. Here is a vital point; for you must either satisfactorily settle
12967this matter with yourself, or for ever remain an infidel as to one of
12968the most appalling, but not the less true events, perhaps anywhere to be
12969found in all recorded history.
12970
12971You observe that in the ordinary swimming position of the Sperm Whale,
12972the front of his head presents an almost wholly vertical plane to the
12973water; you observe that the lower part of that front slopes considerably
12974backwards, so as to furnish more of a retreat for the long socket which
12975receives the boom-like lower jaw; you observe that the mouth is entirely
12976under the head, much in the same way, indeed, as though your own mouth
12977were entirely under your chin. Moreover you observe that the whale has
12978no external nose; and that what nose he has--his spout hole--is on the
12979top of his head; you observe that his eyes and ears are at the sides
12980of his head, nearly one third of his entire length from the front.
12981Wherefore, you must now have perceived that the front of the Sperm
12982Whale's head is a dead, blind wall, without a single organ or tender
12983prominence of any sort whatsoever. Furthermore, you are now to consider
12984that only in the extreme, lower, backward sloping part of the front of
12985the head, is there the slightest vestige of bone; and not till you
12986get near twenty feet from the forehead do you come to the full cranial
12987development. So that this whole enormous boneless mass is as one wad.
12988Finally, though, as will soon be revealed, its contents partly comprise
12989the most delicate oil; yet, you are now to be apprised of the nature of
12990the substance which so impregnably invests all that apparent effeminacy.
12991In some previous place I have described to you how the blubber wraps the
12992body of the whale, as the rind wraps an orange. Just so with the head;
12993but with this difference: about the head this envelope, though not so
12994thick, is of a boneless toughness, inestimable by any man who has not
12995handled it. The severest pointed harpoon, the sharpest lance darted by
12996the strongest human arm, impotently rebounds from it. It is as though
12997the forehead of the Sperm Whale were paved with horses' hoofs. I do not
12998think that any sensation lurks in it.
12999
13000Bethink yourself also of another thing. When two large, loaded Indiamen
13001chance to crowd and crush towards each other in the docks, what do the
13002sailors do? They do not suspend between them, at the point of coming
13003contact, any merely hard substance, like iron or wood. No, they hold
13004there a large, round wad of tow and cork, enveloped in the thickest
13005and toughest of ox-hide. That bravely and uninjured takes the jam which
13006would have snapped all their oaken handspikes and iron crow-bars. By
13007itself this sufficiently illustrates the obvious fact I drive at. But
13008supplementary to this, it has hypothetically occurred to me, that
13009as ordinary fish possess what is called a swimming bladder in them,
13010capable, at will, of distension or contraction; and as the Sperm Whale,
13011as far as I know, has no such provision in him; considering, too,
13012the otherwise inexplicable manner in which he now depresses his head
13013altogether beneath the surface, and anon swims with it high elevated out
13014of the water; considering the unobstructed elasticity of its envelope;
13015considering the unique interior of his head; it has hypothetically
13016occurred to me, I say, that those mystical lung-celled honeycombs there
13017may possibly have some hitherto unknown and unsuspected connexion with
13018the outer air, so as to be susceptible to atmospheric distension and
13019contraction. If this be so, fancy the irresistibleness of that might, to
13020which the most impalpable and destructive of all elements contributes.
13021
13022Now, mark. Unerringly impelling this dead, impregnable, uninjurable
13023wall, and this most buoyant thing within; there swims behind it all a
13024mass of tremendous life, only to be adequately estimated as piled wood
13025is--by the cord; and all obedient to one volition, as the smallest
13026insect. So that when I shall hereafter detail to you all the
13027specialities and concentrations of potency everywhere lurking in this
13028expansive monster; when I shall show you some of his more inconsiderable
13029braining feats; I trust you will have renounced all ignorant
13030incredulity, and be ready to abide by this; that though the Sperm Whale
13031stove a passage through the Isthmus of Darien, and mixed the Atlantic
13032with the Pacific, you would not elevate one hair of your eye-brow. For
13033unless you own the whale, you are but a provincial and sentimentalist
13034in Truth. But clear Truth is a thing for salamander giants only to
13035encounter; how small the chances for the provincials then? What befell
13036the weakling youth lifting the dread goddess's veil at Lais?
13037
13038
13039
13040CHAPTER 77. The Great Heidelburgh Tun.
13041
13042
13043Now comes the Baling of the Case. But to comprehend it aright, you must
13044know something of the curious internal structure of the thing operated
13045upon.
13046
13047Regarding the Sperm Whale's head as a solid oblong, you may, on an
13048inclined plane, sideways divide it into two quoins,* whereof the lower
13049is the bony structure, forming the cranium and jaws, and the upper an
13050unctuous mass wholly free from bones; its broad forward end forming the
13051expanded vertical apparent forehead of the whale. At the middle of the
13052forehead horizontally subdivide this upper quoin, and then you have two
13053almost equal parts, which before were naturally divided by an internal
13054wall of a thick tendinous substance.
13055
13056
13057*Quoin is not a Euclidean term. It belongs to the pure nautical
13058mathematics. I know not that it has been defined before. A quoin is a
13059solid which differs from a wedge in having its sharp end formed by the
13060steep inclination of one side, instead of the mutual tapering of both
13061sides.
13062
13063
13064The lower subdivided part, called the junk, is one immense honeycomb
13065of oil, formed by the crossing and recrossing, into ten thousand
13066infiltrated cells, of tough elastic white fibres throughout its whole
13067extent. The upper part, known as the Case, may be regarded as the great
13068Heidelburgh Tun of the Sperm Whale. And as that famous great tierce is
13069mystically carved in front, so the whale's vast plaited forehead forms
13070innumerable strange devices for the emblematical adornment of his
13071wondrous tun. Moreover, as that of Heidelburgh was always replenished
13072with the most excellent of the wines of the Rhenish valleys, so the tun
13073of the whale contains by far the most precious of all his oily vintages;
13074namely, the highly-prized spermaceti, in its absolutely pure, limpid,
13075and odoriferous state. Nor is this precious substance found unalloyed
13076in any other part of the creature. Though in life it remains perfectly
13077fluid, yet, upon exposure to the air, after death, it soon begins to
13078concrete; sending forth beautiful crystalline shoots, as when the
13079first thin delicate ice is just forming in water. A large whale's
13080case generally yields about five hundred gallons of sperm, though from
13081unavoidable circumstances, considerable of it is spilled, leaks, and
13082dribbles away, or is otherwise irrevocably lost in the ticklish business
13083of securing what you can.
13084
13085I know not with what fine and costly material the Heidelburgh Tun
13086was coated within, but in superlative richness that coating could not
13087possibly have compared with the silken pearl-coloured membrane, like the
13088lining of a fine pelisse, forming the inner surface of the Sperm Whale's
13089case.
13090
13091It will have been seen that the Heidelburgh Tun of the Sperm Whale
13092embraces the entire length of the entire top of the head; and since--as
13093has been elsewhere set forth--the head embraces one third of the whole
13094length of the creature, then setting that length down at eighty feet for
13095a good sized whale, you have more than twenty-six feet for the depth
13096of the tun, when it is lengthwise hoisted up and down against a ship's
13097side.
13098
13099As in decapitating the whale, the operator's instrument is brought close
13100to the spot where an entrance is subsequently forced into the spermaceti
13101magazine; he has, therefore, to be uncommonly heedful, lest a careless,
13102untimely stroke should invade the sanctuary and wastingly let out its
13103invaluable contents. It is this decapitated end of the head, also, which
13104is at last elevated out of the water, and retained in that position by
13105the enormous cutting tackles, whose hempen combinations, on one side,
13106make quite a wilderness of ropes in that quarter.
13107
13108Thus much being said, attend now, I pray you, to that marvellous and--in
13109this particular instance--almost fatal operation whereby the Sperm
13110Whale's great Heidelburgh Tun is tapped.
13111
13112
13113
13114CHAPTER 78. Cistern and Buckets.
13115
13116
13117Nimble as a cat, Tashtego mounts aloft; and without altering his erect
13118posture, runs straight out upon the overhanging mainyard-arm, to the
13119part where it exactly projects over the hoisted Tun. He has carried
13120with him a light tackle called a whip, consisting of only two parts,
13121travelling through a single-sheaved block. Securing this block, so that
13122it hangs down from the yard-arm, he swings one end of the rope, till it
13123is caught and firmly held by a hand on deck. Then, hand-over-hand, down
13124the other part, the Indian drops through the air, till dexterously he
13125lands on the summit of the head. There--still high elevated above the
13126rest of the company, to whom he vivaciously cries--he seems some Turkish
13127Muezzin calling the good people to prayers from the top of a tower. A
13128short-handled sharp spade being sent up to him, he diligently searches
13129for the proper place to begin breaking into the Tun. In this business
13130he proceeds very heedfully, like a treasure-hunter in some old house,
13131sounding the walls to find where the gold is masoned in. By the time
13132this cautious search is over, a stout iron-bound bucket, precisely like
13133a well-bucket, has been attached to one end of the whip; while the other
13134end, being stretched across the deck, is there held by two or three
13135alert hands. These last now hoist the bucket within grasp of the Indian,
13136to whom another person has reached up a very long pole. Inserting this
13137pole into the bucket, Tashtego downward guides the bucket into the Tun,
13138till it entirely disappears; then giving the word to the seamen at the
13139whip, up comes the bucket again, all bubbling like a dairy-maid's pail
13140of new milk. Carefully lowered from its height, the full-freighted
13141vessel is caught by an appointed hand, and quickly emptied into a large
13142tub. Then remounting aloft, it again goes through the same round until
13143the deep cistern will yield no more. Towards the end, Tashtego has to
13144ram his long pole harder and harder, and deeper and deeper into the Tun,
13145until some twenty feet of the pole have gone down.
13146
13147Now, the people of the Pequod had been baling some time in this way;
13148several tubs had been filled with the fragrant sperm; when all at once a
13149queer accident happened. Whether it was that Tashtego, that wild Indian,
13150was so heedless and reckless as to let go for a moment his one-handed
13151hold on the great cabled tackles suspending the head; or whether the
13152place where he stood was so treacherous and oozy; or whether the Evil
13153One himself would have it to fall out so, without stating his particular
13154reasons; how it was exactly, there is no telling now; but, on a sudden,
13155as the eightieth or ninetieth bucket came suckingly up--my God! poor
13156Tashtego--like the twin reciprocating bucket in a veritable well,
13157dropped head-foremost down into this great Tun of Heidelburgh, and with
13158a horrible oily gurgling, went clean out of sight!
13159
13160"Man overboard!" cried Daggoo, who amid the general consternation first
13161came to his senses. "Swing the bucket this way!" and putting one foot
13162into it, so as the better to secure his slippery hand-hold on the whip
13163itself, the hoisters ran him high up to the top of the head, almost
13164before Tashtego could have reached its interior bottom. Meantime,
13165there was a terrible tumult. Looking over the side, they saw the before
13166lifeless head throbbing and heaving just below the surface of the sea,
13167as if that moment seized with some momentous idea; whereas it was only
13168the poor Indian unconsciously revealing by those struggles the perilous
13169depth to which he had sunk.
13170
13171At this instant, while Daggoo, on the summit of the head, was clearing
13172the whip--which had somehow got foul of the great cutting tackles--a
13173sharp cracking noise was heard; and to the unspeakable horror of all,
13174one of the two enormous hooks suspending the head tore out, and with
13175a vast vibration the enormous mass sideways swung, till the drunk ship
13176reeled and shook as if smitten by an iceberg. The one remaining hook,
13177upon which the entire strain now depended, seemed every instant to be
13178on the point of giving way; an event still more likely from the violent
13179motions of the head.
13180
13181"Come down, come down!" yelled the seamen to Daggoo, but with one hand
13182holding on to the heavy tackles, so that if the head should drop, he
13183would still remain suspended; the negro having cleared the foul line,
13184rammed down the bucket into the now collapsed well, meaning that the
13185buried harpooneer should grasp it, and so be hoisted out.
13186
13187"In heaven's name, man," cried Stubb, "are you ramming home a cartridge
13188there?--Avast! How will that help him; jamming that iron-bound bucket on
13189top of his head? Avast, will ye!"
13190
13191"Stand clear of the tackle!" cried a voice like the bursting of a
13192rocket.
13193
13194Almost in the same instant, with a thunder-boom, the enormous mass
13195dropped into the sea, like Niagara's Table-Rock into the whirlpool; the
13196suddenly relieved hull rolled away from it, to far down her glittering
13197copper; and all caught their breath, as half swinging--now over the
13198sailors' heads, and now over the water--Daggoo, through a thick mist of
13199spray, was dimly beheld clinging to the pendulous tackles, while poor,
13200buried-alive Tashtego was sinking utterly down to the bottom of the sea!
13201But hardly had the blinding vapour cleared away, when a naked figure
13202with a boarding-sword in his hand, was for one swift moment seen
13203hovering over the bulwarks. The next, a loud splash announced that my
13204brave Queequeg had dived to the rescue. One packed rush was made to the
13205side, and every eye counted every ripple, as moment followed moment, and
13206no sign of either the sinker or the diver could be seen. Some hands now
13207jumped into a boat alongside, and pushed a little off from the ship.
13208
13209"Ha! ha!" cried Daggoo, all at once, from his now quiet, swinging perch
13210overhead; and looking further off from the side, we saw an arm thrust
13211upright from the blue waves; a sight strange to see, as an arm thrust
13212forth from the grass over a grave.
13213
13214"Both! both!--it is both!"--cried Daggoo again with a joyful shout; and
13215soon after, Queequeg was seen boldly striking out with one hand, and
13216with the other clutching the long hair of the Indian. Drawn into the
13217waiting boat, they were quickly brought to the deck; but Tashtego was
13218long in coming to, and Queequeg did not look very brisk.
13219
13220Now, how had this noble rescue been accomplished? Why, diving after
13221the slowly descending head, Queequeg with his keen sword had made
13222side lunges near its bottom, so as to scuttle a large hole there; then
13223dropping his sword, had thrust his long arm far inwards and upwards,
13224and so hauled out poor Tash by the head. He averred, that upon first
13225thrusting in for him, a leg was presented; but well knowing that that
13226was not as it ought to be, and might occasion great trouble;--he had
13227thrust back the leg, and by a dexterous heave and toss, had wrought a
13228somerset upon the Indian; so that with the next trial, he came forth in
13229the good old way--head foremost. As for the great head itself, that was
13230doing as well as could be expected.
13231
13232And thus, through the courage and great skill in obstetrics of Queequeg,
13233the deliverance, or rather, delivery of Tashtego, was successfully
13234accomplished, in the teeth, too, of the most untoward and apparently
13235hopeless impediments; which is a lesson by no means to be forgotten.
13236Midwifery should be taught in the same course with fencing and boxing,
13237riding and rowing.
13238
13239I know that this queer adventure of the Gay-Header's will be sure to
13240seem incredible to some landsmen, though they themselves may have either
13241seen or heard of some one's falling into a cistern ashore; an accident
13242which not seldom happens, and with much less reason too than the
13243Indian's, considering the exceeding slipperiness of the curb of the
13244Sperm Whale's well.
13245
13246But, peradventure, it may be sagaciously urged, how is this? We thought
13247the tissued, infiltrated head of the Sperm Whale, was the lightest and
13248most corky part about him; and yet thou makest it sink in an element of
13249a far greater specific gravity than itself. We have thee there. Not at
13250all, but I have ye; for at the time poor Tash fell in, the case had been
13251nearly emptied of its lighter contents, leaving little but the dense
13252tendinous wall of the well--a double welded, hammered substance, as I
13253have before said, much heavier than the sea water, and a lump of which
13254sinks in it like lead almost. But the tendency to rapid sinking in this
13255substance was in the present instance materially counteracted by the
13256other parts of the head remaining undetached from it, so that it sank
13257very slowly and deliberately indeed, affording Queequeg a fair chance
13258for performing his agile obstetrics on the run, as you may say. Yes, it
13259was a running delivery, so it was.
13260
13261Now, had Tashtego perished in that head, it had been a very precious
13262perishing; smothered in the very whitest and daintiest of fragrant
13263spermaceti; coffined, hearsed, and tombed in the secret inner chamber
13264and sanctum sanctorum of the whale. Only one sweeter end can readily be
13265recalled--the delicious death of an Ohio honey-hunter, who seeking honey
13266in the crotch of a hollow tree, found such exceeding store of it, that
13267leaning too far over, it sucked him in, so that he died embalmed.
13268How many, think ye, have likewise fallen into Plato's honey head, and
13269sweetly perished there?
13270
13271
13272
13273CHAPTER 79. The Prairie.
13274
13275
13276To scan the lines of his face, or feel the bumps on the head of this
13277Leviathan; this is a thing which no Physiognomist or Phrenologist has as
13278yet undertaken. Such an enterprise would seem almost as hopeful as for
13279Lavater to have scrutinized the wrinkles on the Rock of Gibraltar,
13280or for Gall to have mounted a ladder and manipulated the Dome of the
13281Pantheon. Still, in that famous work of his, Lavater not only treats
13282of the various faces of men, but also attentively studies the faces
13283of horses, birds, serpents, and fish; and dwells in detail upon the
13284modifications of expression discernible therein. Nor have Gall and
13285his disciple Spurzheim failed to throw out some hints touching the
13286phrenological characteristics of other beings than man. Therefore,
13287though I am but ill qualified for a pioneer, in the application of these
13288two semi-sciences to the whale, I will do my endeavor. I try all things;
13289I achieve what I can.
13290
13291Physiognomically regarded, the Sperm Whale is an anomalous creature.
13292He has no proper nose. And since the nose is the central and most
13293conspicuous of the features; and since it perhaps most modifies and
13294finally controls their combined expression; hence it would seem that its
13295entire absence, as an external appendage, must very largely affect
13296the countenance of the whale. For as in landscape gardening, a spire,
13297cupola, monument, or tower of some sort, is deemed almost indispensable
13298to the completion of the scene; so no face can be physiognomically in
13299keeping without the elevated open-work belfry of the nose. Dash the nose
13300from Phidias's marble Jove, and what a sorry remainder! Nevertheless,
13301Leviathan is of so mighty a magnitude, all his proportions are so
13302stately, that the same deficiency which in the sculptured Jove were
13303hideous, in him is no blemish at all. Nay, it is an added grandeur. A
13304nose to the whale would have been impertinent. As on your physiognomical
13305voyage you sail round his vast head in your jolly-boat, your noble
13306conceptions of him are never insulted by the reflection that he has a
13307nose to be pulled. A pestilent conceit, which so often will insist upon
13308obtruding even when beholding the mightiest royal beadle on his throne.
13309
13310In some particulars, perhaps the most imposing physiognomical view to
13311be had of the Sperm Whale, is that of the full front of his head. This
13312aspect is sublime.
13313
13314In thought, a fine human brow is like the East when troubled with the
13315morning. In the repose of the pasture, the curled brow of the bull has a
13316touch of the grand in it. Pushing heavy cannon up mountain defiles, the
13317elephant's brow is majestic. Human or animal, the mystical brow is as
13318that great golden seal affixed by the German Emperors to their decrees.
13319It signifies--"God: done this day by my hand." But in most creatures,
13320nay in man himself, very often the brow is but a mere strip of alpine
13321land lying along the snow line. Few are the foreheads which like
13322Shakespeare's or Melancthon's rise so high, and descend so low, that the
13323eyes themselves seem clear, eternal, tideless mountain lakes; and all
13324above them in the forehead's wrinkles, you seem to track the antlered
13325thoughts descending there to drink, as the Highland hunters track the
13326snow prints of the deer. But in the great Sperm Whale, this high and
13327mighty god-like dignity inherent in the brow is so immensely amplified,
13328that gazing on it, in that full front view, you feel the Deity and the
13329dread powers more forcibly than in beholding any other object in living
13330nature. For you see no one point precisely; not one distinct feature is
13331revealed; no nose, eyes, ears, or mouth; no face; he has none, proper;
13332nothing but that one broad firmament of a forehead, pleated with
13333riddles; dumbly lowering with the doom of boats, and ships, and men.
13334Nor, in profile, does this wondrous brow diminish; though that way
13335viewed its grandeur does not domineer upon you so. In profile, you
13336plainly perceive that horizontal, semi-crescentic depression in the
13337forehead's middle, which, in man, is Lavater's mark of genius.
13338
13339But how? Genius in the Sperm Whale? Has the Sperm Whale ever written
13340a book, spoken a speech? No, his great genius is declared in his
13341doing nothing particular to prove it. It is moreover declared in his
13342pyramidical silence. And this reminds me that had the great Sperm Whale
13343been known to the young Orient World, he would have been deified by
13344their child-magian thoughts. They deified the crocodile of the Nile,
13345because the crocodile is tongueless; and the Sperm Whale has no
13346tongue, or at least it is so exceedingly small, as to be incapable of
13347protrusion. If hereafter any highly cultured, poetical nation shall lure
13348back to their birth-right, the merry May-day gods of old; and livingly
13349enthrone them again in the now egotistical sky; in the now unhaunted
13350hill; then be sure, exalted to Jove's high seat, the great Sperm Whale
13351shall lord it.
13352
13353Champollion deciphered the wrinkled granite hieroglyphics. But there is
13354no Champollion to decipher the Egypt of every man's and every being's
13355face. Physiognomy, like every other human science, is but a passing
13356fable. If then, Sir William Jones, who read in thirty languages, could
13357not read the simplest peasant's face in its profounder and more subtle
13358meanings, how may unlettered Ishmael hope to read the awful Chaldee of
13359the Sperm Whale's brow? I but put that brow before you. Read it if you
13360can.
13361
13362
13363
13364CHAPTER 80. The Nut.
13365
13366
13367If the Sperm Whale be physiognomically a Sphinx, to the phrenologist his
13368brain seems that geometrical circle which it is impossible to square.
13369
13370In the full-grown creature the skull will measure at least twenty feet
13371in length. Unhinge the lower jaw, and the side view of this skull is as
13372the side of a moderately inclined plane resting throughout on a level
13373base. But in life--as we have elsewhere seen--this inclined plane is
13374angularly filled up, and almost squared by the enormous superincumbent
13375mass of the junk and sperm. At the high end the skull forms a crater to
13376bed that part of the mass; while under the long floor of this crater--in
13377another cavity seldom exceeding ten inches in length and as many in
13378depth--reposes the mere handful of this monster's brain. The brain is at
13379least twenty feet from his apparent forehead in life; it is hidden
13380away behind its vast outworks, like the innermost citadel within the
13381amplified fortifications of Quebec. So like a choice casket is it
13382secreted in him, that I have known some whalemen who peremptorily deny
13383that the Sperm Whale has any other brain than that palpable semblance
13384of one formed by the cubic-yards of his sperm magazine. Lying in strange
13385folds, courses, and convolutions, to their apprehensions, it seems more
13386in keeping with the idea of his general might to regard that mystic part
13387of him as the seat of his intelligence.
13388
13389It is plain, then, that phrenologically the head of this Leviathan, in
13390the creature's living intact state, is an entire delusion. As for his
13391true brain, you can then see no indications of it, nor feel any. The
13392whale, like all things that are mighty, wears a false brow to the common
13393world.
13394
13395If you unload his skull of its spermy heaps and then take a rear view
13396of its rear end, which is the high end, you will be struck by its
13397resemblance to the human skull, beheld in the same situation, and from
13398the same point of view. Indeed, place this reversed skull (scaled down
13399to the human magnitude) among a plate of men's skulls, and you would
13400involuntarily confound it with them; and remarking the depressions on
13401one part of its summit, in phrenological phrase you would say--This
13402man had no self-esteem, and no veneration. And by those negations,
13403considered along with the affirmative fact of his prodigious bulk and
13404power, you can best form to yourself the truest, though not the most
13405exhilarating conception of what the most exalted potency is.
13406
13407But if from the comparative dimensions of the whale's proper brain, you
13408deem it incapable of being adequately charted, then I have another idea
13409for you. If you attentively regard almost any quadruped's spine,
13410you will be struck with the resemblance of its vertebrae to a strung
13411necklace of dwarfed skulls, all bearing rudimental resemblance to the
13412skull proper. It is a German conceit, that the vertebrae are absolutely
13413undeveloped skulls. But the curious external resemblance, I take it
13414the Germans were not the first men to perceive. A foreign friend once
13415pointed it out to me, in the skeleton of a foe he had slain, and with
13416the vertebrae of which he was inlaying, in a sort of basso-relievo, the
13417beaked prow of his canoe. Now, I consider that the phrenologists have
13418omitted an important thing in not pushing their investigations from the
13419cerebellum through the spinal canal. For I believe that much of a man's
13420character will be found betokened in his backbone. I would rather feel
13421your spine than your skull, whoever you are. A thin joist of a spine
13422never yet upheld a full and noble soul. I rejoice in my spine, as in the
13423firm audacious staff of that flag which I fling half out to the world.
13424
13425Apply this spinal branch of phrenology to the Sperm Whale. His cranial
13426cavity is continuous with the first neck-vertebra; and in that vertebra
13427the bottom of the spinal canal will measure ten inches across, being
13428eight in height, and of a triangular figure with the base downwards. As
13429it passes through the remaining vertebrae the canal tapers in size, but
13430for a considerable distance remains of large capacity. Now, of course,
13431this canal is filled with much the same strangely fibrous substance--the
13432spinal cord--as the brain; and directly communicates with the brain.
13433And what is still more, for many feet after emerging from the brain's
13434cavity, the spinal cord remains of an undecreasing girth, almost
13435equal to that of the brain. Under all these circumstances, would it be
13436unreasonable to survey and map out the whale's spine phrenologically?
13437For, viewed in this light, the wonderful comparative smallness of his
13438brain proper is more than compensated by the wonderful comparative
13439magnitude of his spinal cord.
13440
13441But leaving this hint to operate as it may with the phrenologists, I
13442would merely assume the spinal theory for a moment, in reference to the
13443Sperm Whale's hump. This august hump, if I mistake not, rises over one
13444of the larger vertebrae, and is, therefore, in some sort, the outer
13445convex mould of it. From its relative situation then, I should call this
13446high hump the organ of firmness or indomitableness in the Sperm Whale.
13447And that the great monster is indomitable, you will yet have reason to
13448know.
13449
13450
13451
13452CHAPTER 81. The Pequod Meets The Virgin.
13453
13454
13455The predestinated day arrived, and we duly met the ship Jungfrau, Derick
13456De Deer, master, of Bremen.
13457
13458At one time the greatest whaling people in the world, the Dutch and
13459Germans are now among the least; but here and there at very wide
13460intervals of latitude and longitude, you still occasionally meet with
13461their flag in the Pacific.
13462
13463For some reason, the Jungfrau seemed quite eager to pay her respects.
13464While yet some distance from the Pequod, she rounded to, and dropping a
13465boat, her captain was impelled towards us, impatiently standing in the
13466bows instead of the stern.
13467
13468"What has he in his hand there?" cried Starbuck, pointing to something
13469wavingly held by the German. "Impossible!--a lamp-feeder!"
13470
13471"Not that," said Stubb, "no, no, it's a coffee-pot, Mr. Starbuck; he's
13472coming off to make us our coffee, is the Yarman; don't you see that big
13473tin can there alongside of him?--that's his boiling water. Oh! he's all
13474right, is the Yarman."
13475
13476"Go along with you," cried Flask, "it's a lamp-feeder and an oil-can.
13477He's out of oil, and has come a-begging."
13478
13479However curious it may seem for an oil-ship to be borrowing oil on the
13480whale-ground, and however much it may invertedly contradict the old
13481proverb about carrying coals to Newcastle, yet sometimes such a thing
13482really happens; and in the present case Captain Derick De Deer did
13483indubitably conduct a lamp-feeder as Flask did declare.
13484
13485As he mounted the deck, Ahab abruptly accosted him, without at all
13486heeding what he had in his hand; but in his broken lingo, the German
13487soon evinced his complete ignorance of the White Whale; immediately
13488turning the conversation to his lamp-feeder and oil can, with some
13489remarks touching his having to turn into his hammock at night in
13490profound darkness--his last drop of Bremen oil being gone, and not a
13491single flying-fish yet captured to supply the deficiency; concluding
13492by hinting that his ship was indeed what in the Fishery is technically
13493called a CLEAN one (that is, an empty one), well deserving the name of
13494Jungfrau or the Virgin.
13495
13496His necessities supplied, Derick departed; but he had not gained his
13497ship's side, when whales were almost simultaneously raised from the
13498mast-heads of both vessels; and so eager for the chase was Derick, that
13499without pausing to put his oil-can and lamp-feeder aboard, he slewed
13500round his boat and made after the leviathan lamp-feeders.
13501
13502Now, the game having risen to leeward, he and the other three German
13503boats that soon followed him, had considerably the start of the Pequod's
13504keels. There were eight whales, an average pod. Aware of their danger,
13505they were going all abreast with great speed straight before the wind,
13506rubbing their flanks as closely as so many spans of horses in harness.
13507They left a great, wide wake, as though continually unrolling a great
13508wide parchment upon the sea.
13509
13510Full in this rapid wake, and many fathoms in the rear, swam a huge,
13511humped old bull, which by his comparatively slow progress, as well as
13512by the unusual yellowish incrustations overgrowing him, seemed afflicted
13513with the jaundice, or some other infirmity. Whether this whale belonged
13514to the pod in advance, seemed questionable; for it is not customary for
13515such venerable leviathans to be at all social. Nevertheless, he stuck
13516to their wake, though indeed their back water must have retarded him,
13517because the white-bone or swell at his broad muzzle was a dashed one,
13518like the swell formed when two hostile currents meet. His spout was
13519short, slow, and laborious; coming forth with a choking sort of gush,
13520and spending itself in torn shreds, followed by strange subterranean
13521commotions in him, which seemed to have egress at his other buried
13522extremity, causing the waters behind him to upbubble.
13523
13524"Who's got some paregoric?" said Stubb, "he has the stomach-ache, I'm
13525afraid. Lord, think of having half an acre of stomach-ache! Adverse
13526winds are holding mad Christmas in him, boys. It's the first foul wind
13527I ever knew to blow from astern; but look, did ever whale yaw so before?
13528it must be, he's lost his tiller."
13529
13530As an overladen Indiaman bearing down the Hindostan coast with a deck
13531load of frightened horses, careens, buries, rolls, and wallows on her
13532way; so did this old whale heave his aged bulk, and now and then partly
13533turning over on his cumbrous rib-ends, expose the cause of his devious
13534wake in the unnatural stump of his starboard fin. Whether he had lost
13535that fin in battle, or had been born without it, it were hard to say.
13536
13537"Only wait a bit, old chap, and I'll give ye a sling for that wounded
13538arm," cried cruel Flask, pointing to the whale-line near him.
13539
13540"Mind he don't sling thee with it," cried Starbuck. "Give way, or the
13541German will have him."
13542
13543With one intent all the combined rival boats were pointed for this
13544one fish, because not only was he the largest, and therefore the most
13545valuable whale, but he was nearest to them, and the other whales were
13546going with such great velocity, moreover, as almost to defy pursuit
13547for the time. At this juncture the Pequod's keels had shot by the three
13548German boats last lowered; but from the great start he had had, Derick's
13549boat still led the chase, though every moment neared by his foreign
13550rivals. The only thing they feared, was, that from being already so
13551nigh to his mark, he would be enabled to dart his iron before they
13552could completely overtake and pass him. As for Derick, he seemed quite
13553confident that this would be the case, and occasionally with a deriding
13554gesture shook his lamp-feeder at the other boats.
13555
13556"The ungracious and ungrateful dog!" cried Starbuck; "he mocks and dares
13557me with the very poor-box I filled for him not five minutes ago!"--then
13558in his old intense whisper--"Give way, greyhounds! Dog to it!"
13559
13560"I tell ye what it is, men"--cried Stubb to his crew--"it's against
13561my religion to get mad; but I'd like to eat that villainous
13562Yarman--Pull--won't ye? Are ye going to let that rascal beat ye? Do
13563ye love brandy? A hogshead of brandy, then, to the best man. Come,
13564why don't some of ye burst a blood-vessel? Who's that been dropping an
13565anchor overboard--we don't budge an inch--we're becalmed. Halloo, here's
13566grass growing in the boat's bottom--and by the Lord, the mast there's
13567budding. This won't do, boys. Look at that Yarman! The short and long of
13568it is, men, will ye spit fire or not?"
13569
13570"Oh! see the suds he makes!" cried Flask, dancing up and down--"What
13571a hump--Oh, DO pile on the beef--lays like a log! Oh! my lads, DO
13572spring--slap-jacks and quahogs for supper, you know, my lads--baked
13573clams and muffins--oh, DO, DO, spring,--he's a hundred barreller--don't
13574lose him now--don't oh, DON'T!--see that Yarman--Oh, won't ye pull for
13575your duff, my lads--such a sog! such a sogger! Don't ye love sperm?
13576There goes three thousand dollars, men!--a bank!--a whole bank! The bank
13577of England!--Oh, DO, DO, DO!--What's that Yarman about now?"
13578
13579At this moment Derick was in the act of pitching his lamp-feeder at the
13580advancing boats, and also his oil-can; perhaps with the double view
13581of retarding his rivals' way, and at the same time economically
13582accelerating his own by the momentary impetus of the backward toss.
13583
13584"The unmannerly Dutch dogger!" cried Stubb. "Pull now, men, like fifty
13585thousand line-of-battle-ship loads of red-haired devils. What d'ye say,
13586Tashtego; are you the man to snap your spine in two-and-twenty pieces
13587for the honour of old Gayhead? What d'ye say?"
13588
13589"I say, pull like god-dam,"--cried the Indian.
13590
13591Fiercely, but evenly incited by the taunts of the German, the Pequod's
13592three boats now began ranging almost abreast; and, so disposed,
13593momentarily neared him. In that fine, loose, chivalrous attitude of
13594the headsman when drawing near to his prey, the three mates stood up
13595proudly, occasionally backing the after oarsman with an exhilarating cry
13596of, "There she slides, now! Hurrah for the white-ash breeze! Down with
13597the Yarman! Sail over him!"
13598
13599But so decided an original start had Derick had, that spite of all
13600their gallantry, he would have proved the victor in this race, had not
13601a righteous judgment descended upon him in a crab which caught the blade
13602of his midship oarsman. While this clumsy lubber was striving to free
13603his white-ash, and while, in consequence, Derick's boat was nigh to
13604capsizing, and he thundering away at his men in a mighty rage;--that was
13605a good time for Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask. With a shout, they took a
13606mortal start forwards, and slantingly ranged up on the German's quarter.
13607An instant more, and all four boats were diagonically in the whale's
13608immediate wake, while stretching from them, on both sides, was the
13609foaming swell that he made.
13610
13611It was a terrific, most pitiable, and maddening sight. The whale was
13612now going head out, and sending his spout before him in a continual
13613tormented jet; while his one poor fin beat his side in an agony of
13614fright. Now to this hand, now to that, he yawed in his faltering flight,
13615and still at every billow that he broke, he spasmodically sank in the
13616sea, or sideways rolled towards the sky his one beating fin. So have I
13617seen a bird with clipped wing making affrighted broken circles in the
13618air, vainly striving to escape the piratical hawks. But the bird has a
13619voice, and with plaintive cries will make known her fear; but the fear
13620of this vast dumb brute of the sea, was chained up and enchanted in him;
13621he had no voice, save that choking respiration through his spiracle,
13622and this made the sight of him unspeakably pitiable; while still, in his
13623amazing bulk, portcullis jaw, and omnipotent tail, there was enough to
13624appal the stoutest man who so pitied.
13625
13626Seeing now that but a very few moments more would give the Pequod's
13627boats the advantage, and rather than be thus foiled of his game, Derick
13628chose to hazard what to him must have seemed a most unusually long dart,
13629ere the last chance would for ever escape.
13630
13631But no sooner did his harpooneer stand up for the stroke, than all three
13632tigers--Queequeg, Tashtego, Daggoo--instinctively sprang to their feet,
13633and standing in a diagonal row, simultaneously pointed their barbs; and
13634darted over the head of the German harpooneer, their three Nantucket
13635irons entered the whale. Blinding vapours of foam and white-fire! The
13636three boats, in the first fury of the whale's headlong rush, bumped
13637the German's aside with such force, that both Derick and his baffled
13638harpooneer were spilled out, and sailed over by the three flying keels.
13639
13640"Don't be afraid, my butter-boxes," cried Stubb, casting a passing
13641glance upon them as he shot by; "ye'll be picked up presently--all
13642right--I saw some sharks astern--St. Bernard's dogs, you know--relieve
13643distressed travellers. Hurrah! this is the way to sail now. Every keel a
13644sunbeam! Hurrah!--Here we go like three tin kettles at the tail of a mad
13645cougar! This puts me in mind of fastening to an elephant in a tilbury on
13646a plain--makes the wheel-spokes fly, boys, when you fasten to him that
13647way; and there's danger of being pitched out too, when you strike a
13648hill. Hurrah! this is the way a fellow feels when he's going to Davy
13649Jones--all a rush down an endless inclined plane! Hurrah! this whale
13650carries the everlasting mail!"
13651
13652But the monster's run was a brief one. Giving a sudden gasp, he
13653tumultuously sounded. With a grating rush, the three lines flew round
13654the loggerheads with such a force as to gouge deep grooves in them;
13655while so fearful were the harpooneers that this rapid sounding would
13656soon exhaust the lines, that using all their dexterous might, they
13657caught repeated smoking turns with the rope to hold on; till at
13658last--owing to the perpendicular strain from the lead-lined chocks of
13659the boats, whence the three ropes went straight down into the blue--the
13660gunwales of the bows were almost even with the water, while the three
13661sterns tilted high in the air. And the whale soon ceasing to sound,
13662for some time they remained in that attitude, fearful of expending more
13663line, though the position was a little ticklish. But though boats have
13664been taken down and lost in this way, yet it is this "holding on," as it
13665is called; this hooking up by the sharp barbs of his live flesh from
13666the back; this it is that often torments the Leviathan into soon rising
13667again to meet the sharp lance of his foes. Yet not to speak of the peril
13668of the thing, it is to be doubted whether this course is always the
13669best; for it is but reasonable to presume, that the longer the stricken
13670whale stays under water, the more he is exhausted. Because, owing to the
13671enormous surface of him--in a full grown sperm whale something less than
136722000 square feet--the pressure of the water is immense. We all know
13673what an astonishing atmospheric weight we ourselves stand up under; even
13674here, above-ground, in the air; how vast, then, the burden of a whale,
13675bearing on his back a column of two hundred fathoms of ocean! It must at
13676least equal the weight of fifty atmospheres. One whaleman has estimated
13677it at the weight of twenty line-of-battle ships, with all their guns,
13678and stores, and men on board.
13679
13680As the three boats lay there on that gently rolling sea, gazing down
13681into its eternal blue noon; and as not a single groan or cry of any
13682sort, nay, not so much as a ripple or a bubble came up from its depths;
13683what landsman would have thought, that beneath all that silence and
13684placidity, the utmost monster of the seas was writhing and wrenching in
13685agony! Not eight inches of perpendicular rope were visible at the bows.
13686Seems it credible that by three such thin threads the great Leviathan
13687was suspended like the big weight to an eight day clock. Suspended? and
13688to what? To three bits of board. Is this the creature of whom it was
13689once so triumphantly said--"Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons?
13690or his head with fish-spears? The sword of him that layeth at him cannot
13691hold, the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon: he esteemeth iron as
13692straw; the arrow cannot make him flee; darts are counted as stubble;
13693he laugheth at the shaking of a spear!" This the creature? this he? Oh!
13694that unfulfilments should follow the prophets. For with the strength
13695of a thousand thighs in his tail, Leviathan had run his head under the
13696mountains of the sea, to hide him from the Pequod's fish-spears!
13697
13698In that sloping afternoon sunlight, the shadows that the three boats
13699sent down beneath the surface, must have been long enough and broad
13700enough to shade half Xerxes' army. Who can tell how appalling to the
13701wounded whale must have been such huge phantoms flitting over his head!
13702
13703"Stand by, men; he stirs," cried Starbuck, as the three lines suddenly
13704vibrated in the water, distinctly conducting upwards to them, as by
13705magnetic wires, the life and death throbs of the whale, so that every
13706oarsman felt them in his seat. The next moment, relieved in great part
13707from the downward strain at the bows, the boats gave a sudden bounce
13708upwards, as a small icefield will, when a dense herd of white bears are
13709scared from it into the sea.
13710
13711"Haul in! Haul in!" cried Starbuck again; "he's rising."
13712
13713The lines, of which, hardly an instant before, not one hand's breadth
13714could have been gained, were now in long quick coils flung back all
13715dripping into the boats, and soon the whale broke water within two
13716ship's lengths of the hunters.
13717
13718His motions plainly denoted his extreme exhaustion. In most land animals
13719there are certain valves or flood-gates in many of their veins, whereby
13720when wounded, the blood is in some degree at least instantly shut off in
13721certain directions. Not so with the whale; one of whose peculiarities
13722it is to have an entire non-valvular structure of the blood-vessels, so
13723that when pierced even by so small a point as a harpoon, a deadly
13724drain is at once begun upon his whole arterial system; and when this is
13725heightened by the extraordinary pressure of water at a great distance
13726below the surface, his life may be said to pour from him in incessant
13727streams. Yet so vast is the quantity of blood in him, and so distant
13728and numerous its interior fountains, that he will keep thus bleeding and
13729bleeding for a considerable period; even as in a drought a river will
13730flow, whose source is in the well-springs of far-off and undiscernible
13731hills. Even now, when the boats pulled upon this whale, and perilously
13732drew over his swaying flukes, and the lances were darted into him,
13733they were followed by steady jets from the new made wound, which kept
13734continually playing, while the natural spout-hole in his head was only
13735at intervals, however rapid, sending its affrighted moisture into the
13736air. From this last vent no blood yet came, because no vital part of him
13737had thus far been struck. His life, as they significantly call it, was
13738untouched.
13739
13740As the boats now more closely surrounded him, the whole upper part of
13741his form, with much of it that is ordinarily submerged, was plainly
13742revealed. His eyes, or rather the places where his eyes had been, were
13743beheld. As strange misgrown masses gather in the knot-holes of the
13744noblest oaks when prostrate, so from the points which the whale's eyes
13745had once occupied, now protruded blind bulbs, horribly pitiable to see.
13746But pity there was none. For all his old age, and his one arm, and his
13747blind eyes, he must die the death and be murdered, in order to light the
13748gay bridals and other merry-makings of men, and also to illuminate the
13749solemn churches that preach unconditional inoffensiveness by all to all.
13750Still rolling in his blood, at last he partially disclosed a strangely
13751discoloured bunch or protuberance, the size of a bushel, low down on the
13752flank.
13753
13754"A nice spot," cried Flask; "just let me prick him there once."
13755
13756"Avast!" cried Starbuck, "there's no need of that!"
13757
13758But humane Starbuck was too late. At the instant of the dart an
13759ulcerous jet shot from this cruel wound, and goaded by it into more than
13760sufferable anguish, the whale now spouting thick blood, with swift fury
13761blindly darted at the craft, bespattering them and their glorying crews
13762all over with showers of gore, capsizing Flask's boat and marring the
13763bows. It was his death stroke. For, by this time, so spent was he by
13764loss of blood, that he helplessly rolled away from the wreck he had
13765made; lay panting on his side, impotently flapped with his stumped fin,
13766then over and over slowly revolved like a waning world; turned up
13767the white secrets of his belly; lay like a log, and died. It was most
13768piteous, that last expiring spout. As when by unseen hands the water
13769is gradually drawn off from some mighty fountain, and with half-stifled
13770melancholy gurglings the spray-column lowers and lowers to the
13771ground--so the last long dying spout of the whale.
13772
13773Soon, while the crews were awaiting the arrival of the ship, the body
13774showed symptoms of sinking with all its treasures unrifled. Immediately,
13775by Starbuck's orders, lines were secured to it at different points, so
13776that ere long every boat was a buoy; the sunken whale being suspended a
13777few inches beneath them by the cords. By very heedful management, when
13778the ship drew nigh, the whale was transferred to her side, and was
13779strongly secured there by the stiffest fluke-chains, for it was plain
13780that unless artificially upheld, the body would at once sink to the
13781bottom.
13782
13783It so chanced that almost upon first cutting into him with the spade,
13784the entire length of a corroded harpoon was found imbedded in his flesh,
13785on the lower part of the bunch before described. But as the stumps of
13786harpoons are frequently found in the dead bodies of captured whales,
13787with the flesh perfectly healed around them, and no prominence of any
13788kind to denote their place; therefore, there must needs have been
13789some other unknown reason in the present case fully to account for
13790the ulceration alluded to. But still more curious was the fact of a
13791lance-head of stone being found in him, not far from the buried iron,
13792the flesh perfectly firm about it. Who had darted that stone lance? And
13793when? It might have been darted by some Nor' West Indian long before
13794America was discovered.
13795
13796What other marvels might have been rummaged out of this monstrous
13797cabinet there is no telling. But a sudden stop was put to further
13798discoveries, by the ship's being unprecedentedly dragged over sideways
13799to the sea, owing to the body's immensely increasing tendency to sink.
13800However, Starbuck, who had the ordering of affairs, hung on to it to the
13801last; hung on to it so resolutely, indeed, that when at length the ship
13802would have been capsized, if still persisting in locking arms with the
13803body; then, when the command was given to break clear from it, such was
13804the immovable strain upon the timber-heads to which the fluke-chains and
13805cables were fastened, that it was impossible to cast them off. Meantime
13806everything in the Pequod was aslant. To cross to the other side of the
13807deck was like walking up the steep gabled roof of a house. The ship
13808groaned and gasped. Many of the ivory inlayings of her bulwarks and
13809cabins were started from their places, by the unnatural dislocation.
13810In vain handspikes and crows were brought to bear upon the immovable
13811fluke-chains, to pry them adrift from the timberheads; and so low
13812had the whale now settled that the submerged ends could not be at all
13813approached, while every moment whole tons of ponderosity seemed added to
13814the sinking bulk, and the ship seemed on the point of going over.
13815
13816"Hold on, hold on, won't ye?" cried Stubb to the body, "don't be in such
13817a devil of a hurry to sink! By thunder, men, we must do something or go
13818for it. No use prying there; avast, I say with your handspikes, and run
13819one of ye for a prayer book and a pen-knife, and cut the big chains."
13820
13821"Knife? Aye, aye," cried Queequeg, and seizing the carpenter's heavy
13822hatchet, he leaned out of a porthole, and steel to iron, began slashing
13823at the largest fluke-chains. But a few strokes, full of sparks, were
13824given, when the exceeding strain effected the rest. With a terrific
13825snap, every fastening went adrift; the ship righted, the carcase sank.
13826
13827Now, this occasional inevitable sinking of the recently killed Sperm
13828Whale is a very curious thing; nor has any fisherman yet adequately
13829accounted for it. Usually the dead Sperm Whale floats with great
13830buoyancy, with its side or belly considerably elevated above the
13831surface. If the only whales that thus sank were old, meagre, and
13832broken-hearted creatures, their pads of lard diminished and all their
13833bones heavy and rheumatic; then you might with some reason assert that
13834this sinking is caused by an uncommon specific gravity in the fish so
13835sinking, consequent upon this absence of buoyant matter in him. But it
13836is not so. For young whales, in the highest health, and swelling with
13837noble aspirations, prematurely cut off in the warm flush and May of
13838life, with all their panting lard about them; even these brawny, buoyant
13839heroes do sometimes sink.
13840
13841Be it said, however, that the Sperm Whale is far less liable to this
13842accident than any other species. Where one of that sort go down, twenty
13843Right Whales do. This difference in the species is no doubt imputable in
13844no small degree to the greater quantity of bone in the Right Whale;
13845his Venetian blinds alone sometimes weighing more than a ton; from this
13846incumbrance the Sperm Whale is wholly free. But there are instances
13847where, after the lapse of many hours or several days, the sunken whale
13848again rises, more buoyant than in life. But the reason of this
13849is obvious. Gases are generated in him; he swells to a prodigious
13850magnitude; becomes a sort of animal balloon. A line-of-battle ship could
13851hardly keep him under then. In the Shore Whaling, on soundings, among
13852the Bays of New Zealand, when a Right Whale gives token of sinking, they
13853fasten buoys to him, with plenty of rope; so that when the body has gone
13854down, they know where to look for it when it shall have ascended again.
13855
13856It was not long after the sinking of the body that a cry was heard from
13857the Pequod's mast-heads, announcing that the Jungfrau was again lowering
13858her boats; though the only spout in sight was that of a Fin-Back,
13859belonging to the species of uncapturable whales, because of its
13860incredible power of swimming. Nevertheless, the Fin-Back's spout is so
13861similar to the Sperm Whale's, that by unskilful fishermen it is often
13862mistaken for it. And consequently Derick and all his host were now in
13863valiant chase of this unnearable brute. The Virgin crowding all sail,
13864made after her four young keels, and thus they all disappeared far to
13865leeward, still in bold, hopeful chase.
13866
13867Oh! many are the Fin-Backs, and many are the Dericks, my friend.
13868
13869
13870
13871CHAPTER 82. The Honour and Glory of Whaling.
13872
13873
13874There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true
13875method.
13876
13877The more I dive into this matter of whaling, and push my researches up
13878to the very spring-head of it so much the more am I impressed with its
13879great honourableness and antiquity; and especially when I find so many
13880great demi-gods and heroes, prophets of all sorts, who one way or other
13881have shed distinction upon it, I am transported with the reflection
13882that I myself belong, though but subordinately, to so emblazoned a
13883fraternity.
13884
13885The gallant Perseus, a son of Jupiter, was the first whaleman; and
13886to the eternal honour of our calling be it said, that the first whale
13887attacked by our brotherhood was not killed with any sordid intent. Those
13888were the knightly days of our profession, when we only bore arms to
13889succor the distressed, and not to fill men's lamp-feeders. Every one
13890knows the fine story of Perseus and Andromeda; how the lovely Andromeda,
13891the daughter of a king, was tied to a rock on the sea-coast, and as
13892Leviathan was in the very act of carrying her off, Perseus, the prince
13893of whalemen, intrepidly advancing, harpooned the monster, and delivered
13894and married the maid. It was an admirable artistic exploit, rarely
13895achieved by the best harpooneers of the present day; inasmuch as this
13896Leviathan was slain at the very first dart. And let no man doubt this
13897Arkite story; for in the ancient Joppa, now Jaffa, on the Syrian coast,
13898in one of the Pagan temples, there stood for many ages the vast skeleton
13899of a whale, which the city's legends and all the inhabitants asserted to
13900be the identical bones of the monster that Perseus slew. When the Romans
13901took Joppa, the same skeleton was carried to Italy in triumph. What
13902seems most singular and suggestively important in this story, is this:
13903it was from Joppa that Jonah set sail.
13904
13905Akin to the adventure of Perseus and Andromeda--indeed, by some supposed
13906to be indirectly derived from it--is that famous story of St. George and
13907the Dragon; which dragon I maintain to have been a whale; for in many
13908old chronicles whales and dragons are strangely jumbled together, and
13909often stand for each other. "Thou art as a lion of the waters, and as a
13910dragon of the sea," saith Ezekiel; hereby, plainly meaning a whale;
13911in truth, some versions of the Bible use that word itself. Besides, it
13912would much subtract from the glory of the exploit had St. George but
13913encountered a crawling reptile of the land, instead of doing battle
13914with the great monster of the deep. Any man may kill a snake, but only a
13915Perseus, a St. George, a Coffin, have the heart in them to march boldly
13916up to a whale.
13917
13918Let not the modern paintings of this scene mislead us; for though
13919the creature encountered by that valiant whaleman of old is vaguely
13920represented of a griffin-like shape, and though the battle is depicted
13921on land and the saint on horseback, yet considering the great ignorance
13922of those times, when the true form of the whale was unknown to artists;
13923and considering that as in Perseus' case, St. George's whale might have
13924crawled up out of the sea on the beach; and considering that the animal
13925ridden by St. George might have been only a large seal, or sea-horse;
13926bearing all this in mind, it will not appear altogether incompatible
13927with the sacred legend and the ancientest draughts of the scene, to
13928hold this so-called dragon no other than the great Leviathan himself. In
13929fact, placed before the strict and piercing truth, this whole story will
13930fare like that fish, flesh, and fowl idol of the Philistines, Dagon by
13931name; who being planted before the ark of Israel, his horse's head and
13932both the palms of his hands fell off from him, and only the stump or
13933fishy part of him remained. Thus, then, one of our own noble stamp, even
13934a whaleman, is the tutelary guardian of England; and by good rights, we
13935harpooneers of Nantucket should be enrolled in the most noble order
13936of St. George. And therefore, let not the knights of that honourable
13937company (none of whom, I venture to say, have ever had to do with a
13938whale like their great patron), let them never eye a Nantucketer with
13939disdain, since even in our woollen frocks and tarred trowsers we are
13940much better entitled to St. George's decoration than they.
13941
13942Whether to admit Hercules among us or not, concerning this I long
13943remained dubious: for though according to the Greek mythologies, that
13944antique Crockett and Kit Carson--that brawny doer of rejoicing good
13945deeds, was swallowed down and thrown up by a whale; still, whether
13946that strictly makes a whaleman of him, that might be mooted. It nowhere
13947appears that he ever actually harpooned his fish, unless, indeed,
13948from the inside. Nevertheless, he may be deemed a sort of involuntary
13949whaleman; at any rate the whale caught him, if he did not the whale. I
13950claim him for one of our clan.
13951
13952But, by the best contradictory authorities, this Grecian story of
13953Hercules and the whale is considered to be derived from the still more
13954ancient Hebrew story of Jonah and the whale; and vice versa; certainly
13955they are very similar. If I claim the demigod then, why not the prophet?
13956
13957Nor do heroes, saints, demigods, and prophets alone comprise the whole
13958roll of our order. Our grand master is still to be named; for like royal
13959kings of old times, we find the head waters of our fraternity in nothing
13960short of the great gods themselves. That wondrous oriental story is now
13961to be rehearsed from the Shaster, which gives us the dread Vishnoo, one
13962of the three persons in the godhead of the Hindoos; gives us this divine
13963Vishnoo himself for our Lord;--Vishnoo, who, by the first of his ten
13964earthly incarnations, has for ever set apart and sanctified the whale.
13965When Brahma, or the God of Gods, saith the Shaster, resolved to recreate
13966the world after one of its periodical dissolutions, he gave birth to
13967Vishnoo, to preside over the work; but the Vedas, or mystical books,
13968whose perusal would seem to have been indispensable to Vishnoo before
13969beginning the creation, and which therefore must have contained
13970something in the shape of practical hints to young architects, these
13971Vedas were lying at the bottom of the waters; so Vishnoo became
13972incarnate in a whale, and sounding down in him to the uttermost depths,
13973rescued the sacred volumes. Was not this Vishnoo a whaleman, then? even
13974as a man who rides a horse is called a horseman?
13975
13976Perseus, St. George, Hercules, Jonah, and Vishnoo! there's a member-roll
13977for you! What club but the whaleman's can head off like that?
13978
13979
13980
13981CHAPTER 83. Jonah Historically Regarded.
13982
13983
13984Reference was made to the historical story of Jonah and the whale in the
13985preceding chapter. Now some Nantucketers rather distrust this historical
13986story of Jonah and the whale. But then there were some sceptical Greeks
13987and Romans, who, standing out from the orthodox pagans of their times,
13988equally doubted the story of Hercules and the whale, and Arion and the
13989dolphin; and yet their doubting those traditions did not make those
13990traditions one whit the less facts, for all that.
13991
13992One old Sag-Harbor whaleman's chief reason for questioning the Hebrew
13993story was this:--He had one of those quaint old-fashioned Bibles,
13994embellished with curious, unscientific plates; one of which represented
13995Jonah's whale with two spouts in his head--a peculiarity only true
13996with respect to a species of the Leviathan (the Right Whale, and the
13997varieties of that order), concerning which the fishermen have this
13998saying, "A penny roll would choke him"; his swallow is so very small.
13999But, to this, Bishop Jebb's anticipative answer is ready. It is not
14000necessary, hints the Bishop, that we consider Jonah as tombed in the
14001whale's belly, but as temporarily lodged in some part of his mouth. And
14002this seems reasonable enough in the good Bishop. For truly, the
14003Right Whale's mouth would accommodate a couple of whist-tables, and
14004comfortably seat all the players. Possibly, too, Jonah might have
14005ensconced himself in a hollow tooth; but, on second thoughts, the Right
14006Whale is toothless.
14007
14008Another reason which Sag-Harbor (he went by that name) urged for his
14009want of faith in this matter of the prophet, was something obscurely in
14010reference to his incarcerated body and the whale's gastric juices. But
14011this objection likewise falls to the ground, because a German exegetist
14012supposes that Jonah must have taken refuge in the floating body of a
14013DEAD whale--even as the French soldiers in the Russian campaign turned
14014their dead horses into tents, and crawled into them. Besides, it has
14015been divined by other continental commentators, that when Jonah was
14016thrown overboard from the Joppa ship, he straightway effected his escape
14017to another vessel near by, some vessel with a whale for a figure-head;
14018and, I would add, possibly called "The Whale," as some craft are
14019nowadays christened the "Shark," the "Gull," the "Eagle." Nor have there
14020been wanting learned exegetists who have opined that the whale mentioned
14021in the book of Jonah merely meant a life-preserver--an inflated bag
14022of wind--which the endangered prophet swam to, and so was saved from a
14023watery doom. Poor Sag-Harbor, therefore, seems worsted all round. But
14024he had still another reason for his want of faith. It was this, if I
14025remember right: Jonah was swallowed by the whale in the Mediterranean
14026Sea, and after three days he was vomited up somewhere within three days'
14027journey of Nineveh, a city on the Tigris, very much more than three
14028days' journey across from the nearest point of the Mediterranean coast.
14029How is that?
14030
14031But was there no other way for the whale to land the prophet within that
14032short distance of Nineveh? Yes. He might have carried him round by the
14033way of the Cape of Good Hope. But not to speak of the passage through
14034the whole length of the Mediterranean, and another passage up the
14035Persian Gulf and Red Sea, such a supposition would involve the complete
14036circumnavigation of all Africa in three days, not to speak of the Tigris
14037waters, near the site of Nineveh, being too shallow for any whale to
14038swim in. Besides, this idea of Jonah's weathering the Cape of Good Hope
14039at so early a day would wrest the honour of the discovery of that great
14040headland from Bartholomew Diaz, its reputed discoverer, and so make
14041modern history a liar.
14042
14043But all these foolish arguments of old Sag-Harbor only evinced his
14044foolish pride of reason--a thing still more reprehensible in him, seeing
14045that he had but little learning except what he had picked up from the
14046sun and the sea. I say it only shows his foolish, impious pride, and
14047abominable, devilish rebellion against the reverend clergy. For by a
14048Portuguese Catholic priest, this very idea of Jonah's going to Nineveh
14049via the Cape of Good Hope was advanced as a signal magnification of
14050the general miracle. And so it was. Besides, to this day, the highly
14051enlightened Turks devoutly believe in the historical story of Jonah. And
14052some three centuries ago, an English traveller in old Harris's Voyages,
14053speaks of a Turkish Mosque built in honour of Jonah, in which Mosque was
14054a miraculous lamp that burnt without any oil.
14055
14056
14057
14058CHAPTER 84. Pitchpoling.
14059
14060
14061To make them run easily and swiftly, the axles of carriages are
14062anointed; and for much the same purpose, some whalers perform an
14063analogous operation upon their boat; they grease the bottom. Nor is it
14064to be doubted that as such a procedure can do no harm, it may possibly
14065be of no contemptible advantage; considering that oil and water are
14066hostile; that oil is a sliding thing, and that the object in view is to
14067make the boat slide bravely. Queequeg believed strongly in anointing
14068his boat, and one morning not long after the German ship Jungfrau
14069disappeared, took more than customary pains in that occupation; crawling
14070under its bottom, where it hung over the side, and rubbing in the
14071unctuousness as though diligently seeking to insure a crop of hair from
14072the craft's bald keel. He seemed to be working in obedience to some
14073particular presentiment. Nor did it remain unwarranted by the event.
14074
14075Towards noon whales were raised; but so soon as the ship sailed down to
14076them, they turned and fled with swift precipitancy; a disordered flight,
14077as of Cleopatra's barges from Actium.
14078
14079Nevertheless, the boats pursued, and Stubb's was foremost. By great
14080exertion, Tashtego at last succeeded in planting one iron; but the
14081stricken whale, without at all sounding, still continued his horizontal
14082flight, with added fleetness. Such unintermitted strainings upon the
14083planted iron must sooner or later inevitably extract it. It became
14084imperative to lance the flying whale, or be content to lose him. But
14085to haul the boat up to his flank was impossible, he swam so fast and
14086furious. What then remained?
14087
14088Of all the wondrous devices and dexterities, the sleights of hand and
14089countless subtleties, to which the veteran whaleman is so often forced,
14090none exceed that fine manoeuvre with the lance called pitchpoling. Small
14091sword, or broad sword, in all its exercises boasts nothing like it. It
14092is only indispensable with an inveterate running whale; its grand
14093fact and feature is the wonderful distance to which the long lance is
14094accurately darted from a violently rocking, jerking boat, under extreme
14095headway. Steel and wood included, the entire spear is some ten or twelve
14096feet in length; the staff is much slighter than that of the harpoon,
14097and also of a lighter material--pine. It is furnished with a small rope
14098called a warp, of considerable length, by which it can be hauled back to
14099the hand after darting.
14100
14101But before going further, it is important to mention here, that though
14102the harpoon may be pitchpoled in the same way with the lance, yet it
14103is seldom done; and when done, is still less frequently successful,
14104on account of the greater weight and inferior length of the harpoon as
14105compared with the lance, which in effect become serious drawbacks. As a
14106general thing, therefore, you must first get fast to a whale, before any
14107pitchpoling comes into play.
14108
14109Look now at Stubb; a man who from his humorous, deliberate coolness and
14110equanimity in the direst emergencies, was specially qualified to excel
14111in pitchpoling. Look at him; he stands upright in the tossed bow of the
14112flying boat; wrapt in fleecy foam, the towing whale is forty feet ahead.
14113Handling the long lance lightly, glancing twice or thrice along its
14114length to see if it be exactly straight, Stubb whistlingly gathers up
14115the coil of the warp in one hand, so as to secure its free end in his
14116grasp, leaving the rest unobstructed. Then holding the lance full before
14117his waistband's middle, he levels it at the whale; when, covering
14118him with it, he steadily depresses the butt-end in his hand, thereby
14119elevating the point till the weapon stands fairly balanced upon his
14120palm, fifteen feet in the air. He minds you somewhat of a juggler,
14121balancing a long staff on his chin. Next moment with a rapid, nameless
14122impulse, in a superb lofty arch the bright steel spans the foaming
14123distance, and quivers in the life spot of the whale. Instead of
14124sparkling water, he now spouts red blood.
14125
14126"That drove the spigot out of him!" cried Stubb. "'Tis July's immortal
14127Fourth; all fountains must run wine today! Would now, it were old
14128Orleans whiskey, or old Ohio, or unspeakable old Monongahela! Then,
14129Tashtego, lad, I'd have ye hold a canakin to the jet, and we'd drink
14130round it! Yea, verily, hearts alive, we'd brew choice punch in the
14131spread of his spout-hole there, and from that live punch-bowl quaff the
14132living stuff."
14133
14134Again and again to such gamesome talk, the dexterous dart is repeated,
14135the spear returning to its master like a greyhound held in skilful
14136leash. The agonized whale goes into his flurry; the tow-line is
14137slackened, and the pitchpoler dropping astern, folds his hands, and
14138mutely watches the monster die.
14139
14140
14141
14142CHAPTER 85. The Fountain.
14143
14144
14145That for six thousand years--and no one knows how many millions of ages
14146before--the great whales should have been spouting all over the sea,
14147and sprinkling and mistifying the gardens of the deep, as with so
14148many sprinkling or mistifying pots; and that for some centuries back,
14149thousands of hunters should have been close by the fountain of the
14150whale, watching these sprinklings and spoutings--that all this should
14151be, and yet, that down to this blessed minute (fifteen and a quarter
14152minutes past one o'clock P.M. of this sixteenth day of December, A.D.
141531851), it should still remain a problem, whether these spoutings
14154are, after all, really water, or nothing but vapour--this is surely a
14155noteworthy thing.
14156
14157Let us, then, look at this matter, along with some interesting items
14158contingent. Every one knows that by the peculiar cunning of their
14159gills, the finny tribes in general breathe the air which at all times is
14160combined with the element in which they swim; hence, a herring or a cod
14161might live a century, and never once raise its head above the surface.
14162But owing to his marked internal structure which gives him regular
14163lungs, like a human being's, the whale can only live by inhaling the
14164disengaged air in the open atmosphere. Wherefore the necessity for
14165his periodical visits to the upper world. But he cannot in any degree
14166breathe through his mouth, for, in his ordinary attitude, the Sperm
14167Whale's mouth is buried at least eight feet beneath the surface; and
14168what is still more, his windpipe has no connexion with his mouth. No, he
14169breathes through his spiracle alone; and this is on the top of his head.
14170
14171If I say, that in any creature breathing is only a function
14172indispensable to vitality, inasmuch as it withdraws from the air a
14173certain element, which being subsequently brought into contact with the
14174blood imparts to the blood its vivifying principle, I do not think I
14175shall err; though I may possibly use some superfluous scientific words.
14176Assume it, and it follows that if all the blood in a man could be
14177aerated with one breath, he might then seal up his nostrils and not
14178fetch another for a considerable time. That is to say, he would then
14179live without breathing. Anomalous as it may seem, this is precisely the
14180case with the whale, who systematically lives, by intervals, his full
14181hour and more (when at the bottom) without drawing a single breath, or
14182so much as in any way inhaling a particle of air; for, remember, he has
14183no gills. How is this? Between his ribs and on each side of his spine
14184he is supplied with a remarkable involved Cretan labyrinth of
14185vermicelli-like vessels, which vessels, when he quits the surface, are
14186completely distended with oxygenated blood. So that for an hour or more,
14187a thousand fathoms in the sea, he carries a surplus stock of vitality in
14188him, just as the camel crossing the waterless desert carries a surplus
14189supply of drink for future use in its four supplementary stomachs.
14190The anatomical fact of this labyrinth is indisputable; and that the
14191supposition founded upon it is reasonable and true, seems the more
14192cogent to me, when I consider the otherwise inexplicable obstinacy of
14193that leviathan in HAVING HIS SPOUTINGS OUT, as the fishermen phrase
14194it. This is what I mean. If unmolested, upon rising to the surface, the
14195Sperm Whale will continue there for a period of time exactly uniform
14196with all his other unmolested risings. Say he stays eleven minutes, and
14197jets seventy times, that is, respires seventy breaths; then whenever he
14198rises again, he will be sure to have his seventy breaths over again, to
14199a minute. Now, if after he fetches a few breaths you alarm him, so that
14200he sounds, he will be always dodging up again to make good his regular
14201allowance of air. And not till those seventy breaths are told, will he
14202finally go down to stay out his full term below. Remark, however, that
14203in different individuals these rates are different; but in any one
14204they are alike. Now, why should the whale thus insist upon having his
14205spoutings out, unless it be to replenish his reservoir of air, ere
14206descending for good? How obvious is it, too, that this necessity for the
14207whale's rising exposes him to all the fatal hazards of the chase. For
14208not by hook or by net could this vast leviathan be caught, when sailing
14209a thousand fathoms beneath the sunlight. Not so much thy skill, then, O
14210hunter, as the great necessities that strike the victory to thee!
14211
14212In man, breathing is incessantly going on--one breath only serving
14213for two or three pulsations; so that whatever other business he has to
14214attend to, waking or sleeping, breathe he must, or die he will. But the
14215Sperm Whale only breathes about one seventh or Sunday of his time.
14216
14217It has been said that the whale only breathes through his spout-hole; if
14218it could truthfully be added that his spouts are mixed with water, then
14219I opine we should be furnished with the reason why his sense of smell
14220seems obliterated in him; for the only thing about him that at all
14221answers to his nose is that identical spout-hole; and being so clogged
14222with two elements, it could not be expected to have the power of
14223smelling. But owing to the mystery of the spout--whether it be water or
14224whether it be vapour--no absolute certainty can as yet be arrived at on
14225this head. Sure it is, nevertheless, that the Sperm Whale has no proper
14226olfactories. But what does he want of them? No roses, no violets, no
14227Cologne-water in the sea.
14228
14229Furthermore, as his windpipe solely opens into the tube of his spouting
14230canal, and as that long canal--like the grand Erie Canal--is furnished
14231with a sort of locks (that open and shut) for the downward retention of
14232air or the upward exclusion of water, therefore the whale has no voice;
14233unless you insult him by saying, that when he so strangely rumbles,
14234he talks through his nose. But then again, what has the whale to say?
14235Seldom have I known any profound being that had anything to say to
14236this world, unless forced to stammer out something by way of getting a
14237living. Oh! happy that the world is such an excellent listener!
14238
14239Now, the spouting canal of the Sperm Whale, chiefly intended as it
14240is for the conveyance of air, and for several feet laid along,
14241horizontally, just beneath the upper surface of his head, and a little
14242to one side; this curious canal is very much like a gas-pipe laid down
14243in a city on one side of a street. But the question returns whether this
14244gas-pipe is also a water-pipe; in other words, whether the spout of the
14245Sperm Whale is the mere vapour of the exhaled breath, or whether that
14246exhaled breath is mixed with water taken in at the mouth, and
14247discharged through the spiracle. It is certain that the mouth indirectly
14248communicates with the spouting canal; but it cannot be proved that this
14249is for the purpose of discharging water through the spiracle. Because
14250the greatest necessity for so doing would seem to be, when in feeding he
14251accidentally takes in water. But the Sperm Whale's food is far beneath
14252the surface, and there he cannot spout even if he would. Besides, if
14253you regard him very closely, and time him with your watch, you will find
14254that when unmolested, there is an undeviating rhyme between the periods
14255of his jets and the ordinary periods of respiration.
14256
14257But why pester one with all this reasoning on the subject? Speak out!
14258You have seen him spout; then declare what the spout is; can you not
14259tell water from air? My dear sir, in this world it is not so easy to
14260settle these plain things. I have ever found your plain things the
14261knottiest of all. And as for this whale spout, you might almost stand in
14262it, and yet be undecided as to what it is precisely.
14263
14264The central body of it is hidden in the snowy sparkling mist enveloping
14265it; and how can you certainly tell whether any water falls from it,
14266when, always, when you are close enough to a whale to get a close view
14267of his spout, he is in a prodigious commotion, the water cascading
14268all around him. And if at such times you should think that you really
14269perceived drops of moisture in the spout, how do you know that they are
14270not merely condensed from its vapour; or how do you know that they
14271are not those identical drops superficially lodged in the spout-hole
14272fissure, which is countersunk into the summit of the whale's head? For
14273even when tranquilly swimming through the mid-day sea in a calm, with
14274his elevated hump sun-dried as a dromedary's in the desert; even then,
14275the whale always carries a small basin of water on his head, as under
14276a blazing sun you will sometimes see a cavity in a rock filled up with
14277rain.
14278
14279Nor is it at all prudent for the hunter to be over curious touching the
14280precise nature of the whale spout. It will not do for him to be peering
14281into it, and putting his face in it. You cannot go with your pitcher to
14282this fountain and fill it, and bring it away. For even when coming into
14283slight contact with the outer, vapoury shreds of the jet, which will
14284often happen, your skin will feverishly smart, from the acridness of
14285the thing so touching it. And I know one, who coming into still closer
14286contact with the spout, whether with some scientific object in view,
14287or otherwise, I cannot say, the skin peeled off from his cheek and arm.
14288Wherefore, among whalemen, the spout is deemed poisonous; they try to
14289evade it. Another thing; I have heard it said, and I do not much doubt
14290it, that if the jet is fairly spouted into your eyes, it will blind you.
14291The wisest thing the investigator can do then, it seems to me, is to let
14292this deadly spout alone.
14293
14294Still, we can hypothesize, even if we cannot prove and establish. My
14295hypothesis is this: that the spout is nothing but mist. And besides
14296other reasons, to this conclusion I am impelled, by considerations
14297touching the great inherent dignity and sublimity of the Sperm Whale;
14298I account him no common, shallow being, inasmuch as it is an undisputed
14299fact that he is never found on soundings, or near shores; all other
14300whales sometimes are. He is both ponderous and profound. And I am
14301convinced that from the heads of all ponderous profound beings, such as
14302Plato, Pyrrho, the Devil, Jupiter, Dante, and so on, there always goes
14303up a certain semi-visible steam, while in the act of thinking deep
14304thoughts. While composing a little treatise on Eternity, I had the
14305curiosity to place a mirror before me; and ere long saw reflected there,
14306a curious involved worming and undulation in the atmosphere over my
14307head. The invariable moisture of my hair, while plunged in deep thought,
14308after six cups of hot tea in my thin shingled attic, of an August noon;
14309this seems an additional argument for the above supposition.
14310
14311And how nobly it raises our conceit of the mighty, misty monster, to
14312behold him solemnly sailing through a calm tropical sea; his vast, mild
14313head overhung by a canopy of vapour, engendered by his incommunicable
14314contemplations, and that vapour--as you will sometimes see it--glorified
14315by a rainbow, as if Heaven itself had put its seal upon his thoughts.
14316For, d'ye see, rainbows do not visit the clear air; they only irradiate
14317vapour. And so, through all the thick mists of the dim doubts in my
14318mind, divine intuitions now and then shoot, enkindling my fog with a
14319heavenly ray. And for this I thank God; for all have doubts; many deny;
14320but doubts or denials, few along with them, have intuitions. Doubts
14321of all things earthly, and intuitions of some things heavenly; this
14322combination makes neither believer nor infidel, but makes a man who
14323regards them both with equal eye.
14324
14325
14326
14327CHAPTER 86. The Tail.
14328
14329
14330Other poets have warbled the praises of the soft eye of the antelope,
14331and the lovely plumage of the bird that never alights; less celestial, I
14332celebrate a tail.
14333
14334Reckoning the largest sized Sperm Whale's tail to begin at that point of
14335the trunk where it tapers to about the girth of a man, it comprises
14336upon its upper surface alone, an area of at least fifty square feet. The
14337compact round body of its root expands into two broad, firm, flat palms
14338or flukes, gradually shoaling away to less than an inch in thickness.
14339At the crotch or junction, these flukes slightly overlap, then sideways
14340recede from each other like wings, leaving a wide vacancy between. In
14341no living thing are the lines of beauty more exquisitely defined than in
14342the crescentic borders of these flukes. At its utmost expansion in the
14343full grown whale, the tail will considerably exceed twenty feet across.
14344
14345The entire member seems a dense webbed bed of welded sinews; but cut
14346into it, and you find that three distinct strata compose it:--upper,
14347middle, and lower. The fibres in the upper and lower layers, are
14348long and horizontal; those of the middle one, very short, and running
14349crosswise between the outside layers. This triune structure, as much as
14350anything else, imparts power to the tail. To the student of old Roman
14351walls, the middle layer will furnish a curious parallel to the thin
14352course of tiles always alternating with the stone in those wonderful
14353relics of the antique, and which undoubtedly contribute so much to the
14354great strength of the masonry.
14355
14356But as if this vast local power in the tendinous tail were not enough,
14357the whole bulk of the leviathan is knit over with a warp and woof of
14358muscular fibres and filaments, which passing on either side the loins
14359and running down into the flukes, insensibly blend with them, and
14360largely contribute to their might; so that in the tail the confluent
14361measureless force of the whole whale seems concentrated to a point.
14362Could annihilation occur to matter, this were the thing to do it.
14363
14364Nor does this--its amazing strength, at all tend to cripple the graceful
14365flexion of its motions; where infantileness of ease undulates through
14366a Titanism of power. On the contrary, those motions derive their most
14367appalling beauty from it. Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony,
14368but it often bestows it; and in everything imposingly beautiful,
14369strength has much to do with the magic. Take away the tied tendons that
14370all over seem bursting from the marble in the carved Hercules, and its
14371charm would be gone. As devout Eckerman lifted the linen sheet from the
14372naked corpse of Goethe, he was overwhelmed with the massive chest of the
14373man, that seemed as a Roman triumphal arch. When Angelo paints even God
14374the Father in human form, mark what robustness is there. And whatever
14375they may reveal of the divine love in the Son, the soft, curled,
14376hermaphroditical Italian pictures, in which his idea has been most
14377successfully embodied; these pictures, so destitute as they are of all
14378brawniness, hint nothing of any power, but the mere negative, feminine
14379one of submission and endurance, which on all hands it is conceded, form
14380the peculiar practical virtues of his teachings.
14381
14382Such is the subtle elasticity of the organ I treat of, that whether
14383wielded in sport, or in earnest, or in anger, whatever be the mood it
14384be in, its flexions are invariably marked by exceeding grace. Therein no
14385fairy's arm can transcend it.
14386
14387Five great motions are peculiar to it. First, when used as a fin for
14388progression; Second, when used as a mace in battle; Third, in sweeping;
14389Fourth, in lobtailing; Fifth, in peaking flukes.
14390
14391First: Being horizontal in its position, the Leviathan's tail acts in
14392a different manner from the tails of all other sea creatures. It never
14393wriggles. In man or fish, wriggling is a sign of inferiority. To the
14394whale, his tail is the sole means of propulsion. Scroll-wise coiled
14395forwards beneath the body, and then rapidly sprung backwards, it is this
14396which gives that singular darting, leaping motion to the monster when
14397furiously swimming. His side-fins only serve to steer by.
14398
14399Second: It is a little significant, that while one sperm whale only
14400fights another sperm whale with his head and jaw, nevertheless, in his
14401conflicts with man, he chiefly and contemptuously uses his tail. In
14402striking at a boat, he swiftly curves away his flukes from it, and the
14403blow is only inflicted by the recoil. If it be made in the unobstructed
14404air, especially if it descend to its mark, the stroke is then simply
14405irresistible. No ribs of man or boat can withstand it. Your only
14406salvation lies in eluding it; but if it comes sideways through the
14407opposing water, then partly owing to the light buoyancy of the whale
14408boat, and the elasticity of its materials, a cracked rib or a dashed
14409plank or two, a sort of stitch in the side, is generally the most
14410serious result. These submerged side blows are so often received in the
14411fishery, that they are accounted mere child's play. Some one strips off
14412a frock, and the hole is stopped.
14413
14414Third: I cannot demonstrate it, but it seems to me, that in the whale
14415the sense of touch is concentrated in the tail; for in this respect
14416there is a delicacy in it only equalled by the daintiness of the
14417elephant's trunk. This delicacy is chiefly evinced in the action of
14418sweeping, when in maidenly gentleness the whale with a certain soft
14419slowness moves his immense flukes from side to side upon the surface
14420of the sea; and if he feel but a sailor's whisker, woe to that sailor,
14421whiskers and all. What tenderness there is in that preliminary touch!
14422Had this tail any prehensile power, I should straightway bethink me of
14423Darmonodes' elephant that so frequented the flower-market, and with
14424low salutations presented nosegays to damsels, and then caressed their
14425zones. On more accounts than one, a pity it is that the whale does not
14426possess this prehensile virtue in his tail; for I have heard of yet
14427another elephant, that when wounded in the fight, curved round his trunk
14428and extracted the dart.
14429
14430Fourth: Stealing unawares upon the whale in the fancied security of the
14431middle of solitary seas, you find him unbent from the vast corpulence
14432of his dignity, and kitten-like, he plays on the ocean as if it were a
14433hearth. But still you see his power in his play. The broad palms of
14434his tail are flirted high into the air; then smiting the surface, the
14435thunderous concussion resounds for miles. You would almost think a great
14436gun had been discharged; and if you noticed the light wreath of vapour
14437from the spiracle at his other extremity, you would think that that was
14438the smoke from the touch-hole.
14439
14440Fifth: As in the ordinary floating posture of the leviathan the flukes
14441lie considerably below the level of his back, they are then completely
14442out of sight beneath the surface; but when he is about to plunge into
14443the deeps, his entire flukes with at least thirty feet of his body are
14444tossed erect in the air, and so remain vibrating a moment, till they
14445downwards shoot out of view. Excepting the sublime BREACH--somewhere
14446else to be described--this peaking of the whale's flukes is perhaps the
14447grandest sight to be seen in all animated nature. Out of the bottomless
14448profundities the gigantic tail seems spasmodically snatching at the
14449highest heaven. So in dreams, have I seen majestic Satan thrusting forth
14450his tormented colossal claw from the flame Baltic of Hell. But in
14451gazing at such scenes, it is all in all what mood you are in; if in
14452the Dantean, the devils will occur to you; if in that of Isaiah, the
14453archangels. Standing at the mast-head of my ship during a sunrise that
14454crimsoned sky and sea, I once saw a large herd of whales in the east,
14455all heading towards the sun, and for a moment vibrating in concert with
14456peaked flukes. As it seemed to me at the time, such a grand embodiment
14457of adoration of the gods was never beheld, even in Persia, the home of
14458the fire worshippers. As Ptolemy Philopater testified of the African
14459elephant, I then testified of the whale, pronouncing him the most devout
14460of all beings. For according to King Juba, the military elephants of
14461antiquity often hailed the morning with their trunks uplifted in the
14462profoundest silence.
14463
14464The chance comparison in this chapter, between the whale and the
14465elephant, so far as some aspects of the tail of the one and the trunk
14466of the other are concerned, should not tend to place those two
14467opposite organs on an equality, much less the creatures to which they
14468respectively belong. For as the mightiest elephant is but a terrier
14469to Leviathan, so, compared with Leviathan's tail, his trunk is but the
14470stalk of a lily. The most direful blow from the elephant's trunk were as
14471the playful tap of a fan, compared with the measureless crush and crash
14472of the sperm whale's ponderous flukes, which in repeated instances have
14473one after the other hurled entire boats with all their oars and crews
14474into the air, very much as an Indian juggler tosses his balls.*
14475
14476
14477*Though all comparison in the way of general bulk between the whale
14478and the elephant is preposterous, inasmuch as in that particular the
14479elephant stands in much the same respect to the whale that a dog does to
14480the elephant; nevertheless, there are not wanting some points of curious
14481similitude; among these is the spout. It is well known that the elephant
14482will often draw up water or dust in his trunk, and then elevating it,
14483jet it forth in a stream.
14484
14485
14486The more I consider this mighty tail, the more do I deplore my inability
14487to express it. At times there are gestures in it, which, though they
14488would well grace the hand of man, remain wholly inexplicable. In an
14489extensive herd, so remarkable, occasionally, are these mystic gestures,
14490that I have heard hunters who have declared them akin to Free-Mason
14491signs and symbols; that the whale, indeed, by these methods
14492intelligently conversed with the world. Nor are there wanting other
14493motions of the whale in his general body, full of strangeness, and
14494unaccountable to his most experienced assailant. Dissect him how I may,
14495then, I but go skin deep; I know him not, and never will. But if I know
14496not even the tail of this whale, how understand his head? much more,
14497how comprehend his face, when face he has none? Thou shalt see my back
14498parts, my tail, he seems to say, but my face shall not be seen. But I
14499cannot completely make out his back parts; and hint what he will about
14500his face, I say again he has no face.
14501
14502
14503
14504CHAPTER 87. The Grand Armada.
14505
14506
14507The long and narrow peninsula of Malacca, extending south-eastward from
14508the territories of Birmah, forms the most southerly point of all Asia.
14509In a continuous line from that peninsula stretch the long islands of
14510Sumatra, Java, Bally, and Timor; which, with many others, form a
14511vast mole, or rampart, lengthwise connecting Asia with Australia,
14512and dividing the long unbroken Indian ocean from the thickly studded
14513oriental archipelagoes. This rampart is pierced by several sally-ports
14514for the convenience of ships and whales; conspicuous among which are the
14515straits of Sunda and Malacca. By the straits of Sunda, chiefly, vessels
14516bound to China from the west, emerge into the China seas.
14517
14518Those narrow straits of Sunda divide Sumatra from Java; and standing
14519midway in that vast rampart of islands, buttressed by that bold green
14520promontory, known to seamen as Java Head; they not a little correspond
14521to the central gateway opening into some vast walled empire: and
14522considering the inexhaustible wealth of spices, and silks, and jewels,
14523and gold, and ivory, with which the thousand islands of that oriental
14524sea are enriched, it seems a significant provision of nature, that such
14525treasures, by the very formation of the land, should at least bear the
14526appearance, however ineffectual, of being guarded from the all-grasping
14527western world. The shores of the Straits of Sunda are unsupplied
14528with those domineering fortresses which guard the entrances to the
14529Mediterranean, the Baltic, and the Propontis. Unlike the Danes, these
14530Orientals do not demand the obsequious homage of lowered top-sails from
14531the endless procession of ships before the wind, which for centuries
14532past, by night and by day, have passed between the islands of Sumatra
14533and Java, freighted with the costliest cargoes of the east. But while
14534they freely waive a ceremonial like this, they do by no means renounce
14535their claim to more solid tribute.
14536
14537Time out of mind the piratical proas of the Malays, lurking among
14538the low shaded coves and islets of Sumatra, have sallied out upon the
14539vessels sailing through the straits, fiercely demanding tribute at the
14540point of their spears. Though by the repeated bloody chastisements they
14541have received at the hands of European cruisers, the audacity of these
14542corsairs has of late been somewhat repressed; yet, even at the present
14543day, we occasionally hear of English and American vessels, which, in
14544those waters, have been remorselessly boarded and pillaged.
14545
14546With a fair, fresh wind, the Pequod was now drawing nigh to these
14547straits; Ahab purposing to pass through them into the Javan sea, and
14548thence, cruising northwards, over waters known to be frequented here and
14549there by the Sperm Whale, sweep inshore by the Philippine Islands, and
14550gain the far coast of Japan, in time for the great whaling season there.
14551By these means, the circumnavigating Pequod would sweep almost all the
14552known Sperm Whale cruising grounds of the world, previous to descending
14553upon the Line in the Pacific; where Ahab, though everywhere else foiled
14554in his pursuit, firmly counted upon giving battle to Moby Dick, in the
14555sea he was most known to frequent; and at a season when he might most
14556reasonably be presumed to be haunting it.
14557
14558But how now? in this zoned quest, does Ahab touch no land? does his crew
14559drink air? Surely, he will stop for water. Nay. For a long time, now,
14560the circus-running sun has raced within his fiery ring, and needs
14561no sustenance but what's in himself. So Ahab. Mark this, too, in the
14562whaler. While other hulls are loaded down with alien stuff, to be
14563transferred to foreign wharves; the world-wandering whale-ship carries
14564no cargo but herself and crew, their weapons and their wants. She has a
14565whole lake's contents bottled in her ample hold. She is ballasted with
14566utilities; not altogether with unusable pig-lead and kentledge. She
14567carries years' water in her. Clear old prime Nantucket water; which,
14568when three years afloat, the Nantucketer, in the Pacific, prefers to
14569drink before the brackish fluid, but yesterday rafted off in casks, from
14570the Peruvian or Indian streams. Hence it is, that, while other ships may
14571have gone to China from New York, and back again, touching at a score
14572of ports, the whale-ship, in all that interval, may not have sighted
14573one grain of soil; her crew having seen no man but floating seamen like
14574themselves. So that did you carry them the news that another flood had
14575come; they would only answer--"Well, boys, here's the ark!"
14576
14577Now, as many Sperm Whales had been captured off the western coast of
14578Java, in the near vicinity of the Straits of Sunda; indeed, as most of
14579the ground, roundabout, was generally recognised by the fishermen as an
14580excellent spot for cruising; therefore, as the Pequod gained more
14581and more upon Java Head, the look-outs were repeatedly hailed, and
14582admonished to keep wide awake. But though the green palmy cliffs of the
14583land soon loomed on the starboard bow, and with delighted nostrils
14584the fresh cinnamon was snuffed in the air, yet not a single jet was
14585descried. Almost renouncing all thought of falling in with any game
14586hereabouts, the ship had well nigh entered the straits, when the
14587customary cheering cry was heard from aloft, and ere long a spectacle of
14588singular magnificence saluted us.
14589
14590But here be it premised, that owing to the unwearied activity with which
14591of late they have been hunted over all four oceans, the Sperm Whales,
14592instead of almost invariably sailing in small detached companies, as in
14593former times, are now frequently met with in extensive herds, sometimes
14594embracing so great a multitude, that it would almost seem as if
14595numerous nations of them had sworn solemn league and covenant for mutual
14596assistance and protection. To this aggregation of the Sperm Whale into
14597such immense caravans, may be imputed the circumstance that even in the
14598best cruising grounds, you may now sometimes sail for weeks and months
14599together, without being greeted by a single spout; and then be suddenly
14600saluted by what sometimes seems thousands on thousands.
14601
14602Broad on both bows, at the distance of some two or three miles, and
14603forming a great semicircle, embracing one half of the level horizon,
14604a continuous chain of whale-jets were up-playing and sparkling in the
14605noon-day air. Unlike the straight perpendicular twin-jets of the Right
14606Whale, which, dividing at top, fall over in two branches, like the cleft
14607drooping boughs of a willow, the single forward-slanting spout of the
14608Sperm Whale presents a thick curled bush of white mist, continually
14609rising and falling away to leeward.
14610
14611Seen from the Pequod's deck, then, as she would rise on a high hill of
14612the sea, this host of vapoury spouts, individually curling up into the
14613air, and beheld through a blending atmosphere of bluish haze, showed
14614like the thousand cheerful chimneys of some dense metropolis, descried
14615of a balmy autumnal morning, by some horseman on a height.
14616
14617As marching armies approaching an unfriendly defile in the mountains,
14618accelerate their march, all eagerness to place that perilous passage in
14619their rear, and once more expand in comparative security upon the plain;
14620even so did this vast fleet of whales now seem hurrying forward through
14621the straits; gradually contracting the wings of their semicircle, and
14622swimming on, in one solid, but still crescentic centre.
14623
14624Crowding all sail the Pequod pressed after them; the harpooneers
14625handling their weapons, and loudly cheering from the heads of their
14626yet suspended boats. If the wind only held, little doubt had they, that
14627chased through these Straits of Sunda, the vast host would only deploy
14628into the Oriental seas to witness the capture of not a few of their
14629number. And who could tell whether, in that congregated caravan, Moby
14630Dick himself might not temporarily be swimming, like the worshipped
14631white-elephant in the coronation procession of the Siamese! So with
14632stun-sail piled on stun-sail, we sailed along, driving these leviathans
14633before us; when, of a sudden, the voice of Tashtego was heard, loudly
14634directing attention to something in our wake.
14635
14636Corresponding to the crescent in our van, we beheld another in our rear.
14637It seemed formed of detached white vapours, rising and falling something
14638like the spouts of the whales; only they did not so completely come and
14639go; for they constantly hovered, without finally disappearing. Levelling
14640his glass at this sight, Ahab quickly revolved in his pivot-hole,
14641crying, "Aloft there, and rig whips and buckets to wet the
14642sails;--Malays, sir, and after us!"
14643
14644As if too long lurking behind the headlands, till the Pequod should
14645fairly have entered the straits, these rascally Asiatics were now in hot
14646pursuit, to make up for their over-cautious delay. But when the swift
14647Pequod, with a fresh leading wind, was herself in hot chase; how very
14648kind of these tawny philanthropists to assist in speeding her on to
14649her own chosen pursuit,--mere riding-whips and rowels to her, that they
14650were. As with glass under arm, Ahab to-and-fro paced the deck; in his
14651forward turn beholding the monsters he chased, and in the after one the
14652bloodthirsty pirates chasing him; some such fancy as the above seemed
14653his. And when he glanced upon the green walls of the watery defile in
14654which the ship was then sailing, and bethought him that through that
14655gate lay the route to his vengeance, and beheld, how that through that
14656same gate he was now both chasing and being chased to his deadly end;
14657and not only that, but a herd of remorseless wild pirates and
14658inhuman atheistical devils were infernally cheering him on with their
14659curses;--when all these conceits had passed through his brain, Ahab's
14660brow was left gaunt and ribbed, like the black sand beach after some
14661stormy tide has been gnawing it, without being able to drag the firm
14662thing from its place.
14663
14664But thoughts like these troubled very few of the reckless crew; and
14665when, after steadily dropping and dropping the pirates astern, the
14666Pequod at last shot by the vivid green Cockatoo Point on the Sumatra
14667side, emerging at last upon the broad waters beyond; then, the
14668harpooneers seemed more to grieve that the swift whales had been gaining
14669upon the ship, than to rejoice that the ship had so victoriously gained
14670upon the Malays. But still driving on in the wake of the whales, at
14671length they seemed abating their speed; gradually the ship neared them;
14672and the wind now dying away, word was passed to spring to the boats. But
14673no sooner did the herd, by some presumed wonderful instinct of the Sperm
14674Whale, become notified of the three keels that were after them,--though
14675as yet a mile in their rear,--than they rallied again, and forming
14676in close ranks and battalions, so that their spouts all looked like
14677flashing lines of stacked bayonets, moved on with redoubled velocity.
14678
14679Stripped to our shirts and drawers, we sprang to the white-ash, and
14680after several hours' pulling were almost disposed to renounce the chase,
14681when a general pausing commotion among the whales gave animating
14682token that they were now at last under the influence of that strange
14683perplexity of inert irresolution, which, when the fishermen perceive
14684it in the whale, they say he is gallied. The compact martial columns
14685in which they had been hitherto rapidly and steadily swimming, were now
14686broken up in one measureless rout; and like King Porus' elephants in the
14687Indian battle with Alexander, they seemed going mad with consternation.
14688In all directions expanding in vast irregular circles, and aimlessly
14689swimming hither and thither, by their short thick spoutings, they
14690plainly betrayed their distraction of panic. This was still more
14691strangely evinced by those of their number, who, completely paralysed
14692as it were, helplessly floated like water-logged dismantled ships on the
14693sea. Had these Leviathans been but a flock of simple sheep, pursued over
14694the pasture by three fierce wolves, they could not possibly have evinced
14695such excessive dismay. But this occasional timidity is characteristic
14696of almost all herding creatures. Though banding together in tens of
14697thousands, the lion-maned buffaloes of the West have fled before a
14698solitary horseman. Witness, too, all human beings, how when herded
14699together in the sheepfold of a theatre's pit, they will, at the
14700slightest alarm of fire, rush helter-skelter for the outlets, crowding,
14701trampling, jamming, and remorselessly dashing each other to death. Best,
14702therefore, withhold any amazement at the strangely gallied whales
14703before us, for there is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not
14704infinitely outdone by the madness of men.
14705
14706Though many of the whales, as has been said, were in violent motion,
14707yet it is to be observed that as a whole the herd neither advanced nor
14708retreated, but collectively remained in one place. As is customary in
14709those cases, the boats at once separated, each making for some one
14710lone whale on the outskirts of the shoal. In about three minutes' time,
14711Queequeg's harpoon was flung; the stricken fish darted blinding spray
14712in our faces, and then running away with us like light, steered straight
14713for the heart of the herd. Though such a movement on the part of the
14714whale struck under such circumstances, is in no wise unprecedented; and
14715indeed is almost always more or less anticipated; yet does it present
14716one of the more perilous vicissitudes of the fishery. For as the swift
14717monster drags you deeper and deeper into the frantic shoal, you bid
14718adieu to circumspect life and only exist in a delirious throb.
14719
14720As, blind and deaf, the whale plunged forward, as if by sheer power of
14721speed to rid himself of the iron leech that had fastened to him; as we
14722thus tore a white gash in the sea, on all sides menaced as we flew, by
14723the crazed creatures to and fro rushing about us; our beset boat was
14724like a ship mobbed by ice-isles in a tempest, and striving to steer
14725through their complicated channels and straits, knowing not at what
14726moment it may be locked in and crushed.
14727
14728But not a bit daunted, Queequeg steered us manfully; now sheering off
14729from this monster directly across our route in advance; now edging away
14730from that, whose colossal flukes were suspended overhead, while all the
14731time, Starbuck stood up in the bows, lance in hand, pricking out of our
14732way whatever whales he could reach by short darts, for there was no time
14733to make long ones. Nor were the oarsmen quite idle, though their wonted
14734duty was now altogether dispensed with. They chiefly attended to the
14735shouting part of the business. "Out of the way, Commodore!" cried one,
14736to a great dromedary that of a sudden rose bodily to the surface,
14737and for an instant threatened to swamp us. "Hard down with your tail,
14738there!" cried a second to another, which, close to our gunwale, seemed
14739calmly cooling himself with his own fan-like extremity.
14740
14741All whaleboats carry certain curious contrivances, originally invented
14742by the Nantucket Indians, called druggs. Two thick squares of wood
14743of equal size are stoutly clenched together, so that they cross each
14744other's grain at right angles; a line of considerable length is then
14745attached to the middle of this block, and the other end of the line
14746being looped, it can in a moment be fastened to a harpoon. It is chiefly
14747among gallied whales that this drugg is used. For then, more whales
14748are close round you than you can possibly chase at one time. But sperm
14749whales are not every day encountered; while you may, then, you must
14750kill all you can. And if you cannot kill them all at once, you must wing
14751them, so that they can be afterwards killed at your leisure. Hence it
14752is, that at times like these the drugg, comes into requisition. Our boat
14753was furnished with three of them. The first and second were successfully
14754darted, and we saw the whales staggeringly running off, fettered by the
14755enormous sidelong resistance of the towing drugg. They were cramped like
14756malefactors with the chain and ball. But upon flinging the third, in the
14757act of tossing overboard the clumsy wooden block, it caught under one
14758of the seats of the boat, and in an instant tore it out and carried it
14759away, dropping the oarsman in the boat's bottom as the seat slid from
14760under him. On both sides the sea came in at the wounded planks, but we
14761stuffed two or three drawers and shirts in, and so stopped the leaks for
14762the time.
14763
14764It had been next to impossible to dart these drugged-harpoons, were
14765it not that as we advanced into the herd, our whale's way greatly
14766diminished; moreover, that as we went still further and further from the
14767circumference of commotion, the direful disorders seemed waning. So that
14768when at last the jerking harpoon drew out, and the towing whale sideways
14769vanished; then, with the tapering force of his parting momentum, we
14770glided between two whales into the innermost heart of the shoal, as if
14771from some mountain torrent we had slid into a serene valley lake. Here
14772the storms in the roaring glens between the outermost whales, were heard
14773but not felt. In this central expanse the sea presented that smooth
14774satin-like surface, called a sleek, produced by the subtle moisture
14775thrown off by the whale in his more quiet moods. Yes, we were now
14776in that enchanted calm which they say lurks at the heart of every
14777commotion. And still in the distracted distance we beheld the tumults of
14778the outer concentric circles, and saw successive pods of whales, eight
14779or ten in each, swiftly going round and round, like multiplied spans of
14780horses in a ring; and so closely shoulder to shoulder, that a Titanic
14781circus-rider might easily have over-arched the middle ones, and so have
14782gone round on their backs. Owing to the density of the crowd of reposing
14783whales, more immediately surrounding the embayed axis of the herd, no
14784possible chance of escape was at present afforded us. We must watch for
14785a breach in the living wall that hemmed us in; the wall that had only
14786admitted us in order to shut us up. Keeping at the centre of the lake,
14787we were occasionally visited by small tame cows and calves; the women
14788and children of this routed host.
14789
14790Now, inclusive of the occasional wide intervals between the revolving
14791outer circles, and inclusive of the spaces between the various pods in
14792any one of those circles, the entire area at this juncture, embraced by
14793the whole multitude, must have contained at least two or three square
14794miles. At any rate--though indeed such a test at such a time might be
14795deceptive--spoutings might be discovered from our low boat that
14796seemed playing up almost from the rim of the horizon. I mention this
14797circumstance, because, as if the cows and calves had been purposely
14798locked up in this innermost fold; and as if the wide extent of the
14799herd had hitherto prevented them from learning the precise cause of its
14800stopping; or, possibly, being so young, unsophisticated, and every way
14801innocent and inexperienced; however it may have been, these smaller
14802whales--now and then visiting our becalmed boat from the margin of the
14803lake--evinced a wondrous fearlessness and confidence, or else a still
14804becharmed panic which it was impossible not to marvel at. Like household
14805dogs they came snuffling round us, right up to our gunwales, and
14806touching them; till it almost seemed that some spell had suddenly
14807domesticated them. Queequeg patted their foreheads; Starbuck scratched
14808their backs with his lance; but fearful of the consequences, for the
14809time refrained from darting it.
14810
14811But far beneath this wondrous world upon the surface, another and still
14812stranger world met our eyes as we gazed over the side. For, suspended
14813in those watery vaults, floated the forms of the nursing mothers of the
14814whales, and those that by their enormous girth seemed shortly to
14815become mothers. The lake, as I have hinted, was to a considerable depth
14816exceedingly transparent; and as human infants while suckling will calmly
14817and fixedly gaze away from the breast, as if leading two different
14818lives at the time; and while yet drawing mortal nourishment, be still
14819spiritually feasting upon some unearthly reminiscence;--even so did the
14820young of these whales seem looking up towards us, but not at us, as if
14821we were but a bit of Gulfweed in their new-born sight. Floating on their
14822sides, the mothers also seemed quietly eyeing us. One of these little
14823infants, that from certain queer tokens seemed hardly a day old, might
14824have measured some fourteen feet in length, and some six feet in
14825girth. He was a little frisky; though as yet his body seemed scarce yet
14826recovered from that irksome position it had so lately occupied in the
14827maternal reticule; where, tail to head, and all ready for the final
14828spring, the unborn whale lies bent like a Tartar's bow. The delicate
14829side-fins, and the palms of his flukes, still freshly retained the
14830plaited crumpled appearance of a baby's ears newly arrived from foreign
14831parts.
14832
14833"Line! line!" cried Queequeg, looking over the gunwale; "him fast! him
14834fast!--Who line him! Who struck?--Two whale; one big, one little!"
14835
14836"What ails ye, man?" cried Starbuck.
14837
14838"Look-e here," said Queequeg, pointing down.
14839
14840As when the stricken whale, that from the tub has reeled out hundreds of
14841fathoms of rope; as, after deep sounding, he floats up again, and shows
14842the slackened curling line buoyantly rising and spiralling towards the
14843air; so now, Starbuck saw long coils of the umbilical cord of Madame
14844Leviathan, by which the young cub seemed still tethered to its dam. Not
14845seldom in the rapid vicissitudes of the chase, this natural line, with
14846the maternal end loose, becomes entangled with the hempen one, so that
14847the cub is thereby trapped. Some of the subtlest secrets of the seas
14848seemed divulged to us in this enchanted pond. We saw young Leviathan
14849amours in the deep.*
14850
14851
14852*The sperm whale, as with all other species of the Leviathan, but unlike
14853most other fish, breeds indifferently at all seasons; after a gestation
14854which may probably be set down at nine months, producing but one at a
14855time; though in some few known instances giving birth to an Esau and
14856Jacob:--a contingency provided for in suckling by two teats, curiously
14857situated, one on each side of the anus; but the breasts themselves
14858extend upwards from that. When by chance these precious parts in a
14859nursing whale are cut by the hunter's lance, the mother's pouring milk
14860and blood rivallingly discolour the sea for rods. The milk is very sweet
14861and rich; it has been tasted by man; it might do well with strawberries.
14862When overflowing with mutual esteem, the whales salute MORE HOMINUM.
14863
14864
14865And thus, though surrounded by circle upon circle of consternations
14866and affrights, did these inscrutable creatures at the centre freely and
14867fearlessly indulge in all peaceful concernments; yea, serenely revelled
14868in dalliance and delight. But even so, amid the tornadoed Atlantic of
14869my being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm; and
14870while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me, deep down and
14871deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy.
14872
14873Meanwhile, as we thus lay entranced, the occasional sudden frantic
14874spectacles in the distance evinced the activity of the other boats,
14875still engaged in drugging the whales on the frontier of the host; or
14876possibly carrying on the war within the first circle, where abundance of
14877room and some convenient retreats were afforded them. But the sight
14878of the enraged drugged whales now and then blindly darting to and fro
14879across the circles, was nothing to what at last met our eyes. It is
14880sometimes the custom when fast to a whale more than commonly powerful
14881and alert, to seek to hamstring him, as it were, by sundering or
14882maiming his gigantic tail-tendon. It is done by darting a short-handled
14883cutting-spade, to which is attached a rope for hauling it back again.
14884A whale wounded (as we afterwards learned) in this part, but not
14885effectually, as it seemed, had broken away from the boat, carrying along
14886with him half of the harpoon line; and in the extraordinary agony of
14887the wound, he was now dashing among the revolving circles like the lone
14888mounted desperado Arnold, at the battle of Saratoga, carrying dismay
14889wherever he went.
14890
14891But agonizing as was the wound of this whale, and an appalling spectacle
14892enough, any way; yet the peculiar horror with which he seemed to
14893inspire the rest of the herd, was owing to a cause which at first the
14894intervening distance obscured from us. But at length we perceived that
14895by one of the unimaginable accidents of the fishery, this whale had
14896become entangled in the harpoon-line that he towed; he had also run
14897away with the cutting-spade in him; and while the free end of the rope
14898attached to that weapon, had permanently caught in the coils of the
14899harpoon-line round his tail, the cutting-spade itself had worked loose
14900from his flesh. So that tormented to madness, he was now churning
14901through the water, violently flailing with his flexible tail, and
14902tossing the keen spade about him, wounding and murdering his own
14903comrades.
14904
14905This terrific object seemed to recall the whole herd from their
14906stationary fright. First, the whales forming the margin of our lake
14907began to crowd a little, and tumble against each other, as if lifted
14908by half spent billows from afar; then the lake itself began faintly to
14909heave and swell; the submarine bridal-chambers and nurseries vanished;
14910in more and more contracting orbits the whales in the more central
14911circles began to swim in thickening clusters. Yes, the long calm was
14912departing. A low advancing hum was soon heard; and then like to the
14913tumultuous masses of block-ice when the great river Hudson breaks up in
14914Spring, the entire host of whales came tumbling upon their inner centre,
14915as if to pile themselves up in one common mountain. Instantly Starbuck
14916and Queequeg changed places; Starbuck taking the stern.
14917
14918"Oars! Oars!" he intensely whispered, seizing the helm--"gripe your
14919oars, and clutch your souls, now! My God, men, stand by! Shove him off,
14920you Queequeg--the whale there!--prick him!--hit him! Stand up--stand
14921up, and stay so! Spring, men--pull, men; never mind their backs--scrape
14922them!--scrape away!"
14923
14924The boat was now all but jammed between two vast black bulks, leaving a
14925narrow Dardanelles between their long lengths. But by desperate endeavor
14926we at last shot into a temporary opening; then giving way rapidly,
14927and at the same time earnestly watching for another outlet. After many
14928similar hair-breadth escapes, we at last swiftly glided into what had
14929just been one of the outer circles, but now crossed by random whales,
14930all violently making for one centre. This lucky salvation was cheaply
14931purchased by the loss of Queequeg's hat, who, while standing in the bows
14932to prick the fugitive whales, had his hat taken clean from his head by
14933the air-eddy made by the sudden tossing of a pair of broad flukes close
14934by.
14935
14936Riotous and disordered as the universal commotion now was, it soon
14937resolved itself into what seemed a systematic movement; for having
14938clumped together at last in one dense body, they then renewed their
14939onward flight with augmented fleetness. Further pursuit was useless; but
14940the boats still lingered in their wake to pick up what drugged whales
14941might be dropped astern, and likewise to secure one which Flask had
14942killed and waifed. The waif is a pennoned pole, two or three of which
14943are carried by every boat; and which, when additional game is at hand,
14944are inserted upright into the floating body of a dead whale, both to
14945mark its place on the sea, and also as token of prior possession, should
14946the boats of any other ship draw near.
14947
14948The result of this lowering was somewhat illustrative of that sagacious
14949saying in the Fishery,--the more whales the less fish. Of all the
14950drugged whales only one was captured. The rest contrived to escape for
14951the time, but only to be taken, as will hereafter be seen, by some other
14952craft than the Pequod.
14953
14954
14955
14956CHAPTER 88. Schools and Schoolmasters.
14957
14958
14959The previous chapter gave account of an immense body or herd of Sperm
14960Whales, and there was also then given the probable cause inducing those
14961vast aggregations.
14962
14963Now, though such great bodies are at times encountered, yet, as must
14964have been seen, even at the present day, small detached bands are
14965occasionally observed, embracing from twenty to fifty individuals each.
14966Such bands are known as schools. They generally are of two sorts; those
14967composed almost entirely of females, and those mustering none but young
14968vigorous males, or bulls, as they are familiarly designated.
14969
14970In cavalier attendance upon the school of females, you invariably see a
14971male of full grown magnitude, but not old; who, upon any alarm, evinces
14972his gallantry by falling in the rear and covering the flight of his
14973ladies. In truth, this gentleman is a luxurious Ottoman, swimming about
14974over the watery world, surroundingly accompanied by all the solaces
14975and endearments of the harem. The contrast between this Ottoman and
14976his concubines is striking; because, while he is always of the largest
14977leviathanic proportions, the ladies, even at full growth, are not
14978more than one-third of the bulk of an average-sized male. They are
14979comparatively delicate, indeed; I dare say, not to exceed half a dozen
14980yards round the waist. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied, that upon the
14981whole they are hereditarily entitled to EMBONPOINT.
14982
14983It is very curious to watch this harem and its lord in their indolent
14984ramblings. Like fashionables, they are for ever on the move in leisurely
14985search of variety. You meet them on the Line in time for the full flower
14986of the Equatorial feeding season, having just returned, perhaps, from
14987spending the summer in the Northern seas, and so cheating summer of all
14988unpleasant weariness and warmth. By the time they have lounged up and
14989down the promenade of the Equator awhile, they start for the Oriental
14990waters in anticipation of the cool season there, and so evade the other
14991excessive temperature of the year.
14992
14993When serenely advancing on one of these journeys, if any strange
14994suspicious sights are seen, my lord whale keeps a wary eye on his
14995interesting family. Should any unwarrantably pert young Leviathan coming
14996that way, presume to draw confidentially close to one of the ladies,
14997with what prodigious fury the Bashaw assails him, and chases him away!
14998High times, indeed, if unprincipled young rakes like him are to be
14999permitted to invade the sanctity of domestic bliss; though do what the
15000Bashaw will, he cannot keep the most notorious Lothario out of his bed;
15001for, alas! all fish bed in common. As ashore, the ladies often cause the
15002most terrible duels among their rival admirers; just so with the whales,
15003who sometimes come to deadly battle, and all for love. They fence with
15004their long lower jaws, sometimes locking them together, and so striving
15005for the supremacy like elks that warringly interweave their antlers. Not
15006a few are captured having the deep scars of these encounters,--furrowed
15007heads, broken teeth, scolloped fins; and in some instances, wrenched and
15008dislocated mouths.
15009
15010But supposing the invader of domestic bliss to betake himself away at
15011the first rush of the harem's lord, then is it very diverting to watch
15012that lord. Gently he insinuates his vast bulk among them again and
15013revels there awhile, still in tantalizing vicinity to young Lothario,
15014like pious Solomon devoutly worshipping among his thousand concubines.
15015Granting other whales to be in sight, the fishermen will seldom give
15016chase to one of these Grand Turks; for these Grand Turks are too lavish
15017of their strength, and hence their unctuousness is small. As for the
15018sons and the daughters they beget, why, those sons and daughters must
15019take care of themselves; at least, with only the maternal help. For
15020like certain other omnivorous roving lovers that might be named, my Lord
15021Whale has no taste for the nursery, however much for the bower; and so,
15022being a great traveller, he leaves his anonymous babies all over the
15023world; every baby an exotic. In good time, nevertheless, as the ardour
15024of youth declines; as years and dumps increase; as reflection lends
15025her solemn pauses; in short, as a general lassitude overtakes the sated
15026Turk; then a love of ease and virtue supplants the love for maidens; our
15027Ottoman enters upon the impotent, repentant, admonitory stage of life,
15028forswears, disbands the harem, and grown to an exemplary, sulky old
15029soul, goes about all alone among the meridians and parallels saying his
15030prayers, and warning each young Leviathan from his amorous errors.
15031
15032Now, as the harem of whales is called by the fishermen a school, so
15033is the lord and master of that school technically known as the
15034schoolmaster. It is therefore not in strict character, however admirably
15035satirical, that after going to school himself, he should then go abroad
15036inculcating not what he learned there, but the folly of it. His title,
15037schoolmaster, would very naturally seem derived from the name bestowed
15038upon the harem itself, but some have surmised that the man who first
15039thus entitled this sort of Ottoman whale, must have read the memoirs of
15040Vidocq, and informed himself what sort of a country-schoolmaster that
15041famous Frenchman was in his younger days, and what was the nature of
15042those occult lessons he inculcated into some of his pupils.
15043
15044The same secludedness and isolation to which the schoolmaster whale
15045betakes himself in his advancing years, is true of all aged Sperm
15046Whales. Almost universally, a lone whale--as a solitary Leviathan is
15047called--proves an ancient one. Like venerable moss-bearded Daniel Boone,
15048he will have no one near him but Nature herself; and her he takes to
15049wife in the wilderness of waters, and the best of wives she is, though
15050she keeps so many moody secrets.
15051
15052The schools composing none but young and vigorous males, previously
15053mentioned, offer a strong contrast to the harem schools. For while
15054those female whales are characteristically timid, the young males, or
15055forty-barrel-bulls, as they call them, are by far the most pugnacious
15056of all Leviathans, and proverbially the most dangerous to encounter;
15057excepting those wondrous grey-headed, grizzled whales, sometimes met,
15058and these will fight you like grim fiends exasperated by a penal gout.
15059
15060The Forty-barrel-bull schools are larger than the harem schools. Like
15061a mob of young collegians, they are full of fight, fun, and wickedness,
15062tumbling round the world at such a reckless, rollicking rate, that no
15063prudent underwriter would insure them any more than he would a riotous
15064lad at Yale or Harvard. They soon relinquish this turbulence though,
15065and when about three-fourths grown, break up, and separately go about in
15066quest of settlements, that is, harems.
15067
15068Another point of difference between the male and female schools is
15069still more characteristic of the sexes. Say you strike a
15070Forty-barrel-bull--poor devil! all his comrades quit him. But strike
15071a member of the harem school, and her companions swim around her with
15072every token of concern, sometimes lingering so near her and so long, as
15073themselves to fall a prey.
15074
15075
15076
15077CHAPTER 89. Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish.
15078
15079
15080The allusion to the waif and waif-poles in the last chapter but one,
15081necessitates some account of the laws and regulations of the whale
15082fishery, of which the waif may be deemed the grand symbol and badge.
15083
15084It frequently happens that when several ships are cruising in company,
15085a whale may be struck by one vessel, then escape, and be finally killed
15086and captured by another vessel; and herein are indirectly comprised
15087many minor contingencies, all partaking of this one grand feature. For
15088example,--after a weary and perilous chase and capture of a whale,
15089the body may get loose from the ship by reason of a violent storm; and
15090drifting far away to leeward, be retaken by a second whaler, who, in a
15091calm, snugly tows it alongside, without risk of life or line. Thus
15092the most vexatious and violent disputes would often arise between
15093the fishermen, were there not some written or unwritten, universal,
15094undisputed law applicable to all cases.
15095
15096Perhaps the only formal whaling code authorized by legislative
15097enactment, was that of Holland. It was decreed by the States-General in
15098A.D. 1695. But though no other nation has ever had any written whaling
15099law, yet the American fishermen have been their own legislators and
15100lawyers in this matter. They have provided a system which for terse
15101comprehensiveness surpasses Justinian's Pandects and the By-laws of
15102the Chinese Society for the Suppression of Meddling with other People's
15103Business. Yes; these laws might be engraven on a Queen Anne's farthing,
15104or the barb of a harpoon, and worn round the neck, so small are they.
15105
15106I. A Fast-Fish belongs to the party fast to it.
15107
15108II. A Loose-Fish is fair game for anybody who can soonest catch it.
15109
15110But what plays the mischief with this masterly code is the admirable
15111brevity of it, which necessitates a vast volume of commentaries to
15112expound it.
15113
15114First: What is a Fast-Fish? Alive or dead a fish is technically fast,
15115when it is connected with an occupied ship or boat, by any medium at all
15116controllable by the occupant or occupants,--a mast, an oar, a nine-inch
15117cable, a telegraph wire, or a strand of cobweb, it is all the same.
15118Likewise a fish is technically fast when it bears a waif, or any other
15119recognised symbol of possession; so long as the party waifing it plainly
15120evince their ability at any time to take it alongside, as well as their
15121intention so to do.
15122
15123These are scientific commentaries; but the commentaries of the whalemen
15124themselves sometimes consist in hard words and harder knocks--the
15125Coke-upon-Littleton of the fist. True, among the more upright and
15126honourable whalemen allowances are always made for peculiar cases,
15127where it would be an outrageous moral injustice for one party to claim
15128possession of a whale previously chased or killed by another party. But
15129others are by no means so scrupulous.
15130
15131Some fifty years ago there was a curious case of whale-trover litigated
15132in England, wherein the plaintiffs set forth that after a hard chase of
15133a whale in the Northern seas; and when indeed they (the plaintiffs) had
15134succeeded in harpooning the fish; they were at last, through peril of
15135their lives, obliged to forsake not only their lines, but their boat
15136itself. Ultimately the defendants (the crew of another ship) came up
15137with the whale, struck, killed, seized, and finally appropriated it
15138before the very eyes of the plaintiffs. And when those defendants were
15139remonstrated with, their captain snapped his fingers in the plaintiffs'
15140teeth, and assured them that by way of doxology to the deed he had done,
15141he would now retain their line, harpoons, and boat, which had remained
15142attached to the whale at the time of the seizure. Wherefore the
15143plaintiffs now sued for the recovery of the value of their whale, line,
15144harpoons, and boat.
15145
15146Mr. Erskine was counsel for the defendants; Lord Ellenborough was
15147the judge. In the course of the defence, the witty Erskine went on
15148to illustrate his position, by alluding to a recent crim. con.
15149case, wherein a gentleman, after in vain trying to bridle his wife's
15150viciousness, had at last abandoned her upon the seas of life; but in
15151the course of years, repenting of that step, he instituted an action to
15152recover possession of her. Erskine was on the other side; and he
15153then supported it by saying, that though the gentleman had originally
15154harpooned the lady, and had once had her fast, and only by reason of the
15155great stress of her plunging viciousness, had at last abandoned her; yet
15156abandon her he did, so that she became a loose-fish; and therefore
15157when a subsequent gentleman re-harpooned her, the lady then became that
15158subsequent gentleman's property, along with whatever harpoon might have
15159been found sticking in her.
15160
15161Now in the present case Erskine contended that the examples of the whale
15162and the lady were reciprocally illustrative of each other.
15163
15164These pleadings, and the counter pleadings, being duly heard, the very
15165learned Judge in set terms decided, to wit,--That as for the boat, he
15166awarded it to the plaintiffs, because they had merely abandoned it
15167to save their lives; but that with regard to the controverted whale,
15168harpoons, and line, they belonged to the defendants; the whale, because
15169it was a Loose-Fish at the time of the final capture; and the harpoons
15170and line because when the fish made off with them, it (the fish)
15171acquired a property in those articles; and hence anybody who afterwards
15172took the fish had a right to them. Now the defendants afterwards took
15173the fish; ergo, the aforesaid articles were theirs.
15174
15175A common man looking at this decision of the very learned Judge, might
15176possibly object to it. But ploughed up to the primary rock of the
15177matter, the two great principles laid down in the twin whaling laws
15178previously quoted, and applied and elucidated by Lord Ellenborough in
15179the above cited case; these two laws touching Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish,
15180I say, will, on reflection, be found the fundamentals of all human
15181jurisprudence; for notwithstanding its complicated tracery of sculpture,
15182the Temple of the Law, like the Temple of the Philistines, has but two
15183props to stand on.
15184
15185Is it not a saying in every one's mouth, Possession is half of the law:
15186that is, regardless of how the thing came into possession? But often
15187possession is the whole of the law. What are the sinews and souls of
15188Russian serfs and Republican slaves but Fast-Fish, whereof possession is
15189the whole of the law? What to the rapacious landlord is the widow's last
15190mite but a Fast-Fish? What is yonder undetected villain's marble mansion
15191with a door-plate for a waif; what is that but a Fast-Fish? What is the
15192ruinous discount which Mordecai, the broker, gets from poor Woebegone,
15193the bankrupt, on a loan to keep Woebegone's family from starvation;
15194what is that ruinous discount but a Fast-Fish? What is the Archbishop of
15195Savesoul's income of L100,000 seized from the scant bread and cheese
15196of hundreds of thousands of broken-backed laborers (all sure of heaven
15197without any of Savesoul's help) what is that globular L100,000 but a
15198Fast-Fish? What are the Duke of Dunder's hereditary towns and hamlets
15199but Fast-Fish? What to that redoubted harpooneer, John Bull, is poor
15200Ireland, but a Fast-Fish? What to that apostolic lancer, Brother
15201Jonathan, is Texas but a Fast-Fish? And concerning all these, is not
15202Possession the whole of the law?
15203
15204But if the doctrine of Fast-Fish be pretty generally applicable,
15205the kindred doctrine of Loose-Fish is still more widely so. That is
15206internationally and universally applicable.
15207
15208What was America in 1492 but a Loose-Fish, in which Columbus struck the
15209Spanish standard by way of waifing it for his royal master and mistress?
15210What was Poland to the Czar? What Greece to the Turk? What India
15211to England? What at last will Mexico be to the United States? All
15212Loose-Fish.
15213
15214What are the Rights of Man and the Liberties of the World but
15215Loose-Fish? What all men's minds and opinions but Loose-Fish? What is
15216the principle of religious belief in them but a Loose-Fish? What to
15217the ostentatious smuggling verbalists are the thoughts of thinkers but
15218Loose-Fish? What is the great globe itself but a Loose-Fish? And what
15219are you, reader, but a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish, too?
15220
15221
15222
15223CHAPTER 90. Heads or Tails.
15224
15225
15226"De balena vero sufficit, si rex habeat caput, et regina caudam."
15227BRACTON, L. 3, C. 3.
15228
15229
15230Latin from the books of the Laws of England, which taken along with the
15231context, means, that of all whales captured by anybody on the coast of
15232that land, the King, as Honourary Grand Harpooneer, must have the head,
15233and the Queen be respectfully presented with the tail. A division which,
15234in the whale, is much like halving an apple; there is no intermediate
15235remainder. Now as this law, under a modified form, is to this day in
15236force in England; and as it offers in various respects a strange anomaly
15237touching the general law of Fast and Loose-Fish, it is here treated of
15238in a separate chapter, on the same courteous principle that prompts
15239the English railways to be at the expense of a separate car, specially
15240reserved for the accommodation of royalty. In the first place, in
15241curious proof of the fact that the above-mentioned law is still in
15242force, I proceed to lay before you a circumstance that happened within
15243the last two years.
15244
15245It seems that some honest mariners of Dover, or Sandwich, or some one
15246of the Cinque Ports, had after a hard chase succeeded in killing and
15247beaching a fine whale which they had originally descried afar off from
15248the shore. Now the Cinque Ports are partially or somehow under the
15249jurisdiction of a sort of policeman or beadle, called a Lord Warden.
15250Holding the office directly from the crown, I believe, all the royal
15251emoluments incident to the Cinque Port territories become by assignment
15252his. By some writers this office is called a sinecure. But not so.
15253Because the Lord Warden is busily employed at times in fobbing his
15254perquisites; which are his chiefly by virtue of that same fobbing of
15255them.
15256
15257Now when these poor sun-burnt mariners, bare-footed, and with their
15258trowsers rolled high up on their eely legs, had wearily hauled their fat
15259fish high and dry, promising themselves a good L150 from the precious
15260oil and bone; and in fantasy sipping rare tea with their wives, and good
15261ale with their cronies, upon the strength of their respective shares; up
15262steps a very learned and most Christian and charitable gentleman, with
15263a copy of Blackstone under his arm; and laying it upon the whale's head,
15264he says--"Hands off! this fish, my masters, is a Fast-Fish. I seize it
15265as the Lord Warden's." Upon this the poor mariners in their respectful
15266consternation--so truly English--knowing not what to say, fall to
15267vigorously scratching their heads all round; meanwhile ruefully glancing
15268from the whale to the stranger. But that did in nowise mend the matter,
15269or at all soften the hard heart of the learned gentleman with the copy
15270of Blackstone. At length one of them, after long scratching about for
15271his ideas, made bold to speak,
15272
15273"Please, sir, who is the Lord Warden?"
15274
15275"The Duke."
15276
15277"But the duke had nothing to do with taking this fish?"
15278
15279"It is his."
15280
15281"We have been at great trouble, and peril, and some expense, and is
15282all that to go to the Duke's benefit; we getting nothing at all for our
15283pains but our blisters?"
15284
15285"It is his."
15286
15287"Is the Duke so very poor as to be forced to this desperate mode of
15288getting a livelihood?"
15289
15290"It is his."
15291
15292"I thought to relieve my old bed-ridden mother by part of my share of
15293this whale."
15294
15295"It is his."
15296
15297"Won't the Duke be content with a quarter or a half?"
15298
15299"It is his."
15300
15301In a word, the whale was seized and sold, and his Grace the Duke of
15302Wellington received the money. Thinking that viewed in some particular
15303lights, the case might by a bare possibility in some small degree be
15304deemed, under the circumstances, a rather hard one, an honest clergyman
15305of the town respectfully addressed a note to his Grace, begging him to
15306take the case of those unfortunate mariners into full consideration. To
15307which my Lord Duke in substance replied (both letters were published)
15308that he had already done so, and received the money, and would be
15309obliged to the reverend gentleman if for the future he (the reverend
15310gentleman) would decline meddling with other people's business. Is
15311this the still militant old man, standing at the corners of the three
15312kingdoms, on all hands coercing alms of beggars?
15313
15314It will readily be seen that in this case the alleged right of the
15315Duke to the whale was a delegated one from the Sovereign. We must needs
15316inquire then on what principle the Sovereign is originally invested with
15317that right. The law itself has already been set forth. But Plowdon gives
15318us the reason for it. Says Plowdon, the whale so caught belongs to
15319the King and Queen, "because of its superior excellence." And by the
15320soundest commentators this has ever been held a cogent argument in such
15321matters.
15322
15323But why should the King have the head, and the Queen the tail? A reason
15324for that, ye lawyers!
15325
15326In his treatise on "Queen-Gold," or Queen-pinmoney, an old King's Bench
15327author, one William Prynne, thus discourseth: "Ye tail is ye Queen's,
15328that ye Queen's wardrobe may be supplied with ye whalebone." Now this
15329was written at a time when the black limber bone of the Greenland or
15330Right whale was largely used in ladies' bodices. But this same bone
15331is not in the tail; it is in the head, which is a sad mistake for
15332a sagacious lawyer like Prynne. But is the Queen a mermaid, to be
15333presented with a tail? An allegorical meaning may lurk here.
15334
15335There are two royal fish so styled by the English law writers--the whale
15336and the sturgeon; both royal property under certain limitations, and
15337nominally supplying the tenth branch of the crown's ordinary revenue.
15338I know not that any other author has hinted of the matter; but by
15339inference it seems to me that the sturgeon must be divided in the same
15340way as the whale, the King receiving the highly dense and elastic head
15341peculiar to that fish, which, symbolically regarded, may possibly be
15342humorously grounded upon some presumed congeniality. And thus there
15343seems a reason in all things, even in law.
15344
15345
15346
15347CHAPTER 91. The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud.
15348
15349
15350"In vain it was to rake for Ambergriese in the paunch of this Leviathan,
15351insufferable fetor denying not inquiry." SIR T. BROWNE, V.E.
15352
15353
15354It was a week or two after the last whaling scene recounted, and when we
15355were slowly sailing over a sleepy, vapoury, mid-day sea, that the many
15356noses on the Pequod's deck proved more vigilant discoverers than the
15357three pairs of eyes aloft. A peculiar and not very pleasant smell was
15358smelt in the sea.
15359
15360"I will bet something now," said Stubb, "that somewhere hereabouts are
15361some of those drugged whales we tickled the other day. I thought they
15362would keel up before long."
15363
15364Presently, the vapours in advance slid aside; and there in the distance
15365lay a ship, whose furled sails betokened that some sort of whale must be
15366alongside. As we glided nearer, the stranger showed French colours from
15367his peak; and by the eddying cloud of vulture sea-fowl that circled, and
15368hovered, and swooped around him, it was plain that the whale alongside
15369must be what the fishermen call a blasted whale, that is, a whale that
15370has died unmolested on the sea, and so floated an unappropriated corpse.
15371It may well be conceived, what an unsavory odor such a mass must
15372exhale; worse than an Assyrian city in the plague, when the living are
15373incompetent to bury the departed. So intolerable indeed is it regarded
15374by some, that no cupidity could persuade them to moor alongside of it.
15375Yet are there those who will still do it; notwithstanding the fact that
15376the oil obtained from such subjects is of a very inferior quality, and
15377by no means of the nature of attar-of-rose.
15378
15379Coming still nearer with the expiring breeze, we saw that the Frenchman
15380had a second whale alongside; and this second whale seemed even more
15381of a nosegay than the first. In truth, it turned out to be one of
15382those problematical whales that seem to dry up and die with a sort
15383of prodigious dyspepsia, or indigestion; leaving their defunct bodies
15384almost entirely bankrupt of anything like oil. Nevertheless, in the
15385proper place we shall see that no knowing fisherman will ever turn
15386up his nose at such a whale as this, however much he may shun blasted
15387whales in general.
15388
15389The Pequod had now swept so nigh to the stranger, that Stubb vowed
15390he recognised his cutting spade-pole entangled in the lines that were
15391knotted round the tail of one of these whales.
15392
15393"There's a pretty fellow, now," he banteringly laughed, standing in the
15394ship's bows, "there's a jackal for ye! I well know that these Crappoes
15395of Frenchmen are but poor devils in the fishery; sometimes lowering
15396their boats for breakers, mistaking them for Sperm Whale spouts; yes,
15397and sometimes sailing from their port with their hold full of boxes of
15398tallow candles, and cases of snuffers, foreseeing that all the oil they
15399will get won't be enough to dip the Captain's wick into; aye, we all
15400know these things; but look ye, here's a Crappo that is content with our
15401leavings, the drugged whale there, I mean; aye, and is content too with
15402scraping the dry bones of that other precious fish he has there. Poor
15403devil! I say, pass round a hat, some one, and let's make him a present
15404of a little oil for dear charity's sake. For what oil he'll get from
15405that drugged whale there, wouldn't be fit to burn in a jail; no, not
15406in a condemned cell. And as for the other whale, why, I'll agree to get
15407more oil by chopping up and trying out these three masts of ours, than
15408he'll get from that bundle of bones; though, now that I think of it, it
15409may contain something worth a good deal more than oil; yes, ambergris.
15410I wonder now if our old man has thought of that. It's worth trying. Yes,
15411I'm for it;" and so saying he started for the quarter-deck.
15412
15413By this time the faint air had become a complete calm; so that whether
15414or no, the Pequod was now fairly entrapped in the smell, with no hope of
15415escaping except by its breezing up again. Issuing from the cabin, Stubb
15416now called his boat's crew, and pulled off for the stranger. Drawing
15417across her bow, he perceived that in accordance with the fanciful French
15418taste, the upper part of her stem-piece was carved in the likeness of a
15419huge drooping stalk, was painted green, and for thorns had copper
15420spikes projecting from it here and there; the whole terminating in a
15421symmetrical folded bulb of a bright red colour. Upon her head boards, in
15422large gilt letters, he read "Bouton de Rose,"--Rose-button, or Rose-bud;
15423and this was the romantic name of this aromatic ship.
15424
15425Though Stubb did not understand the BOUTON part of the inscription, yet
15426the word ROSE, and the bulbous figure-head put together, sufficiently
15427explained the whole to him.
15428
15429"A wooden rose-bud, eh?" he cried with his hand to his nose, "that will
15430do very well; but how like all creation it smells!"
15431
15432Now in order to hold direct communication with the people on deck, he
15433had to pull round the bows to the starboard side, and thus come close to
15434the blasted whale; and so talk over it.
15435
15436Arrived then at this spot, with one hand still to his nose, he
15437bawled--"Bouton-de-Rose, ahoy! are there any of you Bouton-de-Roses that
15438speak English?"
15439
15440"Yes," rejoined a Guernsey-man from the bulwarks, who turned out to be
15441the chief-mate.
15442
15443"Well, then, my Bouton-de-Rose-bud, have you seen the White Whale?"
15444
15445"WHAT whale?"
15446
15447"The WHITE Whale--a Sperm Whale--Moby Dick, have ye seen him?
15448
15449"Never heard of such a whale. Cachalot Blanche! White Whale--no."
15450
15451"Very good, then; good bye now, and I'll call again in a minute."
15452
15453Then rapidly pulling back towards the Pequod, and seeing Ahab leaning
15454over the quarter-deck rail awaiting his report, he moulded his two hands
15455into a trumpet and shouted--"No, Sir! No!" Upon which Ahab retired, and
15456Stubb returned to the Frenchman.
15457
15458He now perceived that the Guernsey-man, who had just got into the
15459chains, and was using a cutting-spade, had slung his nose in a sort of
15460bag.
15461
15462"What's the matter with your nose, there?" said Stubb. "Broke it?"
15463
15464"I wish it was broken, or that I didn't have any nose at all!" answered
15465the Guernsey-man, who did not seem to relish the job he was at very
15466much. "But what are you holding YOURS for?"
15467
15468"Oh, nothing! It's a wax nose; I have to hold it on. Fine day, ain't it?
15469Air rather gardenny, I should say; throw us a bunch of posies, will ye,
15470Bouton-de-Rose?"
15471
15472"What in the devil's name do you want here?" roared the Guernseyman,
15473flying into a sudden passion.
15474
15475"Oh! keep cool--cool? yes, that's the word! why don't you pack those
15476whales in ice while you're working at 'em? But joking aside, though; do
15477you know, Rose-bud, that it's all nonsense trying to get any oil out of
15478such whales? As for that dried up one, there, he hasn't a gill in his
15479whole carcase."
15480
15481"I know that well enough; but, d'ye see, the Captain here won't believe
15482it; this is his first voyage; he was a Cologne manufacturer before. But
15483come aboard, and mayhap he'll believe you, if he won't me; and so I'll
15484get out of this dirty scrape."
15485
15486"Anything to oblige ye, my sweet and pleasant fellow," rejoined Stubb,
15487and with that he soon mounted to the deck. There a queer scene presented
15488itself. The sailors, in tasselled caps of red worsted, were getting the
15489heavy tackles in readiness for the whales. But they worked rather slow
15490and talked very fast, and seemed in anything but a good humor. All their
15491noses upwardly projected from their faces like so many jib-booms.
15492Now and then pairs of them would drop their work, and run up to the
15493mast-head to get some fresh air. Some thinking they would catch the
15494plague, dipped oakum in coal-tar, and at intervals held it to their
15495nostrils. Others having broken the stems of their pipes almost short
15496off at the bowl, were vigorously puffing tobacco-smoke, so that it
15497constantly filled their olfactories.
15498
15499Stubb was struck by a shower of outcries and anathemas proceeding from
15500the Captain's round-house abaft; and looking in that direction saw a
15501fiery face thrust from behind the door, which was held ajar from within.
15502This was the tormented surgeon, who, after in vain remonstrating
15503against the proceedings of the day, had betaken himself to the Captain's
15504round-house (CABINET he called it) to avoid the pest; but still, could
15505not help yelling out his entreaties and indignations at times.
15506
15507Marking all this, Stubb argued well for his scheme, and turning to the
15508Guernsey-man had a little chat with him, during which the stranger mate
15509expressed his detestation of his Captain as a conceited ignoramus,
15510who had brought them all into so unsavory and unprofitable a pickle.
15511Sounding him carefully, Stubb further perceived that the Guernsey-man
15512had not the slightest suspicion concerning the ambergris. He therefore
15513held his peace on that head, but otherwise was quite frank and
15514confidential with him, so that the two quickly concocted a little plan
15515for both circumventing and satirizing the Captain, without his at all
15516dreaming of distrusting their sincerity. According to this little plan
15517of theirs, the Guernsey-man, under cover of an interpreter's office, was
15518to tell the Captain what he pleased, but as coming from Stubb; and as
15519for Stubb, he was to utter any nonsense that should come uppermost in
15520him during the interview.
15521
15522By this time their destined victim appeared from his cabin. He was a
15523small and dark, but rather delicate looking man for a sea-captain, with
15524large whiskers and moustache, however; and wore a red cotton velvet vest
15525with watch-seals at his side. To this gentleman, Stubb was now politely
15526introduced by the Guernsey-man, who at once ostentatiously put on the
15527aspect of interpreting between them.
15528
15529"What shall I say to him first?" said he.
15530
15531"Why," said Stubb, eyeing the velvet vest and the watch and seals, "you
15532may as well begin by telling him that he looks a sort of babyish to me,
15533though I don't pretend to be a judge."
15534
15535"He says, Monsieur," said the Guernsey-man, in French, turning to his
15536captain, "that only yesterday his ship spoke a vessel, whose captain
15537and chief-mate, with six sailors, had all died of a fever caught from a
15538blasted whale they had brought alongside."
15539
15540Upon this the captain started, and eagerly desired to know more.
15541
15542"What now?" said the Guernsey-man to Stubb.
15543
15544"Why, since he takes it so easy, tell him that now I have eyed him
15545carefully, I'm quite certain that he's no more fit to command a
15546whale-ship than a St. Jago monkey. In fact, tell him from me he's a
15547baboon."
15548
15549"He vows and declares, Monsieur, that the other whale, the dried one, is
15550far more deadly than the blasted one; in fine, Monsieur, he conjures us,
15551as we value our lives, to cut loose from these fish."
15552
15553Instantly the captain ran forward, and in a loud voice commanded his
15554crew to desist from hoisting the cutting-tackles, and at once cast loose
15555the cables and chains confining the whales to the ship.
15556
15557"What now?" said the Guernsey-man, when the Captain had returned to
15558them.
15559
15560"Why, let me see; yes, you may as well tell him now that--that--in
15561fact, tell him I've diddled him, and (aside to himself) perhaps somebody
15562else."
15563
15564"He says, Monsieur, that he's very happy to have been of any service to
15565us."
15566
15567Hearing this, the captain vowed that they were the grateful parties
15568(meaning himself and mate) and concluded by inviting Stubb down into his
15569cabin to drink a bottle of Bordeaux.
15570
15571"He wants you to take a glass of wine with him," said the interpreter.
15572
15573"Thank him heartily; but tell him it's against my principles to drink
15574with the man I've diddled. In fact, tell him I must go."
15575
15576"He says, Monsieur, that his principles won't admit of his drinking; but
15577that if Monsieur wants to live another day to drink, then Monsieur had
15578best drop all four boats, and pull the ship away from these whales, for
15579it's so calm they won't drift."
15580
15581By this time Stubb was over the side, and getting into his boat, hailed
15582the Guernsey-man to this effect,--that having a long tow-line in his
15583boat, he would do what he could to help them, by pulling out the lighter
15584whale of the two from the ship's side. While the Frenchman's boats,
15585then, were engaged in towing the ship one way, Stubb benevolently towed
15586away at his whale the other way, ostentatiously slacking out a most
15587unusually long tow-line.
15588
15589Presently a breeze sprang up; Stubb feigned to cast off from the whale;
15590hoisting his boats, the Frenchman soon increased his distance, while the
15591Pequod slid in between him and Stubb's whale. Whereupon Stubb quickly
15592pulled to the floating body, and hailing the Pequod to give notice of
15593his intentions, at once proceeded to reap the fruit of his unrighteous
15594cunning. Seizing his sharp boat-spade, he commenced an excavation in the
15595body, a little behind the side fin. You would almost have thought he was
15596digging a cellar there in the sea; and when at length his spade struck
15597against the gaunt ribs, it was like turning up old Roman tiles and
15598pottery buried in fat English loam. His boat's crew were all in high
15599excitement, eagerly helping their chief, and looking as anxious as
15600gold-hunters.
15601
15602And all the time numberless fowls were diving, and ducking, and
15603screaming, and yelling, and fighting around them. Stubb was beginning
15604to look disappointed, especially as the horrible nosegay increased, when
15605suddenly from out the very heart of this plague, there stole a faint
15606stream of perfume, which flowed through the tide of bad smells without
15607being absorbed by it, as one river will flow into and then along with
15608another, without at all blending with it for a time.
15609
15610"I have it, I have it," cried Stubb, with delight, striking something in
15611the subterranean regions, "a purse! a purse!"
15612
15613Dropping his spade, he thrust both hands in, and drew out handfuls
15614of something that looked like ripe Windsor soap, or rich mottled old
15615cheese; very unctuous and savory withal. You might easily dent it with
15616your thumb; it is of a hue between yellow and ash colour. And this, good
15617friends, is ambergris, worth a gold guinea an ounce to any druggist.
15618Some six handfuls were obtained; but more was unavoidably lost in the
15619sea, and still more, perhaps, might have been secured were it not for
15620impatient Ahab's loud command to Stubb to desist, and come on board,
15621else the ship would bid them good bye.
15622
15623
15624
15625CHAPTER 92. Ambergris.
15626
15627
15628Now this ambergris is a very curious substance, and so important as
15629an article of commerce, that in 1791 a certain Nantucket-born Captain
15630Coffin was examined at the bar of the English House of Commons on that
15631subject. For at that time, and indeed until a comparatively late day,
15632the precise origin of ambergris remained, like amber itself, a problem
15633to the learned. Though the word ambergris is but the French compound for
15634grey amber, yet the two substances are quite distinct. For amber, though
15635at times found on the sea-coast, is also dug up in some far inland
15636soils, whereas ambergris is never found except upon the sea. Besides,
15637amber is a hard, transparent, brittle, odorless substance, used for
15638mouth-pieces to pipes, for beads and ornaments; but ambergris is soft,
15639waxy, and so highly fragrant and spicy, that it is largely used in
15640perfumery, in pastiles, precious candles, hair-powders, and pomatum.
15641The Turks use it in cooking, and also carry it to Mecca, for the same
15642purpose that frankincense is carried to St. Peter's in Rome. Some wine
15643merchants drop a few grains into claret, to flavor it.
15644
15645Who would think, then, that such fine ladies and gentlemen should regale
15646themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick
15647whale! Yet so it is. By some, ambergris is supposed to be the cause, and
15648by others the effect, of the dyspepsia in the whale. How to cure such
15649a dyspepsia it were hard to say, unless by administering three or four
15650boat loads of Brandreth's pills, and then running out of harm's way, as
15651laborers do in blasting rocks.
15652
15653I have forgotten to say that there were found in this ambergris, certain
15654hard, round, bony plates, which at first Stubb thought might be sailors'
15655trowsers buttons; but it afterwards turned out that they were nothing
15656more than pieces of small squid bones embalmed in that manner.
15657
15658Now that the incorruption of this most fragrant ambergris should be
15659found in the heart of such decay; is this nothing? Bethink thee of that
15660saying of St. Paul in Corinthians, about corruption and incorruption;
15661how that we are sown in dishonour, but raised in glory. And likewise
15662call to mind that saying of Paracelsus about what it is that maketh
15663the best musk. Also forget not the strange fact that of all things of
15664ill-savor, Cologne-water, in its rudimental manufacturing stages, is the
15665worst.
15666
15667I should like to conclude the chapter with the above appeal, but cannot,
15668owing to my anxiety to repel a charge often made against whalemen,
15669and which, in the estimation of some already biased minds, might be
15670considered as indirectly substantiated by what has been said of
15671the Frenchman's two whales. Elsewhere in this volume the slanderous
15672aspersion has been disproved, that the vocation of whaling is throughout
15673a slatternly, untidy business. But there is another thing to rebut. They
15674hint that all whales always smell bad. Now how did this odious stigma
15675originate?
15676
15677I opine, that it is plainly traceable to the first arrival of the
15678Greenland whaling ships in London, more than two centuries ago. Because
15679those whalemen did not then, and do not now, try out their oil at sea as
15680the Southern ships have always done; but cutting up the fresh blubber in
15681small bits, thrust it through the bung holes of large casks, and carry
15682it home in that manner; the shortness of the season in those Icy Seas,
15683and the sudden and violent storms to which they are exposed, forbidding
15684any other course. The consequence is, that upon breaking into the hold,
15685and unloading one of these whale cemeteries, in the Greenland dock, a
15686savor is given forth somewhat similar to that arising from excavating an
15687old city grave-yard, for the foundations of a Lying-in-Hospital.
15688
15689I partly surmise also, that this wicked charge against whalers may be
15690likewise imputed to the existence on the coast of Greenland, in former
15691times, of a Dutch village called Schmerenburgh or Smeerenberg, which
15692latter name is the one used by the learned Fogo Von Slack, in his great
15693work on Smells, a text-book on that subject. As its name imports (smeer,
15694fat; berg, to put up), this village was founded in order to afford a
15695place for the blubber of the Dutch whale fleet to be tried out, without
15696being taken home to Holland for that purpose. It was a collection of
15697furnaces, fat-kettles, and oil sheds; and when the works were in full
15698operation certainly gave forth no very pleasant savor. But all this is
15699quite different with a South Sea Sperm Whaler; which in a voyage of four
15700years perhaps, after completely filling her hold with oil, does not,
15701perhaps, consume fifty days in the business of boiling out; and in the
15702state that it is casked, the oil is nearly scentless. The truth is, that
15703living or dead, if but decently treated, whales as a species are by
15704no means creatures of ill odor; nor can whalemen be recognised, as the
15705people of the middle ages affected to detect a Jew in the company, by
15706the nose. Nor indeed can the whale possibly be otherwise than fragrant,
15707when, as a general thing, he enjoys such high health; taking abundance
15708of exercise; always out of doors; though, it is true, seldom in the
15709open air. I say, that the motion of a Sperm Whale's flukes above water
15710dispenses a perfume, as when a musk-scented lady rustles her dress in a
15711warm parlor. What then shall I liken the Sperm Whale to for fragrance,
15712considering his magnitude? Must it not be to that famous elephant, with
15713jewelled tusks, and redolent with myrrh, which was led out of an Indian
15714town to do honour to Alexander the Great?
15715
15716
15717
15718CHAPTER 93. The Castaway.
15719
15720
15721It was but some few days after encountering the Frenchman, that a most
15722significant event befell the most insignificant of the Pequod's crew; an
15723event most lamentable; and which ended in providing the sometimes
15724madly merry and predestinated craft with a living and ever accompanying
15725prophecy of whatever shattered sequel might prove her own.
15726
15727Now, in the whale ship, it is not every one that goes in the boats. Some
15728few hands are reserved called ship-keepers, whose province it is to work
15729the vessel while the boats are pursuing the whale. As a general thing,
15730these ship-keepers are as hardy fellows as the men comprising the boats'
15731crews. But if there happen to be an unduly slender, clumsy, or timorous
15732wight in the ship, that wight is certain to be made a ship-keeper. It
15733was so in the Pequod with the little negro Pippin by nick-name, Pip by
15734abbreviation. Poor Pip! ye have heard of him before; ye must remember
15735his tambourine on that dramatic midnight, so gloomy-jolly.
15736
15737In outer aspect, Pip and Dough-Boy made a match, like a black pony and a
15738white one, of equal developments, though of dissimilar colour, driven in
15739one eccentric span. But while hapless Dough-Boy was by nature dull and
15740torpid in his intellects, Pip, though over tender-hearted, was at bottom
15741very bright, with that pleasant, genial, jolly brightness peculiar to
15742his tribe; a tribe, which ever enjoy all holidays and festivities with
15743finer, freer relish than any other race. For blacks, the year's calendar
15744should show naught but three hundred and sixty-five Fourth of Julys and
15745New Year's Days. Nor smile so, while I write that this little black was
15746brilliant, for even blackness has its brilliancy; behold yon lustrous
15747ebony, panelled in king's cabinets. But Pip loved life, and all life's
15748peaceable securities; so that the panic-striking business in which he
15749had somehow unaccountably become entrapped, had most sadly blurred his
15750brightness; though, as ere long will be seen, what was thus temporarily
15751subdued in him, in the end was destined to be luridly illumined by
15752strange wild fires, that fictitiously showed him off to ten times the
15753natural lustre with which in his native Tolland County in Connecticut,
15754he had once enlivened many a fiddler's frolic on the green; and at
15755melodious even-tide, with his gay ha-ha! had turned the round horizon
15756into one star-belled tambourine. So, though in the clear air of day,
15757suspended against a blue-veined neck, the pure-watered diamond drop
15758will healthful glow; yet, when the cunning jeweller would show you
15759the diamond in its most impressive lustre, he lays it against a gloomy
15760ground, and then lights it up, not by the sun, but by some unnatural
15761gases. Then come out those fiery effulgences, infernally superb; then
15762the evil-blazing diamond, once the divinest symbol of the crystal skies,
15763looks like some crown-jewel stolen from the King of Hell. But let us to
15764the story.
15765
15766It came to pass, that in the ambergris affair Stubb's after-oarsman
15767chanced so to sprain his hand, as for a time to become quite maimed;
15768and, temporarily, Pip was put into his place.
15769
15770The first time Stubb lowered with him, Pip evinced much nervousness;
15771but happily, for that time, escaped close contact with the whale; and
15772therefore came off not altogether discreditably; though Stubb observing
15773him, took care, afterwards, to exhort him to cherish his courageousness
15774to the utmost, for he might often find it needful.
15775
15776Now upon the second lowering, the boat paddled upon the whale; and as
15777the fish received the darted iron, it gave its customary rap, which
15778happened, in this instance, to be right under poor Pip's seat. The
15779involuntary consternation of the moment caused him to leap, paddle in
15780hand, out of the boat; and in such a way, that part of the slack whale
15781line coming against his chest, he breasted it overboard with him, so as
15782to become entangled in it, when at last plumping into the water. That
15783instant the stricken whale started on a fierce run, the line swiftly
15784straightened; and presto! poor Pip came all foaming up to the chocks
15785of the boat, remorselessly dragged there by the line, which had taken
15786several turns around his chest and neck.
15787
15788Tashtego stood in the bows. He was full of the fire of the hunt. He
15789hated Pip for a poltroon. Snatching the boat-knife from its sheath,
15790he suspended its sharp edge over the line, and turning towards Stubb,
15791exclaimed interrogatively, "Cut?" Meantime Pip's blue, choked face
15792plainly looked, Do, for God's sake! All passed in a flash. In less than
15793half a minute, this entire thing happened.
15794
15795"Damn him, cut!" roared Stubb; and so the whale was lost and Pip was
15796saved.
15797
15798So soon as he recovered himself, the poor little negro was assailed
15799by yells and execrations from the crew. Tranquilly permitting these
15800irregular cursings to evaporate, Stubb then in a plain, business-like,
15801but still half humorous manner, cursed Pip officially; and that done,
15802unofficially gave him much wholesome advice. The substance was, Never
15803jump from a boat, Pip, except--but all the rest was indefinite, as the
15804soundest advice ever is. Now, in general, STICK TO THE BOAT, is your
15805true motto in whaling; but cases will sometimes happen when LEAP FROM
15806THE BOAT, is still better. Moreover, as if perceiving at last that if he
15807should give undiluted conscientious advice to Pip, he would be leaving
15808him too wide a margin to jump in for the future; Stubb suddenly dropped
15809all advice, and concluded with a peremptory command, "Stick to the boat,
15810Pip, or by the Lord, I won't pick you up if you jump; mind that. We
15811can't afford to lose whales by the likes of you; a whale would sell for
15812thirty times what you would, Pip, in Alabama. Bear that in mind, and
15813don't jump any more." Hereby perhaps Stubb indirectly hinted, that
15814though man loved his fellow, yet man is a money-making animal, which
15815propensity too often interferes with his benevolence.
15816
15817But we are all in the hands of the Gods; and Pip jumped again. It was
15818under very similar circumstances to the first performance; but this time
15819he did not breast out the line; and hence, when the whale started to
15820run, Pip was left behind on the sea, like a hurried traveller's trunk.
15821Alas! Stubb was but too true to his word. It was a beautiful, bounteous,
15822blue day; the spangled sea calm and cool, and flatly stretching away,
15823all round, to the horizon, like gold-beater's skin hammered out to the
15824extremest. Bobbing up and down in that sea, Pip's ebon head showed
15825like a head of cloves. No boat-knife was lifted when he fell so rapidly
15826astern. Stubb's inexorable back was turned upon him; and the whale was
15827winged. In three minutes, a whole mile of shoreless ocean was between
15828Pip and Stubb. Out from the centre of the sea, poor Pip turned his
15829crisp, curling, black head to the sun, another lonely castaway, though
15830the loftiest and the brightest.
15831
15832Now, in calm weather, to swim in the open ocean is as easy to the
15833practised swimmer as to ride in a spring-carriage ashore. But the awful
15834lonesomeness is intolerable. The intense concentration of self in the
15835middle of such a heartless immensity, my God! who can tell it? Mark, how
15836when sailors in a dead calm bathe in the open sea--mark how closely they
15837hug their ship and only coast along her sides.
15838
15839But had Stubb really abandoned the poor little negro to his fate? No; he
15840did not mean to, at least. Because there were two boats in his wake,
15841and he supposed, no doubt, that they would of course come up to Pip very
15842quickly, and pick him up; though, indeed, such considerations towards
15843oarsmen jeopardized through their own timidity, is not always manifested
15844by the hunters in all similar instances; and such instances not
15845unfrequently occur; almost invariably in the fishery, a coward, so
15846called, is marked with the same ruthless detestation peculiar to
15847military navies and armies.
15848
15849But it so happened, that those boats, without seeing Pip, suddenly
15850spying whales close to them on one side, turned, and gave chase; and
15851Stubb's boat was now so far away, and he and all his crew so intent
15852upon his fish, that Pip's ringed horizon began to expand around him
15853miserably. By the merest chance the ship itself at last rescued him; but
15854from that hour the little negro went about the deck an idiot; such, at
15855least, they said he was. The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body
15856up, but drowned the infinite of his soul. Not drowned entirely, though.
15857Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of
15858the unwarped primal world glided to and fro before his passive eyes;
15859and the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded heaps; and among the
15860joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the multitudinous,
15861God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters
15862heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God's foot upon the treadle of the
15863loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad. So man's
15864insanity is heaven's sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man
15865comes at last to that celestial thought, which, to reason, is absurd and
15866frantic; and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his
15867God.
15868
15869For the rest, blame not Stubb too hardly. The thing is common in that
15870fishery; and in the sequel of the narrative, it will then be seen what
15871like abandonment befell myself.
15872
15873
15874
15875CHAPTER 94. A Squeeze of the Hand.
15876
15877
15878That whale of Stubb's, so dearly purchased, was duly brought to
15879the Pequod's side, where all those cutting and hoisting operations
15880previously detailed, were regularly gone through, even to the baling of
15881the Heidelburgh Tun, or Case.
15882
15883While some were occupied with this latter duty, others were employed
15884in dragging away the larger tubs, so soon as filled with the sperm; and
15885when the proper time arrived, this same sperm was carefully manipulated
15886ere going to the try-works, of which anon.
15887
15888It had cooled and crystallized to such a degree, that when, with several
15889others, I sat down before a large Constantine's bath of it, I found
15890it strangely concreted into lumps, here and there rolling about in the
15891liquid part. It was our business to squeeze these lumps back into fluid.
15892A sweet and unctuous duty! No wonder that in old times this sperm was
15893such a favourite cosmetic. Such a clearer! such a sweetener! such a
15894softener! such a delicious molifier! After having my hands in it for
15895only a few minutes, my fingers felt like eels, and began, as it were, to
15896serpentine and spiralise.
15897
15898As I sat there at my ease, cross-legged on the deck; after the bitter
15899exertion at the windlass; under a blue tranquil sky; the ship under
15900indolent sail, and gliding so serenely along; as I bathed my hands among
15901those soft, gentle globules of infiltrated tissues, woven almost within
15902the hour; as they richly broke to my fingers, and discharged all their
15903opulence, like fully ripe grapes their wine; as I snuffed up that
15904uncontaminated aroma,--literally and truly, like the smell of spring
15905violets; I declare to you, that for the time I lived as in a musky
15906meadow; I forgot all about our horrible oath; in that inexpressible
15907sperm, I washed my hands and my heart of it; I almost began to credit
15908the old Paracelsan superstition that sperm is of rare virtue in allaying
15909the heat of anger; while bathing in that bath, I felt divinely free from
15910all ill-will, or petulance, or malice, of any sort whatsoever.
15911
15912Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm
15913till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a
15914strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly
15915squeezing my co-laborers' hands in it, mistaking their hands for the
15916gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving
15917feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually
15918squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as
15919much as to say,--Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish
15920any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come;
15921let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into
15922each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and
15923sperm of kindness.
15924
15925Would that I could keep squeezing that sperm for ever! For now, since by
15926many prolonged, repeated experiences, I have perceived that in all cases
15927man must eventually lower, or at least shift, his conceit of attainable
15928felicity; not placing it anywhere in the intellect or the fancy; but in
15929the wife, the heart, the bed, the table, the saddle, the fireside, the
15930country; now that I have perceived all this, I am ready to squeeze case
15931eternally. In thoughts of the visions of the night, I saw long rows of
15932angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of spermaceti.
15933
15934Now, while discoursing of sperm, it behooves to speak of other things
15935akin to it, in the business of preparing the sperm whale for the
15936try-works.
15937
15938First comes white-horse, so called, which is obtained from the tapering
15939part of the fish, and also from the thicker portions of his flukes. It
15940is tough with congealed tendons--a wad of muscle--but still contains
15941some oil. After being severed from the whale, the white-horse is first
15942cut into portable oblongs ere going to the mincer. They look much like
15943blocks of Berkshire marble.
15944
15945Plum-pudding is the term bestowed upon certain fragmentary parts of the
15946whale's flesh, here and there adhering to the blanket of blubber, and
15947often participating to a considerable degree in its unctuousness. It is
15948a most refreshing, convivial, beautiful object to behold. As its name
15949imports, it is of an exceedingly rich, mottled tint, with a bestreaked
15950snowy and golden ground, dotted with spots of the deepest crimson and
15951purple. It is plums of rubies, in pictures of citron. Spite of reason,
15952it is hard to keep yourself from eating it. I confess, that once I stole
15953behind the foremast to try it. It tasted something as I should conceive
15954a royal cutlet from the thigh of Louis le Gros might have tasted,
15955supposing him to have been killed the first day after the venison
15956season, and that particular venison season contemporary with an
15957unusually fine vintage of the vineyards of Champagne.
15958
15959There is another substance, and a very singular one, which turns up in
15960the course of this business, but which I feel it to be very puzzling
15961adequately to describe. It is called slobgollion; an appellation
15962original with the whalemen, and even so is the nature of the substance.
15963It is an ineffably oozy, stringy affair, most frequently found in the
15964tubs of sperm, after a prolonged squeezing, and subsequent decanting.
15965I hold it to be the wondrously thin, ruptured membranes of the case,
15966coalescing.
15967
15968Gurry, so called, is a term properly belonging to right whalemen, but
15969sometimes incidentally used by the sperm fishermen. It designates the
15970dark, glutinous substance which is scraped off the back of the Greenland
15971or right whale, and much of which covers the decks of those inferior
15972souls who hunt that ignoble Leviathan.
15973
15974Nippers. Strictly this word is not indigenous to the whale's vocabulary.
15975But as applied by whalemen, it becomes so. A whaleman's nipper is
15976a short firm strip of tendinous stuff cut from the tapering part of
15977Leviathan's tail: it averages an inch in thickness, and for the rest, is
15978about the size of the iron part of a hoe. Edgewise moved along the
15979oily deck, it operates like a leathern squilgee; and by nameless
15980blandishments, as of magic, allures along with it all impurities.
15981
15982But to learn all about these recondite matters, your best way is at once
15983to descend into the blubber-room, and have a long talk with its inmates.
15984This place has previously been mentioned as the receptacle for the
15985blanket-pieces, when stript and hoisted from the whale. When the proper
15986time arrives for cutting up its contents, this apartment is a scene of
15987terror to all tyros, especially by night. On one side, lit by a dull
15988lantern, a space has been left clear for the workmen. They generally
15989go in pairs,--a pike-and-gaffman and a spade-man. The whaling-pike is
15990similar to a frigate's boarding-weapon of the same name. The gaff is
15991something like a boat-hook. With his gaff, the gaffman hooks on to a
15992sheet of blubber, and strives to hold it from slipping, as the ship
15993pitches and lurches about. Meanwhile, the spade-man stands on the sheet
15994itself, perpendicularly chopping it into the portable horse-pieces. This
15995spade is sharp as hone can make it; the spademan's feet are shoeless;
15996the thing he stands on will sometimes irresistibly slide away from
15997him, like a sledge. If he cuts off one of his own toes, or one of his
15998assistants', would you be very much astonished? Toes are scarce among
15999veteran blubber-room men.
16000
16001
16002
16003CHAPTER 95. The Cassock.
16004
16005
16006Had you stepped on board the Pequod at a certain juncture of this
16007post-mortemizing of the whale; and had you strolled forward nigh the
16008windlass, pretty sure am I that you would have scanned with no small
16009curiosity a very strange, enigmatical object, which you would have seen
16010there, lying along lengthwise in the lee scuppers. Not the wondrous
16011cistern in the whale's huge head; not the prodigy of his unhinged lower
16012jaw; not the miracle of his symmetrical tail; none of these would so
16013surprise you, as half a glimpse of that unaccountable cone,--longer than
16014a Kentuckian is tall, nigh a foot in diameter at the base, and jet-black
16015as Yojo, the ebony idol of Queequeg. And an idol, indeed, it is; or,
16016rather, in old times, its likeness was. Such an idol as that found in
16017the secret groves of Queen Maachah in Judea; and for worshipping which,
16018King Asa, her son, did depose her, and destroyed the idol, and burnt it
16019for an abomination at the brook Kedron, as darkly set forth in the 15th
16020chapter of the First Book of Kings.
16021
16022Look at the sailor, called the mincer, who now comes along, and assisted
16023by two allies, heavily backs the grandissimus, as the mariners call it,
16024and with bowed shoulders, staggers off with it as if he were a grenadier
16025carrying a dead comrade from the field. Extending it upon the forecastle
16026deck, he now proceeds cylindrically to remove its dark pelt, as an
16027African hunter the pelt of a boa. This done he turns the pelt inside
16028out, like a pantaloon leg; gives it a good stretching, so as almost to
16029double its diameter; and at last hangs it, well spread, in the rigging,
16030to dry. Ere long, it is taken down; when removing some three feet of it,
16031towards the pointed extremity, and then cutting two slits for arm-holes
16032at the other end, he lengthwise slips himself bodily into it. The mincer
16033now stands before you invested in the full canonicals of his calling.
16034Immemorial to all his order, this investiture alone will adequately
16035protect him, while employed in the peculiar functions of his office.
16036
16037That office consists in mincing the horse-pieces of blubber for the
16038pots; an operation which is conducted at a curious wooden horse, planted
16039endwise against the bulwarks, and with a capacious tub beneath it, into
16040which the minced pieces drop, fast as the sheets from a rapt orator's
16041desk. Arrayed in decent black; occupying a conspicuous pulpit; intent
16042on bible leaves; what a candidate for an archbishopric, what a lad for a
16043Pope were this mincer!*
16044
16045
16046*Bible leaves! Bible leaves! This is the invariable cry from the mates
16047to the mincer. It enjoins him to be careful, and cut his work into as
16048thin slices as possible, inasmuch as by so doing the business of
16049boiling out the oil is much accelerated, and its quantity considerably
16050increased, besides perhaps improving it in quality.
16051
16052
16053
16054CHAPTER 96. The Try-Works.
16055
16056
16057Besides her hoisted boats, an American whaler is outwardly distinguished
16058by her try-works. She presents the curious anomaly of the most solid
16059masonry joining with oak and hemp in constituting the completed ship.
16060It is as if from the open field a brick-kiln were transported to her
16061planks.
16062
16063The try-works are planted between the foremast and mainmast, the most
16064roomy part of the deck. The timbers beneath are of a peculiar strength,
16065fitted to sustain the weight of an almost solid mass of brick and
16066mortar, some ten feet by eight square, and five in height. The
16067foundation does not penetrate the deck, but the masonry is firmly
16068secured to the surface by ponderous knees of iron bracing it on all
16069sides, and screwing it down to the timbers. On the flanks it is cased
16070with wood, and at top completely covered by a large, sloping, battened
16071hatchway. Removing this hatch we expose the great try-pots, two in
16072number, and each of several barrels' capacity. When not in use, they are
16073kept remarkably clean. Sometimes they are polished with soapstone
16074and sand, till they shine within like silver punch-bowls. During the
16075night-watches some cynical old sailors will crawl into them and coil
16076themselves away there for a nap. While employed in polishing them--one
16077man in each pot, side by side--many confidential communications
16078are carried on, over the iron lips. It is a place also for profound
16079mathematical meditation. It was in the left hand try-pot of the Pequod,
16080with the soapstone diligently circling round me, that I was first
16081indirectly struck by the remarkable fact, that in geometry all bodies
16082gliding along the cycloid, my soapstone for example, will descend from
16083any point in precisely the same time.
16084
16085Removing the fire-board from the front of the try-works, the bare
16086masonry of that side is exposed, penetrated by the two iron mouths of
16087the furnaces, directly underneath the pots. These mouths are fitted
16088with heavy doors of iron. The intense heat of the fire is prevented
16089from communicating itself to the deck, by means of a shallow reservoir
16090extending under the entire inclosed surface of the works. By a tunnel
16091inserted at the rear, this reservoir is kept replenished with water as
16092fast as it evaporates. There are no external chimneys; they open direct
16093from the rear wall. And here let us go back for a moment.
16094
16095It was about nine o'clock at night that the Pequod's try-works were
16096first started on this present voyage. It belonged to Stubb to oversee
16097the business.
16098
16099"All ready there? Off hatch, then, and start her. You cook, fire the
16100works." This was an easy thing, for the carpenter had been thrusting his
16101shavings into the furnace throughout the passage. Here be it said that
16102in a whaling voyage the first fire in the try-works has to be fed for a
16103time with wood. After that no wood is used, except as a means of quick
16104ignition to the staple fuel. In a word, after being tried out, the
16105crisp, shrivelled blubber, now called scraps or fritters, still contains
16106considerable of its unctuous properties. These fritters feed the flames.
16107Like a plethoric burning martyr, or a self-consuming misanthrope, once
16108ignited, the whale supplies his own fuel and burns by his own body.
16109Would that he consumed his own smoke! for his smoke is horrible to
16110inhale, and inhale it you must, and not only that, but you must live in
16111it for the time. It has an unspeakable, wild, Hindoo odor about it, such
16112as may lurk in the vicinity of funereal pyres. It smells like the left
16113wing of the day of judgment; it is an argument for the pit.
16114
16115By midnight the works were in full operation. We were clear from the
16116carcase; sail had been made; the wind was freshening; the wild ocean
16117darkness was intense. But that darkness was licked up by the fierce
16118flames, which at intervals forked forth from the sooty flues, and
16119illuminated every lofty rope in the rigging, as with the famed Greek
16120fire. The burning ship drove on, as if remorselessly commissioned to
16121some vengeful deed. So the pitch and sulphur-freighted brigs of the
16122bold Hydriote, Canaris, issuing from their midnight harbors, with broad
16123sheets of flame for sails, bore down upon the Turkish frigates, and
16124folded them in conflagrations.
16125
16126The hatch, removed from the top of the works, now afforded a wide hearth
16127in front of them. Standing on this were the Tartarean shapes of the
16128pagan harpooneers, always the whale-ship's stokers. With huge pronged
16129poles they pitched hissing masses of blubber into the scalding pots, or
16130stirred up the fires beneath, till the snaky flames darted, curling, out
16131of the doors to catch them by the feet. The smoke rolled away in sullen
16132heaps. To every pitch of the ship there was a pitch of the boiling oil,
16133which seemed all eagerness to leap into their faces. Opposite the mouth
16134of the works, on the further side of the wide wooden hearth, was the
16135windlass. This served for a sea-sofa. Here lounged the watch, when not
16136otherwise employed, looking into the red heat of the fire, till their
16137eyes felt scorched in their heads. Their tawny features, now all
16138begrimed with smoke and sweat, their matted beards, and the contrasting
16139barbaric brilliancy of their teeth, all these were strangely revealed in
16140the capricious emblazonings of the works. As they narrated to each other
16141their unholy adventures, their tales of terror told in words of mirth;
16142as their uncivilized laughter forked upwards out of them, like the
16143flames from the furnace; as to and fro, in their front, the harpooneers
16144wildly gesticulated with their huge pronged forks and dippers; as the
16145wind howled on, and the sea leaped, and the ship groaned and dived, and
16146yet steadfastly shot her red hell further and further into the blackness
16147of the sea and the night, and scornfully champed the white bone in
16148her mouth, and viciously spat round her on all sides; then the rushing
16149Pequod, freighted with savages, and laden with fire, and burning
16150a corpse, and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the
16151material counterpart of her monomaniac commander's soul.
16152
16153So seemed it to me, as I stood at her helm, and for long hours silently
16154guided the way of this fire-ship on the sea. Wrapped, for that interval,
16155in darkness myself, I but the better saw the redness, the madness, the
16156ghastliness of others. The continual sight of the fiend shapes before
16157me, capering half in smoke and half in fire, these at last begat kindred
16158visions in my soul, so soon as I began to yield to that unaccountable
16159drowsiness which ever would come over me at a midnight helm.
16160
16161But that night, in particular, a strange (and ever since inexplicable)
16162thing occurred to me. Starting from a brief standing sleep, I was
16163horribly conscious of something fatally wrong. The jaw-bone tiller smote
16164my side, which leaned against it; in my ears was the low hum of sails,
16165just beginning to shake in the wind; I thought my eyes were open; I
16166was half conscious of putting my fingers to the lids and mechanically
16167stretching them still further apart. But, spite of all this, I could see
16168no compass before me to steer by; though it seemed but a minute since I
16169had been watching the card, by the steady binnacle lamp illuminating it.
16170Nothing seemed before me but a jet gloom, now and then made ghastly by
16171flashes of redness. Uppermost was the impression, that whatever swift,
16172rushing thing I stood on was not so much bound to any haven ahead as
16173rushing from all havens astern. A stark, bewildered feeling, as of
16174death, came over me. Convulsively my hands grasped the tiller, but with
16175the crazy conceit that the tiller was, somehow, in some enchanted way,
16176inverted. My God! what is the matter with me? thought I. Lo! in my brief
16177sleep I had turned myself about, and was fronting the ship's stern, with
16178my back to her prow and the compass. In an instant I faced back, just
16179in time to prevent the vessel from flying up into the wind, and very
16180probably capsizing her. How glad and how grateful the relief from this
16181unnatural hallucination of the night, and the fatal contingency of being
16182brought by the lee!
16183
16184Look not too long in the face of the fire, O man! Never dream with thy
16185hand on the helm! Turn not thy back to the compass; accept the first
16186hint of the hitching tiller; believe not the artificial fire, when its
16187redness makes all things look ghastly. To-morrow, in the natural sun,
16188the skies will be bright; those who glared like devils in the forking
16189flames, the morn will show in far other, at least gentler, relief; the
16190glorious, golden, glad sun, the only true lamp--all others but liars!
16191
16192Nevertheless the sun hides not Virginia's Dismal Swamp, nor Rome's
16193accursed Campagna, nor wide Sahara, nor all the millions of miles of
16194deserts and of griefs beneath the moon. The sun hides not the ocean,
16195which is the dark side of this earth, and which is two thirds of this
16196earth. So, therefore, that mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow
16197in him, that mortal man cannot be true--not true, or undeveloped. With
16198books the same. The truest of all men was the Man of Sorrows, and the
16199truest of all books is Solomon's, and Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered
16200steel of woe. "All is vanity." ALL. This wilful world hath not got hold
16201of unchristian Solomon's wisdom yet. But he who dodges hospitals and
16202jails, and walks fast crossing graveyards, and would rather talk of
16203operas than hell; calls Cowper, Young, Pascal, Rousseau, poor devils all
16204of sick men; and throughout a care-free lifetime swears by Rabelais as
16205passing wise, and therefore jolly;--not that man is fitted to sit
16206down on tomb-stones, and break the green damp mould with unfathomably
16207wondrous Solomon.
16208
16209But even Solomon, he says, "the man that wandereth out of the way
16210of understanding shall remain" (I.E., even while living) "in the
16211congregation of the dead." Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it
16212invert thee, deaden thee; as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom
16213that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill
16214eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges,
16215and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces.
16216And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the
16217mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still
16218higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.
16219
16220
16221
16222CHAPTER 97. The Lamp.
16223
16224
16225Had you descended from the Pequod's try-works to the Pequod's
16226forecastle, where the off duty watch were sleeping, for one single
16227moment you would have almost thought you were standing in some
16228illuminated shrine of canonized kings and counsellors. There they lay
16229in their triangular oaken vaults, each mariner a chiselled muteness; a
16230score of lamps flashing upon his hooded eyes.
16231
16232In merchantmen, oil for the sailor is more scarce than the milk of
16233queens. To dress in the dark, and eat in the dark, and stumble in
16234darkness to his pallet, this is his usual lot. But the whaleman, as he
16235seeks the food of light, so he lives in light. He makes his berth an
16236Aladdin's lamp, and lays him down in it; so that in the pitchiest night
16237the ship's black hull still houses an illumination.
16238
16239See with what entire freedom the whaleman takes his handful of
16240lamps--often but old bottles and vials, though--to the copper cooler at
16241the try-works, and replenishes them there, as mugs of ale at a vat. He
16242burns, too, the purest of oil, in its unmanufactured, and, therefore,
16243unvitiated state; a fluid unknown to solar, lunar, or astral
16244contrivances ashore. It is sweet as early grass butter in April. He
16245goes and hunts for his oil, so as to be sure of its freshness and
16246genuineness, even as the traveller on the prairie hunts up his own
16247supper of game.
16248
16249
16250
16251CHAPTER 98. Stowing Down and Clearing Up.
16252
16253
16254Already has it been related how the great leviathan is afar off
16255descried from the mast-head; how he is chased over the watery moors, and
16256slaughtered in the valleys of the deep; how he is then towed alongside
16257and beheaded; and how (on the principle which entitled the headsman of
16258old to the garments in which the beheaded was killed) his great padded
16259surtout becomes the property of his executioner; how, in due time, he
16260is condemned to the pots, and, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, his
16261spermaceti, oil, and bone pass unscathed through the fire;--but now it
16262remains to conclude the last chapter of this part of the description by
16263rehearsing--singing, if I may--the romantic proceeding of decanting off
16264his oil into the casks and striking them down into the hold, where
16265once again leviathan returns to his native profundities, sliding along
16266beneath the surface as before; but, alas! never more to rise and blow.
16267
16268While still warm, the oil, like hot punch, is received into the
16269six-barrel casks; and while, perhaps, the ship is pitching and rolling
16270this way and that in the midnight sea, the enormous casks are slewed
16271round and headed over, end for end, and sometimes perilously scoot
16272across the slippery deck, like so many land slides, till at last
16273man-handled and stayed in their course; and all round the hoops, rap,
16274rap, go as many hammers as can play upon them, for now, EX OFFICIO,
16275every sailor is a cooper.
16276
16277At length, when the last pint is casked, and all is cool, then the great
16278hatchways are unsealed, the bowels of the ship are thrown open, and down
16279go the casks to their final rest in the sea. This done, the hatches are
16280replaced, and hermetically closed, like a closet walled up.
16281
16282In the sperm fishery, this is perhaps one of the most remarkable
16283incidents in all the business of whaling. One day the planks stream with
16284freshets of blood and oil; on the sacred quarter-deck enormous masses of
16285the whale's head are profanely piled; great rusty casks lie about, as
16286in a brewery yard; the smoke from the try-works has besooted all the
16287bulwarks; the mariners go about suffused with unctuousness; the entire
16288ship seems great leviathan himself; while on all hands the din is
16289deafening.
16290
16291But a day or two after, you look about you, and prick your ears in this
16292self-same ship; and were it not for the tell-tale boats and try-works,
16293you would all but swear you trod some silent merchant vessel, with a
16294most scrupulously neat commander. The unmanufactured sperm oil possesses
16295a singularly cleansing virtue. This is the reason why the decks never
16296look so white as just after what they call an affair of oil. Besides,
16297from the ashes of the burned scraps of the whale, a potent lye is
16298readily made; and whenever any adhesiveness from the back of the whale
16299remains clinging to the side, that lye quickly exterminates it. Hands
16300go diligently along the bulwarks, and with buckets of water and rags
16301restore them to their full tidiness. The soot is brushed from the lower
16302rigging. All the numerous implements which have been in use are likewise
16303faithfully cleansed and put away. The great hatch is scrubbed and placed
16304upon the try-works, completely hiding the pots; every cask is out of
16305sight; all tackles are coiled in unseen nooks; and when by the combined
16306and simultaneous industry of almost the entire ship's company, the
16307whole of this conscientious duty is at last concluded, then the crew
16308themselves proceed to their own ablutions; shift themselves from top to
16309toe; and finally issue to the immaculate deck, fresh and all aglow, as
16310bridegrooms new-leaped from out the daintiest Holland.
16311
16312Now, with elated step, they pace the planks in twos and threes, and
16313humorously discourse of parlors, sofas, carpets, and fine cambrics;
16314propose to mat the deck; think of having hanging to the top; object not
16315to taking tea by moonlight on the piazza of the forecastle. To hint to
16316such musked mariners of oil, and bone, and blubber, were little short
16317of audacity. They know not the thing you distantly allude to. Away, and
16318bring us napkins!
16319
16320But mark: aloft there, at the three mast heads, stand three men intent
16321on spying out more whales, which, if caught, infallibly will again
16322soil the old oaken furniture, and drop at least one small grease-spot
16323somewhere. Yes; and many is the time, when, after the severest
16324uninterrupted labors, which know no night; continuing straight through
16325for ninety-six hours; when from the boat, where they have swelled their
16326wrists with all day rowing on the Line,--they only step to the deck to
16327carry vast chains, and heave the heavy windlass, and cut and slash, yea,
16328and in their very sweatings to be smoked and burned anew by the combined
16329fires of the equatorial sun and the equatorial try-works; when, on the
16330heel of all this, they have finally bestirred themselves to cleanse the
16331ship, and make a spotless dairy room of it; many is the time the poor
16332fellows, just buttoning the necks of their clean frocks, are startled by
16333the cry of "There she blows!" and away they fly to fight another whale,
16334and go through the whole weary thing again. Oh! my friends, but this
16335is man-killing! Yet this is life. For hardly have we mortals by long
16336toilings extracted from this world's vast bulk its small but valuable
16337sperm; and then, with weary patience, cleansed ourselves from its
16338defilements, and learned to live here in clean tabernacles of the soul;
16339hardly is this done, when--THERE SHE BLOWS!--the ghost is spouted up,
16340and away we sail to fight some other world, and go through young life's
16341old routine again.
16342
16343Oh! the metempsychosis! Oh! Pythagoras, that in bright Greece, two
16344thousand years ago, did die, so good, so wise, so mild; I sailed with
16345thee along the Peruvian coast last voyage--and, foolish as I am, taught
16346thee, a green simple boy, how to splice a rope!
16347
16348
16349
16350CHAPTER 99. The Doubloon.
16351
16352
16353Ere now it has been related how Ahab was wont to pace his quarter-deck,
16354taking regular turns at either limit, the binnacle and mainmast; but
16355in the multiplicity of other things requiring narration it has not been
16356added how that sometimes in these walks, when most plunged in his mood,
16357he was wont to pause in turn at each spot, and stand there strangely
16358eyeing the particular object before him. When he halted before the
16359binnacle, with his glance fastened on the pointed needle in the compass,
16360that glance shot like a javelin with the pointed intensity of his
16361purpose; and when resuming his walk he again paused before the mainmast,
16362then, as the same riveted glance fastened upon the riveted gold coin
16363there, he still wore the same aspect of nailed firmness, only dashed
16364with a certain wild longing, if not hopefulness.
16365
16366But one morning, turning to pass the doubloon, he seemed to be newly
16367attracted by the strange figures and inscriptions stamped on it, as
16368though now for the first time beginning to interpret for himself in
16369some monomaniac way whatever significance might lurk in them. And some
16370certain significance lurks in all things, else all things are little
16371worth, and the round world itself but an empty cipher, except to sell by
16372the cartload, as they do hills about Boston, to fill up some morass in
16373the Milky Way.
16374
16375Now this doubloon was of purest, virgin gold, raked somewhere out of the
16376heart of gorgeous hills, whence, east and west, over golden sands, the
16377head-waters of many a Pactolus flows. And though now nailed amidst all
16378the rustiness of iron bolts and the verdigris of copper spikes, yet,
16379untouchable and immaculate to any foulness, it still preserved its Quito
16380glow. Nor, though placed amongst a ruthless crew and every hour passed
16381by ruthless hands, and through the livelong nights shrouded with thick
16382darkness which might cover any pilfering approach, nevertheless every
16383sunrise found the doubloon where the sunset left it last. For it was
16384set apart and sanctified to one awe-striking end; and however wanton
16385in their sailor ways, one and all, the mariners revered it as the white
16386whale's talisman. Sometimes they talked it over in the weary watch by
16387night, wondering whose it was to be at last, and whether he would ever
16388live to spend it.
16389
16390Now those noble golden coins of South America are as medals of the sun
16391and tropic token-pieces. Here palms, alpacas, and volcanoes; sun's disks
16392and stars; ecliptics, horns-of-plenty, and rich banners waving, are in
16393luxuriant profusion stamped; so that the precious gold seems almost to
16394derive an added preciousness and enhancing glories, by passing through
16395those fancy mints, so Spanishly poetic.
16396
16397It so chanced that the doubloon of the Pequod was a most wealthy example
16398of these things. On its round border it bore the letters, REPUBLICA DEL
16399ECUADOR: QUITO. So this bright coin came from a country planted in the
16400middle of the world, and beneath the great equator, and named after it;
16401and it had been cast midway up the Andes, in the unwaning clime that
16402knows no autumn. Zoned by those letters you saw the likeness of three
16403Andes' summits; from one a flame; a tower on another; on the third a
16404crowing cock; while arching over all was a segment of the partitioned
16405zodiac, the signs all marked with their usual cabalistics, and the
16406keystone sun entering the equinoctial point at Libra.
16407
16408Before this equatorial coin, Ahab, not unobserved by others, was now
16409pausing.
16410
16411"There's something ever egotistical in mountain-tops and towers, and
16412all other grand and lofty things; look here,--three peaks as proud as
16413Lucifer. The firm tower, that is Ahab; the volcano, that is Ahab; the
16414courageous, the undaunted, and victorious fowl, that, too, is Ahab; all
16415are Ahab; and this round gold is but the image of the rounder globe,
16416which, like a magician's glass, to each and every man in turn but
16417mirrors back his own mysterious self. Great pains, small gains for those
16418who ask the world to solve them; it cannot solve itself. Methinks now
16419this coined sun wears a ruddy face; but see! aye, he enters the sign
16420of storms, the equinox! and but six months before he wheeled out of a
16421former equinox at Aries! From storm to storm! So be it, then. Born in
16422throes, 'tis fit that man should live in pains and die in pangs! So be
16423it, then! Here's stout stuff for woe to work on. So be it, then."
16424
16425"No fairy fingers can have pressed the gold, but devil's claws must
16426have left their mouldings there since yesterday," murmured Starbuck
16427to himself, leaning against the bulwarks. "The old man seems to read
16428Belshazzar's awful writing. I have never marked the coin inspectingly.
16429He goes below; let me read. A dark valley between three mighty,
16430heaven-abiding peaks, that almost seem the Trinity, in some faint
16431earthly symbol. So in this vale of Death, God girds us round; and over
16432all our gloom, the sun of Righteousness still shines a beacon and a
16433hope. If we bend down our eyes, the dark vale shows her mouldy soil;
16434but if we lift them, the bright sun meets our glance half way, to cheer.
16435Yet, oh, the great sun is no fixture; and if, at midnight, we would fain
16436snatch some sweet solace from him, we gaze for him in vain! This coin
16437speaks wisely, mildly, truly, but still sadly to me. I will quit it,
16438lest Truth shake me falsely."
16439
16440"There now's the old Mogul," soliloquized Stubb by the try-works, "he's
16441been twigging it; and there goes Starbuck from the same, and both with
16442faces which I should say might be somewhere within nine fathoms long.
16443And all from looking at a piece of gold, which did I have it now on
16444Negro Hill or in Corlaer's Hook, I'd not look at it very long ere
16445spending it. Humph! in my poor, insignificant opinion, I regard this as
16446queer. I have seen doubloons before now in my voyagings; your doubloons
16447of old Spain, your doubloons of Peru, your doubloons of Chili, your
16448doubloons of Bolivia, your doubloons of Popayan; with plenty of gold
16449moidores and pistoles, and joes, and half joes, and quarter joes. What
16450then should there be in this doubloon of the Equator that is so killing
16451wonderful? By Golconda! let me read it once. Halloa! here's signs and
16452wonders truly! That, now, is what old Bowditch in his Epitome calls the
16453zodiac, and what my almanac below calls ditto. I'll get the almanac and
16454as I have heard devils can be raised with Daboll's arithmetic, I'll try
16455my hand at raising a meaning out of these queer curvicues here with
16456the Massachusetts calendar. Here's the book. Let's see now. Signs and
16457wonders; and the sun, he's always among 'em. Hem, hem, hem; here they
16458are--here they go--all alive:--Aries, or the Ram; Taurus, or the Bull
16459and Jimimi! here's Gemini himself, or the Twins. Well; the sun he
16460wheels among 'em. Aye, here on the coin he's just crossing the threshold
16461between two of twelve sitting-rooms all in a ring. Book! you lie there;
16462the fact is, you books must know your places. You'll do to give us the
16463bare words and facts, but we come in to supply the thoughts. That's my
16464small experience, so far as the Massachusetts calendar, and Bowditch's
16465navigator, and Daboll's arithmetic go. Signs and wonders, eh? Pity if
16466there is nothing wonderful in signs, and significant in wonders! There's
16467a clue somewhere; wait a bit; hist--hark! By Jove, I have it! Look you,
16468Doubloon, your zodiac here is the life of man in one round chapter;
16469and now I'll read it off, straight out of the book. Come, Almanack! To
16470begin: there's Aries, or the Ram--lecherous dog, he begets us; then,
16471Taurus, or the Bull--he bumps us the first thing; then Gemini, or the
16472Twins--that is, Virtue and Vice; we try to reach Virtue, when lo! comes
16473Cancer the Crab, and drags us back; and here, going from Virtue, Leo,
16474a roaring Lion, lies in the path--he gives a few fierce bites and surly
16475dabs with his paw; we escape, and hail Virgo, the Virgin! that's our
16476first love; we marry and think to be happy for aye, when pop comes
16477Libra, or the Scales--happiness weighed and found wanting; and while we
16478are very sad about that, Lord! how we suddenly jump, as Scorpio, or the
16479Scorpion, stings us in the rear; we are curing the wound, when whang
16480come the arrows all round; Sagittarius, or the Archer, is amusing
16481himself. As we pluck out the shafts, stand aside! here's the
16482battering-ram, Capricornus, or the Goat; full tilt, he comes rushing,
16483and headlong we are tossed; when Aquarius, or the Water-bearer, pours
16484out his whole deluge and drowns us; and to wind up with Pisces, or the
16485Fishes, we sleep. There's a sermon now, writ in high heaven, and the
16486sun goes through it every year, and yet comes out of it all alive and
16487hearty. Jollily he, aloft there, wheels through toil and trouble; and
16488so, alow here, does jolly Stubb. Oh, jolly's the word for aye! Adieu,
16489Doubloon! But stop; here comes little King-Post; dodge round the
16490try-works, now, and let's hear what he'll have to say. There; he's
16491before it; he'll out with something presently. So, so; he's beginning."
16492
16493"I see nothing here, but a round thing made of gold, and whoever raises
16494a certain whale, this round thing belongs to him. So, what's all this
16495staring been about? It is worth sixteen dollars, that's true; and at
16496two cents the cigar, that's nine hundred and sixty cigars. I won't smoke
16497dirty pipes like Stubb, but I like cigars, and here's nine hundred and
16498sixty of them; so here goes Flask aloft to spy 'em out."
16499
16500"Shall I call that wise or foolish, now; if it be really wise it has a
16501foolish look to it; yet, if it be really foolish, then has it a sort
16502of wiseish look to it. But, avast; here comes our old Manxman--the old
16503hearse-driver, he must have been, that is, before he took to the sea. He
16504luffs up before the doubloon; halloa, and goes round on the other side
16505of the mast; why, there's a horse-shoe nailed on that side; and now he's
16506back again; what does that mean? Hark! he's muttering--voice like an old
16507worn-out coffee-mill. Prick ears, and listen!"
16508
16509"If the White Whale be raised, it must be in a month and a day, when
16510the sun stands in some one of these signs. I've studied signs, and know
16511their marks; they were taught me two score years ago, by the old witch
16512in Copenhagen. Now, in what sign will the sun then be? The horse-shoe
16513sign; for there it is, right opposite the gold. And what's the
16514horse-shoe sign? The lion is the horse-shoe sign--the roaring and
16515devouring lion. Ship, old ship! my old head shakes to think of thee."
16516
16517"There's another rendering now; but still one text. All sorts of men
16518in one kind of world, you see. Dodge again! here comes Queequeg--all
16519tattooing--looks like the signs of the Zodiac himself. What says the
16520Cannibal? As I live he's comparing notes; looking at his thigh bone;
16521thinks the sun is in the thigh, or in the calf, or in the bowels, I
16522suppose, as the old women talk Surgeon's Astronomy in the back country.
16523And by Jove, he's found something there in the vicinity of his thigh--I
16524guess it's Sagittarius, or the Archer. No: he don't know what to make
16525of the doubloon; he takes it for an old button off some king's trowsers.
16526But, aside again! here comes that ghost-devil, Fedallah; tail coiled out
16527of sight as usual, oakum in the toes of his pumps as usual. What does he
16528say, with that look of his? Ah, only makes a sign to the sign and bows
16529himself; there is a sun on the coin--fire worshipper, depend upon it.
16530Ho! more and more. This way comes Pip--poor boy! would he had died,
16531or I; he's half horrible to me. He too has been watching all of these
16532interpreters--myself included--and look now, he comes to read, with that
16533unearthly idiot face. Stand away again and hear him. Hark!"
16534
16535"I look, you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look."
16536
16537"Upon my soul, he's been studying Murray's Grammar! Improving his mind,
16538poor fellow! But what's that he says now--hist!"
16539
16540"I look, you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look."
16541
16542"Why, he's getting it by heart--hist! again."
16543
16544"I look, you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look."
16545
16546"Well, that's funny."
16547
16548"And I, you, and he; and we, ye, and they, are all bats; and I'm a crow,
16549especially when I stand a'top of this pine tree here. Caw! caw! caw!
16550caw! caw! caw! Ain't I a crow? And where's the scare-crow? There he
16551stands; two bones stuck into a pair of old trowsers, and two more poked
16552into the sleeves of an old jacket."
16553
16554"Wonder if he means me?--complimentary!--poor lad!--I could go hang
16555myself. Any way, for the present, I'll quit Pip's vicinity. I can stand
16556the rest, for they have plain wits; but he's too crazy-witty for my
16557sanity. So, so, I leave him muttering."
16558
16559"Here's the ship's navel, this doubloon here, and they are all on fire
16560to unscrew it. But, unscrew your navel, and what's the consequence? Then
16561again, if it stays here, that is ugly, too, for when aught's nailed to
16562the mast it's a sign that things grow desperate. Ha, ha! old Ahab!
16563the White Whale; he'll nail ye! This is a pine tree. My father, in old
16564Tolland county, cut down a pine tree once, and found a silver ring grown
16565over in it; some old darkey's wedding ring. How did it get there? And
16566so they'll say in the resurrection, when they come to fish up this old
16567mast, and find a doubloon lodged in it, with bedded oysters for the
16568shaggy bark. Oh, the gold! the precious, precious, gold! the green
16569miser'll hoard ye soon! Hish! hish! God goes 'mong the worlds
16570blackberrying. Cook! ho, cook! and cook us! Jenny! hey, hey, hey, hey,
16571hey, Jenny, Jenny! and get your hoe-cake done!"
16572
16573
16574
16575CHAPTER 100. Leg and Arm.
16576
16577The Pequod, of Nantucket, Meets the Samuel Enderby, of London.
16578
16579
16580"Ship, ahoy! Hast seen the White Whale?"
16581
16582So cried Ahab, once more hailing a ship showing English colours, bearing
16583down under the stern. Trumpet to mouth, the old man was standing in his
16584hoisted quarter-boat, his ivory leg plainly revealed to the stranger
16585captain, who was carelessly reclining in his own boat's bow. He was
16586a darkly-tanned, burly, good-natured, fine-looking man, of sixty or
16587thereabouts, dressed in a spacious roundabout, that hung round him in
16588festoons of blue pilot-cloth; and one empty arm of this jacket streamed
16589behind him like the broidered arm of a hussar's surcoat.
16590
16591"Hast seen the White Whale!"
16592
16593"See you this?" and withdrawing it from the folds that had hidden it,
16594he held up a white arm of sperm whale bone, terminating in a wooden head
16595like a mallet.
16596
16597"Man my boat!" cried Ahab, impetuously, and tossing about the oars near
16598him--"Stand by to lower!"
16599
16600In less than a minute, without quitting his little craft, he and his
16601crew were dropped to the water, and were soon alongside of the stranger.
16602But here a curious difficulty presented itself. In the excitement of the
16603moment, Ahab had forgotten that since the loss of his leg he had never
16604once stepped on board of any vessel at sea but his own, and then it was
16605always by an ingenious and very handy mechanical contrivance peculiar to
16606the Pequod, and a thing not to be rigged and shipped in any other
16607vessel at a moment's warning. Now, it is no very easy matter
16608for anybody--except those who are almost hourly used to it, like
16609whalemen--to clamber up a ship's side from a boat on the open sea; for
16610the great swells now lift the boat high up towards the bulwarks, and
16611then instantaneously drop it half way down to the kelson. So, deprived
16612of one leg, and the strange ship of course being altogether unsupplied
16613with the kindly invention, Ahab now found himself abjectly reduced to a
16614clumsy landsman again; hopelessly eyeing the uncertain changeful height
16615he could hardly hope to attain.
16616
16617It has before been hinted, perhaps, that every little untoward
16618circumstance that befell him, and which indirectly sprang from his
16619luckless mishap, almost invariably irritated or exasperated Ahab. And
16620in the present instance, all this was heightened by the sight of the
16621two officers of the strange ship, leaning over the side, by the
16622perpendicular ladder of nailed cleets there, and swinging towards him a
16623pair of tastefully-ornamented man-ropes; for at first they did not seem
16624to bethink them that a one-legged man must be too much of a cripple to
16625use their sea bannisters. But this awkwardness only lasted a minute,
16626because the strange captain, observing at a glance how affairs stood,
16627cried out, "I see, I see!--avast heaving there! Jump, boys, and swing
16628over the cutting-tackle."
16629
16630As good luck would have it, they had had a whale alongside a day or two
16631previous, and the great tackles were still aloft, and the massive curved
16632blubber-hook, now clean and dry, was still attached to the end. This
16633was quickly lowered to Ahab, who at once comprehending it all, slid his
16634solitary thigh into the curve of the hook (it was like sitting in the
16635fluke of an anchor, or the crotch of an apple tree), and then giving the
16636word, held himself fast, and at the same time also helped to hoist his
16637own weight, by pulling hand-over-hand upon one of the running parts of
16638the tackle. Soon he was carefully swung inside the high bulwarks, and
16639gently landed upon the capstan head. With his ivory arm frankly thrust
16640forth in welcome, the other captain advanced, and Ahab, putting out his
16641ivory leg, and crossing the ivory arm (like two sword-fish blades)
16642cried out in his walrus way, "Aye, aye, hearty! let us shake bones
16643together!--an arm and a leg!--an arm that never can shrink, d'ye
16644see; and a leg that never can run. Where did'st thou see the White
16645Whale?--how long ago?"
16646
16647"The White Whale," said the Englishman, pointing his ivory arm towards
16648the East, and taking a rueful sight along it, as if it had been a
16649telescope; "there I saw him, on the Line, last season."
16650
16651"And he took that arm off, did he?" asked Ahab, now sliding down from
16652the capstan, and resting on the Englishman's shoulder, as he did so.
16653
16654"Aye, he was the cause of it, at least; and that leg, too?"
16655
16656"Spin me the yarn," said Ahab; "how was it?"
16657
16658"It was the first time in my life that I ever cruised on the Line,"
16659began the Englishman. "I was ignorant of the White Whale at that time.
16660Well, one day we lowered for a pod of four or five whales, and my boat
16661fastened to one of them; a regular circus horse he was, too, that went
16662milling and milling round so, that my boat's crew could only trim dish,
16663by sitting all their sterns on the outer gunwale. Presently up breaches
16664from the bottom of the sea a bouncing great whale, with a milky-white
16665head and hump, all crows' feet and wrinkles."
16666
16667"It was he, it was he!" cried Ahab, suddenly letting out his suspended
16668breath.
16669
16670"And harpoons sticking in near his starboard fin."
16671
16672"Aye, aye--they were mine--MY irons," cried Ahab, exultingly--"but on!"
16673
16674"Give me a chance, then," said the Englishman, good-humoredly. "Well,
16675this old great-grandfather, with the white head and hump, runs all afoam
16676into the pod, and goes to snapping furiously at my fast-line!
16677
16678"Aye, I see!--wanted to part it; free the fast-fish--an old trick--I
16679know him."
16680
16681"How it was exactly," continued the one-armed commander, "I do not know;
16682but in biting the line, it got foul of his teeth, caught there somehow;
16683but we didn't know it then; so that when we afterwards pulled on the
16684line, bounce we came plump on to his hump! instead of the other whale's;
16685that went off to windward, all fluking. Seeing how matters stood, and
16686what a noble great whale it was--the noblest and biggest I ever saw,
16687sir, in my life--I resolved to capture him, spite of the boiling rage
16688he seemed to be in. And thinking the hap-hazard line would get loose, or
16689the tooth it was tangled to might draw (for I have a devil of a boat's
16690crew for a pull on a whale-line); seeing all this, I say, I jumped
16691into my first mate's boat--Mr. Mounttop's here (by the way,
16692Captain--Mounttop; Mounttop--the captain);--as I was saying, I jumped
16693into Mounttop's boat, which, d'ye see, was gunwale and gunwale
16694with mine, then; and snatching the first harpoon, let this old
16695great-grandfather have it. But, Lord, look you, sir--hearts and souls
16696alive, man--the next instant, in a jiff, I was blind as a bat--both
16697eyes out--all befogged and bedeadened with black foam--the whale's tail
16698looming straight up out of it, perpendicular in the air, like a marble
16699steeple. No use sterning all, then; but as I was groping at midday, with
16700a blinding sun, all crown-jewels; as I was groping, I say, after the
16701second iron, to toss it overboard--down comes the tail like a Lima
16702tower, cutting my boat in two, leaving each half in splinters; and,
16703flukes first, the white hump backed through the wreck, as though it was
16704all chips. We all struck out. To escape his terrible flailings, I seized
16705hold of my harpoon-pole sticking in him, and for a moment clung to that
16706like a sucking fish. But a combing sea dashed me off, and at the same
16707instant, the fish, taking one good dart forwards, went down like a
16708flash; and the barb of that cursed second iron towing along near me
16709caught me here" (clapping his hand just below his shoulder); "yes,
16710caught me just here, I say, and bore me down to Hell's flames, I was
16711thinking; when, when, all of a sudden, thank the good God, the barb ript
16712its way along the flesh--clear along the whole length of my arm--came
16713out nigh my wrist, and up I floated;--and that gentleman there will tell
16714you the rest (by the way, captain--Dr. Bunger, ship's surgeon: Bunger,
16715my lad,--the captain). Now, Bunger boy, spin your part of the yarn."
16716
16717The professional gentleman thus familiarly pointed out, had been all the
16718time standing near them, with nothing specific visible, to denote his
16719gentlemanly rank on board. His face was an exceedingly round but sober
16720one; he was dressed in a faded blue woollen frock or shirt, and patched
16721trowsers; and had thus far been dividing his attention between a
16722marlingspike he held in one hand, and a pill-box held in the other,
16723occasionally casting a critical glance at the ivory limbs of the two
16724crippled captains. But, at his superior's introduction of him to Ahab,
16725he politely bowed, and straightway went on to do his captain's bidding.
16726
16727"It was a shocking bad wound," began the whale-surgeon; "and, taking my
16728advice, Captain Boomer here, stood our old Sammy--"
16729
16730"Samuel Enderby is the name of my ship," interrupted the one-armed
16731captain, addressing Ahab; "go on, boy."
16732
16733"Stood our old Sammy off to the northward, to get out of the blazing hot
16734weather there on the Line. But it was no use--I did all I could; sat up
16735with him nights; was very severe with him in the matter of diet--"
16736
16737"Oh, very severe!" chimed in the patient himself; then suddenly altering
16738his voice, "Drinking hot rum toddies with me every night, till he
16739couldn't see to put on the bandages; and sending me to bed, half seas
16740over, about three o'clock in the morning. Oh, ye stars! he sat up with
16741me indeed, and was very severe in my diet. Oh! a great watcher, and very
16742dietetically severe, is Dr. Bunger. (Bunger, you dog, laugh out! why
16743don't ye? You know you're a precious jolly rascal.) But, heave ahead,
16744boy, I'd rather be killed by you than kept alive by any other man."
16745
16746"My captain, you must have ere this perceived, respected sir"--said the
16747imperturbable godly-looking Bunger, slightly bowing to Ahab--"is apt to
16748be facetious at times; he spins us many clever things of that sort. But
16749I may as well say--en passant, as the French remark--that I myself--that
16750is to say, Jack Bunger, late of the reverend clergy--am a strict total
16751abstinence man; I never drink--"
16752
16753"Water!" cried the captain; "he never drinks it; it's a sort of fits to
16754him; fresh water throws him into the hydrophobia; but go on--go on with
16755the arm story."
16756
16757"Yes, I may as well," said the surgeon, coolly. "I was about observing,
16758sir, before Captain Boomer's facetious interruption, that spite of my
16759best and severest endeavors, the wound kept getting worse and worse; the
16760truth was, sir, it was as ugly gaping wound as surgeon ever saw; more
16761than two feet and several inches long. I measured it with the lead line.
16762In short, it grew black; I knew what was threatened, and off it came.
16763But I had no hand in shipping that ivory arm there; that thing is
16764against all rule"--pointing at it with the marlingspike--"that is the
16765captain's work, not mine; he ordered the carpenter to make it; he had
16766that club-hammer there put to the end, to knock some one's brains
16767out with, I suppose, as he tried mine once. He flies into diabolical
16768passions sometimes. Do ye see this dent, sir"--removing his hat, and
16769brushing aside his hair, and exposing a bowl-like cavity in his skull,
16770but which bore not the slightest scarry trace, or any token of ever
16771having been a wound--"Well, the captain there will tell you how that
16772came here; he knows."
16773
16774"No, I don't," said the captain, "but his mother did; he was born with
16775it. Oh, you solemn rogue, you--you Bunger! was there ever such another
16776Bunger in the watery world? Bunger, when you die, you ought to die in
16777pickle, you dog; you should be preserved to future ages, you rascal."
16778
16779"What became of the White Whale?" now cried Ahab, who thus far had been
16780impatiently listening to this by-play between the two Englishmen.
16781
16782"Oh!" cried the one-armed captain, "oh, yes! Well; after he sounded,
16783we didn't see him again for some time; in fact, as I before hinted, I
16784didn't then know what whale it was that had served me such a trick, till
16785some time afterwards, when coming back to the Line, we heard about Moby
16786Dick--as some call him--and then I knew it was he."
16787
16788"Did'st thou cross his wake again?"
16789
16790"Twice."
16791
16792"But could not fasten?"
16793
16794"Didn't want to try to: ain't one limb enough? What should I do without
16795this other arm? And I'm thinking Moby Dick doesn't bite so much as he
16796swallows."
16797
16798"Well, then," interrupted Bunger, "give him your left arm for bait to
16799get the right. Do you know, gentlemen"--very gravely and mathematically
16800bowing to each Captain in succession--"Do you know, gentlemen, that the
16801digestive organs of the whale are so inscrutably constructed by Divine
16802Providence, that it is quite impossible for him to completely digest
16803even a man's arm? And he knows it too. So that what you take for the
16804White Whale's malice is only his awkwardness. For he never means
16805to swallow a single limb; he only thinks to terrify by feints. But
16806sometimes he is like the old juggling fellow, formerly a patient of mine
16807in Ceylon, that making believe swallow jack-knives, once upon a time let
16808one drop into him in good earnest, and there it stayed for a twelvemonth
16809or more; when I gave him an emetic, and he heaved it up in small tacks,
16810d'ye see. No possible way for him to digest that jack-knife, and fully
16811incorporate it into his general bodily system. Yes, Captain Boomer, if
16812you are quick enough about it, and have a mind to pawn one arm for the
16813sake of the privilege of giving decent burial to the other, why in that
16814case the arm is yours; only let the whale have another chance at you
16815shortly, that's all."
16816
16817"No, thank ye, Bunger," said the English Captain, "he's welcome to the
16818arm he has, since I can't help it, and didn't know him then; but not to
16819another one. No more White Whales for me; I've lowered for him once, and
16820that has satisfied me. There would be great glory in killing him, I know
16821that; and there is a ship-load of precious sperm in him, but, hark ye,
16822he's best let alone; don't you think so, Captain?"--glancing at the
16823ivory leg.
16824
16825"He is. But he will still be hunted, for all that. What is best let
16826alone, that accursed thing is not always what least allures. He's all a
16827magnet! How long since thou saw'st him last? Which way heading?"
16828
16829"Bless my soul, and curse the foul fiend's," cried Bunger, stoopingly
16830walking round Ahab, and like a dog, strangely snuffing; "this man's
16831blood--bring the thermometer!--it's at the boiling point!--his pulse
16832makes these planks beat!--sir!"--taking a lancet from his pocket, and
16833drawing near to Ahab's arm.
16834
16835"Avast!" roared Ahab, dashing him against the bulwarks--"Man the boat!
16836Which way heading?"
16837
16838"Good God!" cried the English Captain, to whom the question was put.
16839"What's the matter? He was heading east, I think.--Is your Captain
16840crazy?" whispering Fedallah.
16841
16842But Fedallah, putting a finger on his lip, slid over the bulwarks to
16843take the boat's steering oar, and Ahab, swinging the cutting-tackle
16844towards him, commanded the ship's sailors to stand by to lower.
16845
16846In a moment he was standing in the boat's stern, and the Manilla men
16847were springing to their oars. In vain the English Captain hailed him.
16848With back to the stranger ship, and face set like a flint to his own,
16849Ahab stood upright till alongside of the Pequod.
16850
16851
16852
16853CHAPTER 101. The Decanter.
16854
16855
16856Ere the English ship fades from sight, be it set down here, that
16857she hailed from London, and was named after the late Samuel Enderby,
16858merchant of that city, the original of the famous whaling house of
16859Enderby & Sons; a house which in my poor whaleman's opinion, comes not
16860far behind the united royal houses of the Tudors and Bourbons, in point
16861of real historical interest. How long, prior to the year of our
16862Lord 1775, this great whaling house was in existence, my numerous
16863fish-documents do not make plain; but in that year (1775) it fitted
16864out the first English ships that ever regularly hunted the Sperm Whale;
16865though for some score of years previous (ever since 1726) our valiant
16866Coffins and Maceys of Nantucket and the Vineyard had in large fleets
16867pursued that Leviathan, but only in the North and South Atlantic: not
16868elsewhere. Be it distinctly recorded here, that the Nantucketers were
16869the first among mankind to harpoon with civilized steel the great Sperm
16870Whale; and that for half a century they were the only people of the
16871whole globe who so harpooned him.
16872
16873In 1778, a fine ship, the Amelia, fitted out for the express purpose,
16874and at the sole charge of the vigorous Enderbys, boldly rounded Cape
16875Horn, and was the first among the nations to lower a whale-boat of any
16876sort in the great South Sea. The voyage was a skilful and lucky one;
16877and returning to her berth with her hold full of the precious sperm, the
16878Amelia's example was soon followed by other ships, English and American,
16879and thus the vast Sperm Whale grounds of the Pacific were thrown open.
16880But not content with this good deed, the indefatigable house again
16881bestirred itself: Samuel and all his Sons--how many, their mother only
16882knows--and under their immediate auspices, and partly, I think, at their
16883expense, the British government was induced to send the sloop-of-war
16884Rattler on a whaling voyage of discovery into the South Sea. Commanded
16885by a naval Post-Captain, the Rattler made a rattling voyage of it, and
16886did some service; how much does not appear. But this is not all. In
168871819, the same house fitted out a discovery whale ship of their own, to
16888go on a tasting cruise to the remote waters of Japan. That ship--well
16889called the "Syren"--made a noble experimental cruise; and it was thus
16890that the great Japanese Whaling Ground first became generally known.
16891The Syren in this famous voyage was commanded by a Captain Coffin, a
16892Nantucketer.
16893
16894All honour to the Enderbies, therefore, whose house, I think, exists to
16895the present day; though doubtless the original Samuel must long ago have
16896slipped his cable for the great South Sea of the other world.
16897
16898The ship named after him was worthy of the honour, being a very fast
16899sailer and a noble craft every way. I boarded her once at midnight
16900somewhere off the Patagonian coast, and drank good flip down in the
16901forecastle. It was a fine gam we had, and they were all trumps--every
16902soul on board. A short life to them, and a jolly death. And that fine
16903gam I had--long, very long after old Ahab touched her planks with his
16904ivory heel--it minds me of the noble, solid, Saxon hospitality of that
16905ship; and may my parson forget me, and the devil remember me, if I ever
16906lose sight of it. Flip? Did I say we had flip? Yes, and we flipped it
16907at the rate of ten gallons the hour; and when the squall came (for it's
16908squally off there by Patagonia), and all hands--visitors and all--were
16909called to reef topsails, we were so top-heavy that we had to swing each
16910other aloft in bowlines; and we ignorantly furled the skirts of our
16911jackets into the sails, so that we hung there, reefed fast in the
16912howling gale, a warning example to all drunken tars. However, the masts
16913did not go overboard; and by and by we scrambled down, so sober, that we
16914had to pass the flip again, though the savage salt spray bursting down
16915the forecastle scuttle, rather too much diluted and pickled it to my
16916taste.
16917
16918The beef was fine--tough, but with body in it. They said it was
16919bull-beef; others, that it was dromedary beef; but I do not know, for
16920certain, how that was. They had dumplings too; small, but substantial,
16921symmetrically globular, and indestructible dumplings. I fancied that you
16922could feel them, and roll them about in you after they were swallowed.
16923If you stooped over too far forward, you risked their pitching out
16924of you like billiard-balls. The bread--but that couldn't be helped;
16925besides, it was an anti-scorbutic; in short, the bread contained the
16926only fresh fare they had. But the forecastle was not very light, and it
16927was very easy to step over into a dark corner when you ate it. But all
16928in all, taking her from truck to helm, considering the dimensions of the
16929cook's boilers, including his own live parchment boilers; fore and aft,
16930I say, the Samuel Enderby was a jolly ship; of good fare and plenty;
16931fine flip and strong; crack fellows all, and capital from boot heels to
16932hat-band.
16933
16934But why was it, think ye, that the Samuel Enderby, and some other
16935English whalers I know of--not all though--were such famous, hospitable
16936ships; that passed round the beef, and the bread, and the can, and the
16937joke; and were not soon weary of eating, and drinking, and laughing?
16938I will tell you. The abounding good cheer of these English whalers
16939is matter for historical research. Nor have I been at all sparing of
16940historical whale research, when it has seemed needed.
16941
16942The English were preceded in the whale fishery by the Hollanders,
16943Zealanders, and Danes; from whom they derived many terms still extant
16944in the fishery; and what is yet more, their fat old fashions,
16945touching plenty to eat and drink. For, as a general thing, the English
16946merchant-ship scrimps her crew; but not so the English whaler. Hence, in
16947the English, this thing of whaling good cheer is not normal and natural,
16948but incidental and particular; and, therefore, must have some special
16949origin, which is here pointed out, and will be still further elucidated.
16950
16951During my researches in the Leviathanic histories, I stumbled upon an
16952ancient Dutch volume, which, by the musty whaling smell of it, I
16953knew must be about whalers. The title was, "Dan Coopman," wherefore I
16954concluded that this must be the invaluable memoirs of some Amsterdam
16955cooper in the fishery, as every whale ship must carry its cooper. I was
16956reinforced in this opinion by seeing that it was the production of one
16957"Fitz Swackhammer." But my friend Dr. Snodhead, a very learned man,
16958professor of Low Dutch and High German in the college of Santa Claus and
16959St. Pott's, to whom I handed the work for translation, giving him a box
16960of sperm candles for his trouble--this same Dr. Snodhead, so soon as he
16961spied the book, assured me that "Dan Coopman" did not mean "The Cooper,"
16962but "The Merchant." In short, this ancient and learned Low Dutch book
16963treated of the commerce of Holland; and, among other subjects, contained
16964a very interesting account of its whale fishery. And in this chapter it
16965was, headed, "Smeer," or "Fat," that I found a long detailed list of the
16966outfits for the larders and cellars of 180 sail of Dutch whalemen; from
16967which list, as translated by Dr. Snodhead, I transcribe the following:
16968
16969400,000 lbs. of beef. 60,000 lbs. Friesland pork. 150,000 lbs. of stock
16970fish. 550,000 lbs. of biscuit. 72,000 lbs. of soft bread. 2,800 firkins
16971of butter. 20,000 lbs. Texel & Leyden cheese. 144,000 lbs. cheese
16972(probably an inferior article). 550 ankers of Geneva. 10,800 barrels of
16973beer.
16974
16975Most statistical tables are parchingly dry in the reading; not so in
16976the present case, however, where the reader is flooded with whole pipes,
16977barrels, quarts, and gills of good gin and good cheer.
16978
16979At the time, I devoted three days to the studious digesting of all
16980this beer, beef, and bread, during which many profound thoughts were
16981incidentally suggested to me, capable of a transcendental and Platonic
16982application; and, furthermore, I compiled supplementary tables of my
16983own, touching the probable quantity of stock-fish, etc., consumed by
16984every Low Dutch harpooneer in that ancient Greenland and Spitzbergen
16985whale fishery. In the first place, the amount of butter, and Texel and
16986Leyden cheese consumed, seems amazing. I impute it, though, to their
16987naturally unctuous natures, being rendered still more unctuous by the
16988nature of their vocation, and especially by their pursuing their game
16989in those frigid Polar Seas, on the very coasts of that Esquimaux country
16990where the convivial natives pledge each other in bumpers of train oil.
16991
16992The quantity of beer, too, is very large, 10,800 barrels. Now, as those
16993polar fisheries could only be prosecuted in the short summer of that
16994climate, so that the whole cruise of one of these Dutch whalemen,
16995including the short voyage to and from the Spitzbergen sea, did not much
16996exceed three months, say, and reckoning 30 men to each of their fleet
16997of 180 sail, we have 5,400 Low Dutch seamen in all; therefore, I say,
16998we have precisely two barrels of beer per man, for a twelve weeks'
16999allowance, exclusive of his fair proportion of that 550 ankers of gin.
17000Now, whether these gin and beer harpooneers, so fuddled as one might
17001fancy them to have been, were the right sort of men to stand up in
17002a boat's head, and take good aim at flying whales; this would seem
17003somewhat improbable. Yet they did aim at them, and hit them too. But
17004this was very far North, be it remembered, where beer agrees well with
17005the constitution; upon the Equator, in our southern fishery, beer would
17006be apt to make the harpooneer sleepy at the mast-head and boozy in his
17007boat; and grievous loss might ensue to Nantucket and New Bedford.
17008
17009But no more; enough has been said to show that the old Dutch whalers
17010of two or three centuries ago were high livers; and that the English
17011whalers have not neglected so excellent an example. For, say they, when
17012cruising in an empty ship, if you can get nothing better out of the
17013world, get a good dinner out of it, at least. And this empties the
17014decanter.
17015
17016
17017
17018CHAPTER 102. A Bower in the Arsacides.
17019
17020
17021Hitherto, in descriptively treating of the Sperm Whale, I have chiefly
17022dwelt upon the marvels of his outer aspect; or separately and in detail
17023upon some few interior structural features. But to a large and thorough
17024sweeping comprehension of him, it behooves me now to unbutton him still
17025further, and untagging the points of his hose, unbuckling his garters,
17026and casting loose the hooks and the eyes of the joints of his innermost
17027bones, set him before you in his ultimatum; that is to say, in his
17028unconditional skeleton.
17029
17030But how now, Ishmael? How is it, that you, a mere oarsman in the
17031fishery, pretend to know aught about the subterranean parts of the
17032whale? Did erudite Stubb, mounted upon your capstan, deliver lectures
17033on the anatomy of the Cetacea; and by help of the windlass, hold up a
17034specimen rib for exhibition? Explain thyself, Ishmael. Can you land
17035a full-grown whale on your deck for examination, as a cook dishes a
17036roast-pig? Surely not. A veritable witness have you hitherto been,
17037Ishmael; but have a care how you seize the privilege of Jonah alone;
17038the privilege of discoursing upon the joists and beams; the rafters,
17039ridge-pole, sleepers, and under-pinnings, making up the frame-work of
17040leviathan; and belike of the tallow-vats, dairy-rooms, butteries, and
17041cheeseries in his bowels.
17042
17043I confess, that since Jonah, few whalemen have penetrated very far
17044beneath the skin of the adult whale; nevertheless, I have been blessed
17045with an opportunity to dissect him in miniature. In a ship I belonged
17046to, a small cub Sperm Whale was once bodily hoisted to the deck for his
17047poke or bag, to make sheaths for the barbs of the harpoons, and for the
17048heads of the lances. Think you I let that chance go, without using my
17049boat-hatchet and jack-knife, and breaking the seal and reading all the
17050contents of that young cub?
17051
17052And as for my exact knowledge of the bones of the leviathan in their
17053gigantic, full grown development, for that rare knowledge I am indebted
17054to my late royal friend Tranquo, king of Tranque, one of the Arsacides.
17055For being at Tranque, years ago, when attached to the trading-ship Dey
17056of Algiers, I was invited to spend part of the Arsacidean holidays with
17057the lord of Tranque, at his retired palm villa at Pupella; a sea-side
17058glen not very far distant from what our sailors called Bamboo-Town, his
17059capital.
17060
17061Among many other fine qualities, my royal friend Tranquo, being gifted
17062with a devout love for all matters of barbaric vertu, had brought
17063together in Pupella whatever rare things the more ingenious of his
17064people could invent; chiefly carved woods of wonderful devices,
17065chiselled shells, inlaid spears, costly paddles, aromatic canoes;
17066and all these distributed among whatever natural wonders, the
17067wonder-freighted, tribute-rendering waves had cast upon his shores.
17068
17069Chief among these latter was a great Sperm Whale, which, after an
17070unusually long raging gale, had been found dead and stranded, with his
17071head against a cocoa-nut tree, whose plumage-like, tufted droopings
17072seemed his verdant jet. When the vast body had at last been stripped of
17073its fathom-deep enfoldings, and the bones become dust dry in the sun,
17074then the skeleton was carefully transported up the Pupella glen, where a
17075grand temple of lordly palms now sheltered it.
17076
17077The ribs were hung with trophies; the vertebrae were carved with
17078Arsacidean annals, in strange hieroglyphics; in the skull, the priests
17079kept up an unextinguished aromatic flame, so that the mystic head
17080again sent forth its vapoury spout; while, suspended from a bough, the
17081terrific lower jaw vibrated over all the devotees, like the hair-hung
17082sword that so affrighted Damocles.
17083
17084It was a wondrous sight. The wood was green as mosses of the Icy
17085Glen; the trees stood high and haughty, feeling their living sap; the
17086industrious earth beneath was as a weaver's loom, with a gorgeous carpet
17087on it, whereof the ground-vine tendrils formed the warp and woof, and
17088the living flowers the figures. All the trees, with all their laden
17089branches; all the shrubs, and ferns, and grasses; the message-carrying
17090air; all these unceasingly were active. Through the lacings of the
17091leaves, the great sun seemed a flying shuttle weaving the unwearied
17092verdure. Oh, busy weaver! unseen weaver!--pause!--one word!--whither
17093flows the fabric? what palace may it deck? wherefore all these ceaseless
17094toilings? Speak, weaver!--stay thy hand!--but one single word with
17095thee! Nay--the shuttle flies--the figures float from forth the loom; the
17096freshet-rushing carpet for ever slides away. The weaver-god, he weaves;
17097and by that weaving is he deafened, that he hears no mortal voice; and
17098by that humming, we, too, who look on the loom are deafened; and only
17099when we escape it shall we hear the thousand voices that speak through
17100it. For even so it is in all material factories. The spoken words that
17101are inaudible among the flying spindles; those same words are plainly
17102heard without the walls, bursting from the opened casements. Thereby
17103have villainies been detected. Ah, mortal! then, be heedful; for so, in
17104all this din of the great world's loom, thy subtlest thinkings may be
17105overheard afar.
17106
17107Now, amid the green, life-restless loom of that Arsacidean wood, the
17108great, white, worshipped skeleton lay lounging--a gigantic idler! Yet,
17109as the ever-woven verdant warp and woof intermixed and hummed around
17110him, the mighty idler seemed the cunning weaver; himself all woven
17111over with the vines; every month assuming greener, fresher verdure; but
17112himself a skeleton. Life folded Death; Death trellised Life; the grim
17113god wived with youthful Life, and begat him curly-headed glories.
17114
17115Now, when with royal Tranquo I visited this wondrous whale, and saw the
17116skull an altar, and the artificial smoke ascending from where the real
17117jet had issued, I marvelled that the king should regard a chapel as
17118an object of vertu. He laughed. But more I marvelled that the priests
17119should swear that smoky jet of his was genuine. To and fro I paced
17120before this skeleton--brushed the vines aside--broke through the
17121ribs--and with a ball of Arsacidean twine, wandered, eddied long amid
17122its many winding, shaded colonnades and arbours. But soon my line was
17123out; and following it back, I emerged from the opening where I entered.
17124I saw no living thing within; naught was there but bones.
17125
17126Cutting me a green measuring-rod, I once more dived within the skeleton.
17127From their arrow-slit in the skull, the priests perceived me taking the
17128altitude of the final rib, "How now!" they shouted; "Dar'st thou measure
17129this our god! That's for us." "Aye, priests--well, how long do ye make
17130him, then?" But hereupon a fierce contest rose among them, concerning
17131feet and inches; they cracked each other's sconces with their
17132yard-sticks--the great skull echoed--and seizing that lucky chance, I
17133quickly concluded my own admeasurements.
17134
17135These admeasurements I now propose to set before you. But first, be
17136it recorded, that, in this matter, I am not free to utter any fancied
17137measurement I please. Because there are skeleton authorities you can
17138refer to, to test my accuracy. There is a Leviathanic Museum, they tell
17139me, in Hull, England, one of the whaling ports of that country, where
17140they have some fine specimens of fin-backs and other whales. Likewise, I
17141have heard that in the museum of Manchester, in New Hampshire, they have
17142what the proprietors call "the only perfect specimen of a Greenland or
17143River Whale in the United States." Moreover, at a place in Yorkshire,
17144England, Burton Constable by name, a certain Sir Clifford Constable has
17145in his possession the skeleton of a Sperm Whale, but of moderate size,
17146by no means of the full-grown magnitude of my friend King Tranquo's.
17147
17148In both cases, the stranded whales to which these two skeletons
17149belonged, were originally claimed by their proprietors upon similar
17150grounds. King Tranquo seizing his because he wanted it; and Sir
17151Clifford, because he was lord of the seignories of those parts. Sir
17152Clifford's whale has been articulated throughout; so that, like a
17153great chest of drawers, you can open and shut him, in all his bony
17154cavities--spread out his ribs like a gigantic fan--and swing all day
17155upon his lower jaw. Locks are to be put upon some of his trap-doors and
17156shutters; and a footman will show round future visitors with a bunch of
17157keys at his side. Sir Clifford thinks of charging twopence for a peep at
17158the whispering gallery in the spinal column; threepence to hear the echo
17159in the hollow of his cerebellum; and sixpence for the unrivalled view
17160from his forehead.
17161
17162The skeleton dimensions I shall now proceed to set down are copied
17163verbatim from my right arm, where I had them tattooed; as in my wild
17164wanderings at that period, there was no other secure way of preserving
17165such valuable statistics. But as I was crowded for space, and wished
17166the other parts of my body to remain a blank page for a poem I was
17167then composing--at least, what untattooed parts might remain--I did not
17168trouble myself with the odd inches; nor, indeed, should inches at all
17169enter into a congenial admeasurement of the whale.
17170
17171
17172
17173CHAPTER 103. Measurement of The Whale's Skeleton.
17174
17175
17176In the first place, I wish to lay before you a particular, plain
17177statement, touching the living bulk of this leviathan, whose skeleton we
17178are briefly to exhibit. Such a statement may prove useful here.
17179
17180According to a careful calculation I have made, and which I partly base
17181upon Captain Scoresby's estimate, of seventy tons for the largest
17182sized Greenland whale of sixty feet in length; according to my careful
17183calculation, I say, a Sperm Whale of the largest magnitude, between
17184eighty-five and ninety feet in length, and something less than forty
17185feet in its fullest circumference, such a whale will weigh at least
17186ninety tons; so that, reckoning thirteen men to a ton, he would
17187considerably outweigh the combined population of a whole village of one
17188thousand one hundred inhabitants.
17189
17190Think you not then that brains, like yoked cattle, should be put to this
17191leviathan, to make him at all budge to any landsman's imagination?
17192
17193Having already in various ways put before you his skull, spout-hole,
17194jaw, teeth, tail, forehead, fins, and divers other parts, I shall now
17195simply point out what is most interesting in the general bulk of his
17196unobstructed bones. But as the colossal skull embraces so very large
17197a proportion of the entire extent of the skeleton; as it is by far the
17198most complicated part; and as nothing is to be repeated concerning it in
17199this chapter, you must not fail to carry it in your mind, or under your
17200arm, as we proceed, otherwise you will not gain a complete notion of the
17201general structure we are about to view.
17202
17203In length, the Sperm Whale's skeleton at Tranque measured seventy-two
17204Feet; so that when fully invested and extended in life, he must have
17205been ninety feet long; for in the whale, the skeleton loses about one
17206fifth in length compared with the living body. Of this seventy-two feet,
17207his skull and jaw comprised some twenty feet, leaving some fifty feet of
17208plain back-bone. Attached to this back-bone, for something less than a
17209third of its length, was the mighty circular basket of ribs which once
17210enclosed his vitals.
17211
17212To me this vast ivory-ribbed chest, with the long, unrelieved spine,
17213extending far away from it in a straight line, not a little resembled
17214the hull of a great ship new-laid upon the stocks, when only some twenty
17215of her naked bow-ribs are inserted, and the keel is otherwise, for the
17216time, but a long, disconnected timber.
17217
17218The ribs were ten on a side. The first, to begin from the neck,
17219was nearly six feet long; the second, third, and fourth were each
17220successively longer, till you came to the climax of the fifth, or one
17221of the middle ribs, which measured eight feet and some inches. From
17222that part, the remaining ribs diminished, till the tenth and last only
17223spanned five feet and some inches. In general thickness, they all bore
17224a seemly correspondence to their length. The middle ribs were the most
17225arched. In some of the Arsacides they are used for beams whereon to lay
17226footpath bridges over small streams.
17227
17228In considering these ribs, I could not but be struck anew with the
17229circumstance, so variously repeated in this book, that the skeleton of
17230the whale is by no means the mould of his invested form. The largest of
17231the Tranque ribs, one of the middle ones, occupied that part of the fish
17232which, in life, is greatest in depth. Now, the greatest depth of the
17233invested body of this particular whale must have been at least sixteen
17234feet; whereas, the corresponding rib measured but little more than eight
17235feet. So that this rib only conveyed half of the true notion of the
17236living magnitude of that part. Besides, for some way, where I now saw
17237but a naked spine, all that had been once wrapped round with tons of
17238added bulk in flesh, muscle, blood, and bowels. Still more, for the
17239ample fins, I here saw but a few disordered joints; and in place of the
17240weighty and majestic, but boneless flukes, an utter blank!
17241
17242How vain and foolish, then, thought I, for timid untravelled man to try
17243to comprehend aright this wondrous whale, by merely poring over his dead
17244attenuated skeleton, stretched in this peaceful wood. No. Only in the
17245heart of quickest perils; only when within the eddyings of his angry
17246flukes; only on the profound unbounded sea, can the fully invested whale
17247be truly and livingly found out.
17248
17249But the spine. For that, the best way we can consider it is, with a
17250crane, to pile its bones high up on end. No speedy enterprise. But now
17251it's done, it looks much like Pompey's Pillar.
17252
17253There are forty and odd vertebrae in all, which in the skeleton are
17254not locked together. They mostly lie like the great knobbed blocks on
17255a Gothic spire, forming solid courses of heavy masonry. The largest,
17256a middle one, is in width something less than three feet, and in depth
17257more than four. The smallest, where the spine tapers away into the
17258tail, is only two inches in width, and looks something like a white
17259billiard-ball. I was told that there were still smaller ones, but they
17260had been lost by some little cannibal urchins, the priest's children,
17261who had stolen them to play marbles with. Thus we see how that the
17262spine of even the hugest of living things tapers off at last into simple
17263child's play.
17264
17265
17266
17267CHAPTER 104. The Fossil Whale.
17268
17269
17270From his mighty bulk the whale affords a most congenial theme whereon
17271to enlarge, amplify, and generally expatiate. Would you, you could not
17272compress him. By good rights he should only be treated of in imperial
17273folio. Not to tell over again his furlongs from spiracle to tail,
17274and the yards he measures about the waist; only think of the gigantic
17275involutions of his intestines, where they lie in him like great
17276cables and hawsers coiled away in the subterranean orlop-deck of a
17277line-of-battle-ship.
17278
17279Since I have undertaken to manhandle this Leviathan, it behooves me
17280to approve myself omnisciently exhaustive in the enterprise; not
17281overlooking the minutest seminal germs of his blood, and spinning him
17282out to the uttermost coil of his bowels. Having already described him
17283in most of his present habitatory and anatomical peculiarities, it
17284now remains to magnify him in an archaeological, fossiliferous, and
17285antediluvian point of view. Applied to any other creature than the
17286Leviathan--to an ant or a flea--such portly terms might justly be deemed
17287unwarrantably grandiloquent. But when Leviathan is the text, the case is
17288altered. Fain am I to stagger to this emprise under the weightiest
17289words of the dictionary. And here be it said, that whenever it has been
17290convenient to consult one in the course of these dissertations, I have
17291invariably used a huge quarto edition of Johnson, expressly purchased
17292for that purpose; because that famous lexicographer's uncommon personal
17293bulk more fitted him to compile a lexicon to be used by a whale author
17294like me.
17295
17296One often hears of writers that rise and swell with their subject,
17297though it may seem but an ordinary one. How, then, with me, writing
17298of this Leviathan? Unconsciously my chirography expands into placard
17299capitals. Give me a condor's quill! Give me Vesuvius' crater for an
17300inkstand! Friends, hold my arms! For in the mere act of penning my
17301thoughts of this Leviathan, they weary me, and make me faint with their
17302outreaching comprehensiveness of sweep, as if to include the whole
17303circle of the sciences, and all the generations of whales, and men, and
17304mastodons, past, present, and to come, with all the revolving panoramas
17305of empire on earth, and throughout the whole universe, not excluding its
17306suburbs. Such, and so magnifying, is the virtue of a large and liberal
17307theme! We expand to its bulk. To produce a mighty book, you must choose
17308a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the
17309flea, though many there be who have tried it.
17310
17311Ere entering upon the subject of Fossil Whales, I present my credentials
17312as a geologist, by stating that in my miscellaneous time I have been
17313a stone-mason, and also a great digger of ditches, canals and wells,
17314wine-vaults, cellars, and cisterns of all sorts. Likewise, by way of
17315preliminary, I desire to remind the reader, that while in the earlier
17316geological strata there are found the fossils of monsters now almost
17317completely extinct; the subsequent relics discovered in what are called
17318the Tertiary formations seem the connecting, or at any rate intercepted
17319links, between the antichronical creatures, and those whose remote
17320posterity are said to have entered the Ark; all the Fossil Whales
17321hitherto discovered belong to the Tertiary period, which is the last
17322preceding the superficial formations. And though none of them
17323precisely answer to any known species of the present time, they are yet
17324sufficiently akin to them in general respects, to justify their taking
17325rank as Cetacean fossils.
17326
17327Detached broken fossils of pre-adamite whales, fragments of their bones
17328and skeletons, have within thirty years past, at various intervals, been
17329found at the base of the Alps, in Lombardy, in France, in England, in
17330Scotland, and in the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
17331Among the more curious of such remains is part of a skull, which in the
17332year 1779 was disinterred in the Rue Dauphine in Paris, a short street
17333opening almost directly upon the palace of the Tuileries; and bones
17334disinterred in excavating the great docks of Antwerp, in Napoleon's
17335time. Cuvier pronounced these fragments to have belonged to some utterly
17336unknown Leviathanic species.
17337
17338But by far the most wonderful of all Cetacean relics was the almost
17339complete vast skeleton of an extinct monster, found in the year 1842, on
17340the plantation of Judge Creagh, in Alabama. The awe-stricken credulous
17341slaves in the vicinity took it for the bones of one of the fallen
17342angels. The Alabama doctors declared it a huge reptile, and bestowed
17343upon it the name of Basilosaurus. But some specimen bones of it being
17344taken across the sea to Owen, the English Anatomist, it turned out
17345that this alleged reptile was a whale, though of a departed species. A
17346significant illustration of the fact, again and again repeated in this
17347book, that the skeleton of the whale furnishes but little clue to the
17348shape of his fully invested body. So Owen rechristened the monster
17349Zeuglodon; and in his paper read before the London Geological Society,
17350pronounced it, in substance, one of the most extraordinary creatures
17351which the mutations of the globe have blotted out of existence.
17352
17353When I stand among these mighty Leviathan skeletons, skulls, tusks,
17354jaws, ribs, and vertebrae, all characterized by partial resemblances to
17355the existing breeds of sea-monsters; but at the same time bearing on
17356the other hand similar affinities to the annihilated antichronical
17357Leviathans, their incalculable seniors; I am, by a flood, borne back
17358to that wondrous period, ere time itself can be said to have begun;
17359for time began with man. Here Saturn's grey chaos rolls over me, and I
17360obtain dim, shuddering glimpses into those Polar eternities; when wedged
17361bastions of ice pressed hard upon what are now the Tropics; and in
17362all the 25,000 miles of this world's circumference, not an inhabitable
17363hand's breadth of land was visible. Then the whole world was the
17364whale's; and, king of creation, he left his wake along the present lines
17365of the Andes and the Himmalehs. Who can show a pedigree like Leviathan?
17366Ahab's harpoon had shed older blood than the Pharaoh's. Methuselah seems
17367a school-boy. I look round to shake hands with Shem. I am horror-struck
17368at this antemosaic, unsourced existence of the unspeakable terrors of
17369the whale, which, having been before all time, must needs exist after
17370all humane ages are over.
17371
17372But not alone has this Leviathan left his pre-adamite traces in the
17373stereotype plates of nature, and in limestone and marl bequeathed his
17374ancient bust; but upon Egyptian tablets, whose antiquity seems to claim
17375for them an almost fossiliferous character, we find the unmistakable
17376print of his fin. In an apartment of the great temple of Denderah,
17377some fifty years ago, there was discovered upon the granite ceiling a
17378sculptured and painted planisphere, abounding in centaurs, griffins, and
17379dolphins, similar to the grotesque figures on the celestial globe of the
17380moderns. Gliding among them, old Leviathan swam as of yore; was there
17381swimming in that planisphere, centuries before Solomon was cradled.
17382
17383Nor must there be omitted another strange attestation of the antiquity
17384of the whale, in his own osseous post-diluvian reality, as set down by
17385the venerable John Leo, the old Barbary traveller.
17386
17387"Not far from the Sea-side, they have a Temple, the Rafters and Beams
17388of which are made of Whale-Bones; for Whales of a monstrous size are
17389oftentimes cast up dead upon that shore. The Common People imagine, that
17390by a secret Power bestowed by God upon the temple, no Whale can pass it
17391without immediate death. But the truth of the Matter is, that on either
17392side of the Temple, there are Rocks that shoot two Miles into the Sea,
17393and wound the Whales when they light upon 'em. They keep a Whale's Rib
17394of an incredible length for a Miracle, which lying upon the Ground with
17395its convex part uppermost, makes an Arch, the Head of which cannot be
17396reached by a Man upon a Camel's Back. This Rib (says John Leo) is said
17397to have layn there a hundred Years before I saw it. Their Historians
17398affirm, that a Prophet who prophesy'd of Mahomet, came from this Temple,
17399and some do not stand to assert, that the Prophet Jonas was cast forth
17400by the Whale at the Base of the Temple."
17401
17402In this Afric Temple of the Whale I leave you, reader, and if you be a
17403Nantucketer, and a whaleman, you will silently worship there.
17404
17405
17406
17407CHAPTER 105. Does the Whale's Magnitude Diminish?--Will He Perish?
17408
17409
17410Inasmuch, then, as this Leviathan comes floundering down upon us from
17411the head-waters of the Eternities, it may be fitly inquired, whether,
17412in the long course of his generations, he has not degenerated from the
17413original bulk of his sires.
17414
17415But upon investigation we find, that not only are the whales of the
17416present day superior in magnitude to those whose fossil remains are
17417found in the Tertiary system (embracing a distinct geological period
17418prior to man), but of the whales found in that Tertiary system, those
17419belonging to its latter formations exceed in size those of its earlier
17420ones.
17421
17422Of all the pre-adamite whales yet exhumed, by far the largest is the
17423Alabama one mentioned in the last chapter, and that was less than
17424seventy feet in length in the skeleton. Whereas, we have already seen,
17425that the tape-measure gives seventy-two feet for the skeleton of a large
17426sized modern whale. And I have heard, on whalemen's authority, that
17427Sperm Whales have been captured near a hundred feet long at the time of
17428capture.
17429
17430But may it not be, that while the whales of the present hour are an
17431advance in magnitude upon those of all previous geological periods; may
17432it not be, that since Adam's time they have degenerated?
17433
17434Assuredly, we must conclude so, if we are to credit the accounts of such
17435gentlemen as Pliny, and the ancient naturalists generally. For Pliny
17436tells us of Whales that embraced acres of living bulk, and Aldrovandus
17437of others which measured eight hundred feet in length--Rope Walks and
17438Thames Tunnels of Whales! And even in the days of Banks and Solander,
17439Cooke's naturalists, we find a Danish member of the Academy of Sciences
17440setting down certain Iceland Whales (reydan-siskur, or Wrinkled Bellies)
17441at one hundred and twenty yards; that is, three hundred and sixty feet.
17442And Lacepede, the French naturalist, in his elaborate history of whales,
17443in the very beginning of his work (page 3), sets down the Right Whale at
17444one hundred metres, three hundred and twenty-eight feet. And this work
17445was published so late as A.D. 1825.
17446
17447But will any whaleman believe these stories? No. The whale of to-day is
17448as big as his ancestors in Pliny's time. And if ever I go where Pliny
17449is, I, a whaleman (more than he was), will make bold to tell him so.
17450Because I cannot understand how it is, that while the Egyptian mummies
17451that were buried thousands of years before even Pliny was born, do not
17452measure so much in their coffins as a modern Kentuckian in his socks;
17453and while the cattle and other animals sculptured on the oldest Egyptian
17454and Nineveh tablets, by the relative proportions in which they are
17455drawn, just as plainly prove that the high-bred, stall-fed, prize cattle
17456of Smithfield, not only equal, but far exceed in magnitude the fattest
17457of Pharaoh's fat kine; in the face of all this, I will not admit that of
17458all animals the whale alone should have degenerated.
17459
17460But still another inquiry remains; one often agitated by the more
17461recondite Nantucketers. Whether owing to the almost omniscient look-outs
17462at the mast-heads of the whaleships, now penetrating even through
17463Behring's straits, and into the remotest secret drawers and lockers
17464of the world; and the thousand harpoons and lances darted along all
17465continental coasts; the moot point is, whether Leviathan can long endure
17466so wide a chase, and so remorseless a havoc; whether he must not at last
17467be exterminated from the waters, and the last whale, like the last man,
17468smoke his last pipe, and then himself evaporate in the final puff.
17469
17470Comparing the humped herds of whales with the humped herds of buffalo,
17471which, not forty years ago, overspread by tens of thousands the prairies
17472of Illinois and Missouri, and shook their iron manes and scowled with
17473their thunder-clotted brows upon the sites of populous river-capitals,
17474where now the polite broker sells you land at a dollar an inch; in such
17475a comparison an irresistible argument would seem furnished, to show that
17476the hunted whale cannot now escape speedy extinction.
17477
17478But you must look at this matter in every light. Though so short a
17479period ago--not a good lifetime--the census of the buffalo in Illinois
17480exceeded the census of men now in London, and though at the present day
17481not one horn or hoof of them remains in all that region; and though the
17482cause of this wondrous extermination was the spear of man; yet the far
17483different nature of the whale-hunt peremptorily forbids so inglorious an
17484end to the Leviathan. Forty men in one ship hunting the Sperm Whales for
17485forty-eight months think they have done extremely well, and thank God,
17486if at last they carry home the oil of forty fish. Whereas, in the days
17487of the old Canadian and Indian hunters and trappers of the West, when
17488the far west (in whose sunset suns still rise) was a wilderness and
17489a virgin, the same number of moccasined men, for the same number of
17490months, mounted on horse instead of sailing in ships, would have slain
17491not forty, but forty thousand and more buffaloes; a fact that, if need
17492were, could be statistically stated.
17493
17494Nor, considered aright, does it seem any argument in favour of the
17495gradual extinction of the Sperm Whale, for example, that in former years
17496(the latter part of the last century, say) these Leviathans, in
17497small pods, were encountered much oftener than at present, and, in
17498consequence, the voyages were not so prolonged, and were also much more
17499remunerative. Because, as has been elsewhere noticed, those whales,
17500influenced by some views to safety, now swim the seas in immense
17501caravans, so that to a large degree the scattered solitaries, yokes, and
17502pods, and schools of other days are now aggregated into vast but widely
17503separated, unfrequent armies. That is all. And equally fallacious seems
17504the conceit, that because the so-called whale-bone whales no longer
17505haunt many grounds in former years abounding with them, hence that
17506species also is declining. For they are only being driven from
17507promontory to cape; and if one coast is no longer enlivened with
17508their jets, then, be sure, some other and remoter strand has been very
17509recently startled by the unfamiliar spectacle.
17510
17511Furthermore: concerning these last mentioned Leviathans, they have two
17512firm fortresses, which, in all human probability, will for ever remain
17513impregnable. And as upon the invasion of their valleys, the frosty Swiss
17514have retreated to their mountains; so, hunted from the savannas and
17515glades of the middle seas, the whale-bone whales can at last resort to
17516their Polar citadels, and diving under the ultimate glassy barriers and
17517walls there, come up among icy fields and floes; and in a charmed circle
17518of everlasting December, bid defiance to all pursuit from man.
17519
17520But as perhaps fifty of these whale-bone whales are harpooned for one
17521cachalot, some philosophers of the forecastle have concluded that this
17522positive havoc has already very seriously diminished their battalions.
17523But though for some time past a number of these whales, not less than
1752413,000, have been annually slain on the nor'-west coast by the Americans
17525alone; yet there are considerations which render even this circumstance
17526of little or no account as an opposing argument in this matter.
17527
17528Natural as it is to be somewhat incredulous concerning the populousness
17529of the more enormous creatures of the globe, yet what shall we say to
17530Harto, the historian of Goa, when he tells us that at one hunting the
17531King of Siam took 4,000 elephants; that in those regions elephants are
17532numerous as droves of cattle in the temperate climes. And there seems no
17533reason to doubt that if these elephants, which have now been hunted for
17534thousands of years, by Semiramis, by Porus, by Hannibal, and by all the
17535successive monarchs of the East--if they still survive there in great
17536numbers, much more may the great whale outlast all hunting, since he
17537has a pasture to expatiate in, which is precisely twice as large as all
17538Asia, both Americas, Europe and Africa, New Holland, and all the Isles
17539of the sea combined.
17540
17541Moreover: we are to consider, that from the presumed great longevity
17542of whales, their probably attaining the age of a century and more,
17543therefore at any one period of time, several distinct adult generations
17544must be contemporary. And what that is, we may soon gain some idea
17545of, by imagining all the grave-yards, cemeteries, and family vaults of
17546creation yielding up the live bodies of all the men, women, and children
17547who were alive seventy-five years ago; and adding this countless host to
17548the present human population of the globe.
17549
17550Wherefore, for all these things, we account the whale immortal in his
17551species, however perishable in his individuality. He swam the seas
17552before the continents broke water; he once swam over the site of the
17553Tuileries, and Windsor Castle, and the Kremlin. In Noah's flood he
17554despised Noah's Ark; and if ever the world is to be again flooded, like
17555the Netherlands, to kill off its rats, then the eternal whale will still
17556survive, and rearing upon the topmost crest of the equatorial flood,
17557spout his frothed defiance to the skies.
17558
17559
17560
17561CHAPTER 106. Ahab's Leg.
17562
17563
17564The precipitating manner in which Captain Ahab had quitted the Samuel
17565Enderby of London, had not been unattended with some small violence to
17566his own person. He had lighted with such energy upon a thwart of his
17567boat that his ivory leg had received a half-splintering shock. And
17568when after gaining his own deck, and his own pivot-hole there, he so
17569vehemently wheeled round with an urgent command to the steersman (it
17570was, as ever, something about his not steering inflexibly enough); then,
17571the already shaken ivory received such an additional twist and wrench,
17572that though it still remained entire, and to all appearances lusty, yet
17573Ahab did not deem it entirely trustworthy.
17574
17575And, indeed, it seemed small matter for wonder, that for all his
17576pervading, mad recklessness, Ahab did at times give careful heed to the
17577condition of that dead bone upon which he partly stood. For it had not
17578been very long prior to the Pequod's sailing from Nantucket, that he
17579had been found one night lying prone upon the ground, and insensible;
17580by some unknown, and seemingly inexplicable, unimaginable casualty, his
17581ivory limb having been so violently displaced, that it had stake-wise
17582smitten, and all but pierced his groin; nor was it without extreme
17583difficulty that the agonizing wound was entirely cured.
17584
17585Nor, at the time, had it failed to enter his monomaniac mind, that all
17586the anguish of that then present suffering was but the direct issue of a
17587former woe; and he too plainly seemed to see, that as the most poisonous
17588reptile of the marsh perpetuates his kind as inevitably as the sweetest
17589songster of the grove; so, equally with every felicity, all miserable
17590events do naturally beget their like. Yea, more than equally, thought
17591Ahab; since both the ancestry and posterity of Grief go further than the
17592ancestry and posterity of Joy. For, not to hint of this: that it is
17593an inference from certain canonic teachings, that while some natural
17594enjoyments here shall have no children born to them for the other world,
17595but, on the contrary, shall be followed by the joy-childlessness of
17596all hell's despair; whereas, some guilty mortal miseries shall still
17597fertilely beget to themselves an eternally progressive progeny of griefs
17598beyond the grave; not at all to hint of this, there still seems an
17599inequality in the deeper analysis of the thing. For, thought Ahab, while
17600even the highest earthly felicities ever have a certain unsignifying
17601pettiness lurking in them, but, at bottom, all heartwoes, a mystic
17602significance, and, in some men, an archangelic grandeur; so do their
17603diligent tracings-out not belie the obvious deduction. To trail the
17604genealogies of these high mortal miseries, carries us at last among the
17605sourceless primogenitures of the gods; so that, in the face of all the
17606glad, hay-making suns, and soft cymballing, round harvest-moons, we must
17607needs give in to this: that the gods themselves are not for ever glad.
17608The ineffaceable, sad birth-mark in the brow of man, is but the stamp of
17609sorrow in the signers.
17610
17611Unwittingly here a secret has been divulged, which perhaps might more
17612properly, in set way, have been disclosed before. With many other
17613particulars concerning Ahab, always had it remained a mystery to some,
17614why it was, that for a certain period, both before and after the sailing
17615of the Pequod, he had hidden himself away with such Grand-Lama-like
17616exclusiveness; and, for that one interval, sought speechless refuge, as
17617it were, among the marble senate of the dead. Captain Peleg's bruited
17618reason for this thing appeared by no means adequate; though, indeed,
17619as touching all Ahab's deeper part, every revelation partook more of
17620significant darkness than of explanatory light. But, in the end, it all
17621came out; this one matter did, at least. That direful mishap was at
17622the bottom of his temporary recluseness. And not only this, but to that
17623ever-contracting, dropping circle ashore, who, for any reason, possessed
17624the privilege of a less banned approach to him; to that timid circle the
17625above hinted casualty--remaining, as it did, moodily unaccounted for by
17626Ahab--invested itself with terrors, not entirely underived from the land
17627of spirits and of wails. So that, through their zeal for him, they had
17628all conspired, so far as in them lay, to muffle up the knowledge of
17629this thing from others; and hence it was, that not till a considerable
17630interval had elapsed, did it transpire upon the Pequod's decks.
17631
17632But be all this as it may; let the unseen, ambiguous synod in the air,
17633or the vindictive princes and potentates of fire, have to do or not
17634with earthly Ahab, yet, in this present matter of his leg, he took plain
17635practical procedures;--he called the carpenter.
17636
17637And when that functionary appeared before him, he bade him without delay
17638set about making a new leg, and directed the mates to see him supplied
17639with all the studs and joists of jaw-ivory (Sperm Whale) which had thus
17640far been accumulated on the voyage, in order that a careful selection
17641of the stoutest, clearest-grained stuff might be secured. This done, the
17642carpenter received orders to have the leg completed that night; and to
17643provide all the fittings for it, independent of those pertaining to
17644the distrusted one in use. Moreover, the ship's forge was ordered to be
17645hoisted out of its temporary idleness in the hold; and, to accelerate
17646the affair, the blacksmith was commanded to proceed at once to the
17647forging of whatever iron contrivances might be needed.
17648
17649
17650
17651CHAPTER 107. The Carpenter.
17652
17653
17654Seat thyself sultanically among the moons of Saturn, and take high
17655abstracted man alone; and he seems a wonder, a grandeur, and a woe. But
17656from the same point, take mankind in mass, and for the most part, they
17657seem a mob of unnecessary duplicates, both contemporary and hereditary.
17658But most humble though he was, and far from furnishing an example of
17659the high, humane abstraction; the Pequod's carpenter was no duplicate;
17660hence, he now comes in person on this stage.
17661
17662Like all sea-going ship carpenters, and more especially those belonging
17663to whaling vessels, he was, to a certain off-handed, practical extent,
17664alike experienced in numerous trades and callings collateral to his own;
17665the carpenter's pursuit being the ancient and outbranching trunk of all
17666those numerous handicrafts which more or less have to do with wood as an
17667auxiliary material. But, besides the application to him of the generic
17668remark above, this carpenter of the Pequod was singularly efficient in
17669those thousand nameless mechanical emergencies continually recurring
17670in a large ship, upon a three or four years' voyage, in uncivilized
17671and far-distant seas. For not to speak of his readiness in ordinary
17672duties:--repairing stove boats, sprung spars, reforming the shape of
17673clumsy-bladed oars, inserting bull's eyes in the deck, or new tree-nails
17674in the side planks, and other miscellaneous matters more directly
17675pertaining to his special business; he was moreover unhesitatingly
17676expert in all manner of conflicting aptitudes, both useful and
17677capricious.
17678
17679The one grand stage where he enacted all his various parts so manifold,
17680was his vice-bench; a long rude ponderous table furnished with several
17681vices, of different sizes, and both of iron and of wood. At all times
17682except when whales were alongside, this bench was securely lashed
17683athwartships against the rear of the Try-works.
17684
17685A belaying pin is found too large to be easily inserted into its hole:
17686the carpenter claps it into one of his ever-ready vices, and straightway
17687files it smaller. A lost land-bird of strange plumage strays on board,
17688and is made a captive: out of clean shaved rods of right-whale bone, and
17689cross-beams of sperm whale ivory, the carpenter makes a pagoda-looking
17690cage for it. An oarsman sprains his wrist: the carpenter concocts a
17691soothing lotion. Stubb longed for vermillion stars to be painted upon
17692the blade of his every oar; screwing each oar in his big vice of wood,
17693the carpenter symmetrically supplies the constellation. A sailor takes
17694a fancy to wear shark-bone ear-rings: the carpenter drills his ears.
17695Another has the toothache: the carpenter out pincers, and clapping
17696one hand upon his bench bids him be seated there; but the poor fellow
17697unmanageably winces under the unconcluded operation; whirling round the
17698handle of his wooden vice, the carpenter signs him to clap his jaw in
17699that, if he would have him draw the tooth.
17700
17701Thus, this carpenter was prepared at all points, and alike indifferent
17702and without respect in all. Teeth he accounted bits of ivory; heads he
17703deemed but top-blocks; men themselves he lightly held for capstans. But
17704while now upon so wide a field thus variously accomplished and with such
17705liveliness of expertness in him, too; all this would seem to argue some
17706uncommon vivacity of intelligence. But not precisely so. For nothing was
17707this man more remarkable, than for a certain impersonal stolidity as
17708it were; impersonal, I say; for it so shaded off into the surrounding
17709infinite of things, that it seemed one with the general stolidity
17710discernible in the whole visible world; which while pauselessly active
17711in uncounted modes, still eternally holds its peace, and ignores you,
17712though you dig foundations for cathedrals. Yet was this half-horrible
17713stolidity in him, involving, too, as it appeared, an all-ramifying
17714heartlessness;--yet was it oddly dashed at times, with an old,
17715crutch-like, antediluvian, wheezing humorousness, not unstreaked now
17716and then with a certain grizzled wittiness; such as might have served
17717to pass the time during the midnight watch on the bearded forecastle
17718of Noah's ark. Was it that this old carpenter had been a life-long
17719wanderer, whose much rolling, to and fro, not only had gathered no moss;
17720but what is more, had rubbed off whatever small outward clingings
17721might have originally pertained to him? He was a stript abstract; an
17722unfractioned integral; uncompromised as a new-born babe; living without
17723premeditated reference to this world or the next. You might almost
17724say, that this strange uncompromisedness in him involved a sort of
17725unintelligence; for in his numerous trades, he did not seem to work so
17726much by reason or by instinct, or simply because he had been tutored to
17727it, or by any intermixture of all these, even or uneven; but merely by
17728a kind of deaf and dumb, spontaneous literal process. He was a pure
17729manipulator; his brain, if he had ever had one, must have early
17730oozed along into the muscles of his fingers. He was like one of
17731those unreasoning but still highly useful, MULTUM IN PARVO, Sheffield
17732contrivances, assuming the exterior--though a little swelled--of a
17733common pocket knife; but containing, not only blades of various sizes,
17734but also screw-drivers, cork-screws, tweezers, awls, pens, rulers,
17735nail-filers, countersinkers. So, if his superiors wanted to use the
17736carpenter for a screw-driver, all they had to do was to open that part
17737of him, and the screw was fast: or if for tweezers, take him up by the
17738legs, and there they were.
17739
17740Yet, as previously hinted, this omnitooled, open-and-shut carpenter,
17741was, after all, no mere machine of an automaton. If he did not have a
17742common soul in him, he had a subtle something that somehow anomalously
17743did its duty. What that was, whether essence of quicksilver, or a few
17744drops of hartshorn, there is no telling. But there it was; and there it
17745had abided for now some sixty years or more. And this it was, this same
17746unaccountable, cunning life-principle in him; this it was, that kept
17747him a great part of the time soliloquizing; but only like an unreasoning
17748wheel, which also hummingly soliloquizes; or rather, his body was a
17749sentry-box and this soliloquizer on guard there, and talking all the
17750time to keep himself awake.
17751
17752
17753
17754CHAPTER 108. Ahab and the Carpenter.
17755
17756The Deck--First Night Watch.
17757
17758
17759(CARPENTER STANDING BEFORE HIS VICE-BENCH, AND BY THE LIGHT OF TWO
17760LANTERNS BUSILY FILING THE IVORY JOIST FOR THE LEG, WHICH JOIST IS
17761FIRMLY FIXED IN THE VICE. SLABS OF IVORY, LEATHER STRAPS, PADS, SCREWS,
17762AND VARIOUS TOOLS OF ALL SORTS LYING ABOUT THE BENCH. FORWARD, THE RED
17763FLAME OF THE FORGE IS SEEN, WHERE THE BLACKSMITH IS AT WORK.)
17764
17765
17766Drat the file, and drat the bone! That is hard which should be soft,
17767and that is soft which should be hard. So we go, who file old jaws and
17768shinbones. Let's try another. Aye, now, this works better (SNEEZES).
17769Halloa, this bone dust is (SNEEZES)--why it's (SNEEZES)--yes it's
17770(SNEEZES)--bless my soul, it won't let me speak! This is what an old
17771fellow gets now for working in dead lumber. Saw a live tree, and
17772you don't get this dust; amputate a live bone, and you don't get it
17773(SNEEZES). Come, come, you old Smut, there, bear a hand, and let's have
17774that ferule and buckle-screw; I'll be ready for them presently. Lucky
17775now (SNEEZES) there's no knee-joint to make; that might puzzle a little;
17776but a mere shinbone--why it's easy as making hop-poles; only I should
17777like to put a good finish on. Time, time; if I but only had the time, I
17778could turn him out as neat a leg now as ever (SNEEZES) scraped to a lady
17779in a parlor. Those buckskin legs and calves of legs I've seen in shop
17780windows wouldn't compare at all. They soak water, they do; and of
17781course get rheumatic, and have to be doctored (SNEEZES) with washes and
17782lotions, just like live legs. There; before I saw it off, now, I must
17783call his old Mogulship, and see whether the length will be all right;
17784too short, if anything, I guess. Ha! that's the heel; we are in luck;
17785here he comes, or it's somebody else, that's certain.
17786
17787AHAB (ADVANCING)
17788
17789(DURING THE ENSUING SCENE, THE CARPENTER CONTINUES SNEEZING AT TIMES)
17790
17791
17792Well, manmaker!
17793
17794Just in time, sir. If the captain pleases, I will now mark the length.
17795Let me measure, sir.
17796
17797Measured for a leg! good. Well, it's not the first time. About it!
17798There; keep thy finger on it. This is a cogent vice thou hast here,
17799carpenter; let me feel its grip once. So, so; it does pinch some.
17800
17801Oh, sir, it will break bones--beware, beware!
17802
17803No fear; I like a good grip; I like to feel something in this
17804slippery world that can hold, man. What's Prometheus about there?--the
17805blacksmith, I mean--what's he about?
17806
17807He must be forging the buckle-screw, sir, now.
17808
17809Right. It's a partnership; he supplies the muscle part. He makes a
17810fierce red flame there!
17811
17812Aye, sir; he must have the white heat for this kind of fine work.
17813
17814Um-m. So he must. I do deem it now a most meaning thing, that that
17815old Greek, Prometheus, who made men, they say, should have been a
17816blacksmith, and animated them with fire; for what's made in fire must
17817properly belong to fire; and so hell's probable. How the soot flies!
17818This must be the remainder the Greek made the Africans of. Carpenter,
17819when he's through with that buckle, tell him to forge a pair of steel
17820shoulder-blades; there's a pedlar aboard with a crushing pack.
17821
17822Sir?
17823
17824Hold; while Prometheus is about it, I'll order a complete man after a
17825desirable pattern. Imprimis, fifty feet high in his socks; then, chest
17826modelled after the Thames Tunnel; then, legs with roots to 'em, to stay
17827in one place; then, arms three feet through the wrist; no heart at all,
17828brass forehead, and about a quarter of an acre of fine brains; and let
17829me see--shall I order eyes to see outwards? No, but put a sky-light on
17830top of his head to illuminate inwards. There, take the order, and away.
17831
17832Now, what's he speaking about, and who's he speaking to, I should like
17833to know? Shall I keep standing here? (ASIDE).
17834
17835'Tis but indifferent architecture to make a blind dome; here's one. No,
17836no, no; I must have a lantern.
17837
17838Ho, ho! That's it, hey? Here are two, sir; one will serve my turn.
17839
17840What art thou thrusting that thief-catcher into my face for, man?
17841Thrusted light is worse than presented pistols.
17842
17843I thought, sir, that you spoke to carpenter.
17844
17845
17846Carpenter? why that's--but no;--a very tidy, and, I may say,
17847an extremely gentlemanlike sort of business thou art in here,
17848carpenter;--or would'st thou rather work in clay?
17849
17850Sir?--Clay? clay, sir? That's mud; we leave clay to ditchers, sir.
17851
17852The fellow's impious! What art thou sneezing about?
17853
17854Bone is rather dusty, sir.
17855
17856Take the hint, then; and when thou art dead, never bury thyself under
17857living people's noses.
17858
17859Sir?--oh! ah!--I guess so;--yes--dear!
17860
17861Look ye, carpenter, I dare say thou callest thyself a right good
17862workmanlike workman, eh? Well, then, will it speak thoroughly well
17863for thy work, if, when I come to mount this leg thou makest, I shall
17864nevertheless feel another leg in the same identical place with it; that
17865is, carpenter, my old lost leg; the flesh and blood one, I mean. Canst
17866thou not drive that old Adam away?
17867
17868Truly, sir, I begin to understand somewhat now. Yes, I have heard
17869something curious on that score, sir; how that a dismasted man never
17870entirely loses the feeling of his old spar, but it will be still
17871pricking him at times. May I humbly ask if it be really so, sir?
17872
17873It is, man. Look, put thy live leg here in the place where mine once
17874was; so, now, here is only one distinct leg to the eye, yet two to the
17875soul. Where thou feelest tingling life; there, exactly there, there to a
17876hair, do I. Is't a riddle?
17877
17878I should humbly call it a poser, sir.
17879
17880Hist, then. How dost thou know that some entire, living, thinking thing
17881may not be invisibly and uninterpenetratingly standing precisely where
17882thou now standest; aye, and standing there in thy spite? In thy most
17883solitary hours, then, dost thou not fear eavesdroppers? Hold, don't
17884speak! And if I still feel the smart of my crushed leg, though it be now
17885so long dissolved; then, why mayst not thou, carpenter, feel the fiery
17886pains of hell for ever, and without a body? Hah!
17887
17888Good Lord! Truly, sir, if it comes to that, I must calculate over again;
17889I think I didn't carry a small figure, sir.
17890
17891Look ye, pudding-heads should never grant premises.--How long before the
17892leg is done?
17893
17894Perhaps an hour, sir.
17895
17896Bungle away at it then, and bring it to me (TURNS TO GO). Oh, Life! Here
17897I am, proud as Greek god, and yet standing debtor to this blockhead for
17898a bone to stand on! Cursed be that mortal inter-indebtedness which will
17899not do away with ledgers. I would be free as air; and I'm down in the
17900whole world's books. I am so rich, I could have given bid for bid with
17901the wealthiest Praetorians at the auction of the Roman empire (which was
17902the world's); and yet I owe for the flesh in the tongue I brag with. By
17903heavens! I'll get a crucible, and into it, and dissolve myself down to
17904one small, compendious vertebra. So.
17905
17906CARPENTER (RESUMING HIS WORK).
17907
17908
17909Well, well, well! Stubb knows him best of all, and Stubb always says
17910he's queer; says nothing but that one sufficient little word queer; he's
17911queer, says Stubb; he's queer--queer, queer; and keeps dinning it into
17912Mr. Starbuck all the time--queer--sir--queer, queer, very queer. And
17913here's his leg! Yes, now that I think of it, here's his bedfellow! has
17914a stick of whale's jaw-bone for a wife! And this is his leg; he'll stand
17915on this. What was that now about one leg standing in three places, and
17916all three places standing in one hell--how was that? Oh! I don't wonder
17917he looked so scornful at me! I'm a sort of strange-thoughted sometimes,
17918they say; but that's only haphazard-like. Then, a short, little old body
17919like me, should never undertake to wade out into deep waters with tall,
17920heron-built captains; the water chucks you under the chin pretty quick,
17921and there's a great cry for life-boats. And here's the heron's leg!
17922long and slim, sure enough! Now, for most folks one pair of legs lasts
17923a lifetime, and that must be because they use them mercifully, as a
17924tender-hearted old lady uses her roly-poly old coach-horses. But Ahab;
17925oh he's a hard driver. Look, driven one leg to death, and spavined the
17926other for life, and now wears out bone legs by the cord. Halloa, there,
17927you Smut! bear a hand there with those screws, and let's finish it
17928before the resurrection fellow comes a-calling with his horn for
17929all legs, true or false, as brewery-men go round collecting old beer
17930barrels, to fill 'em up again. What a leg this is! It looks like a real
17931live leg, filed down to nothing but the core; he'll be standing on this
17932to-morrow; he'll be taking altitudes on it. Halloa! I almost forgot the
17933little oval slate, smoothed ivory, where he figures up the latitude. So,
17934so; chisel, file, and sand-paper, now!
17935
17936
17937
17938CHAPTER 109. Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin.
17939
17940
17941According to usage they were pumping the ship next morning; and lo! no
17942inconsiderable oil came up with the water; the casks below must have
17943sprung a bad leak. Much concern was shown; and Starbuck went down into
17944the cabin to report this unfavourable affair.*
17945
17946
17947*In Sperm-whalemen with any considerable quantity of oil on board, it
17948is a regular semiweekly duty to conduct a hose into the hold, and drench
17949the casks with sea-water; which afterwards, at varying intervals, is
17950removed by the ship's pumps. Hereby the casks are sought to be kept
17951damply tight; while by the changed character of the withdrawn water, the
17952mariners readily detect any serious leakage in the precious cargo.
17953
17954
17955Now, from the South and West the Pequod was drawing nigh to Formosa and
17956the Bashee Isles, between which lies one of the tropical outlets from
17957the China waters into the Pacific. And so Starbuck found Ahab with
17958a general chart of the oriental archipelagoes spread before him;
17959and another separate one representing the long eastern coasts of the
17960Japanese islands--Niphon, Matsmai, and Sikoke. With his snow-white new
17961ivory leg braced against the screwed leg of his table, and with a long
17962pruning-hook of a jack-knife in his hand, the wondrous old man, with his
17963back to the gangway door, was wrinkling his brow, and tracing his old
17964courses again.
17965
17966"Who's there?" hearing the footstep at the door, but not turning round
17967to it. "On deck! Begone!"
17968
17969"Captain Ahab mistakes; it is I. The oil in the hold is leaking, sir. We
17970must up Burtons and break out."
17971
17972"Up Burtons and break out? Now that we are nearing Japan; heave-to here
17973for a week to tinker a parcel of old hoops?"
17974
17975"Either do that, sir, or waste in one day more oil than we may make good
17976in a year. What we come twenty thousand miles to get is worth saving,
17977sir."
17978
17979"So it is, so it is; if we get it."
17980
17981"I was speaking of the oil in the hold, sir."
17982
17983"And I was not speaking or thinking of that at all. Begone! Let it leak!
17984I'm all aleak myself. Aye! leaks in leaks! not only full of leaky casks,
17985but those leaky casks are in a leaky ship; and that's a far worse plight
17986than the Pequod's, man. Yet I don't stop to plug my leak; for who can
17987find it in the deep-loaded hull; or how hope to plug it, even if
17988found, in this life's howling gale? Starbuck! I'll not have the Burtons
17989hoisted."
17990
17991"What will the owners say, sir?"
17992
17993"Let the owners stand on Nantucket beach and outyell the Typhoons. What
17994cares Ahab? Owners, owners? Thou art always prating to me, Starbuck,
17995about those miserly owners, as if the owners were my conscience. But
17996look ye, the only real owner of anything is its commander; and hark ye,
17997my conscience is in this ship's keel.--On deck!"
17998
17999"Captain Ahab," said the reddening mate, moving further into the cabin,
18000with a daring so strangely respectful and cautious that it almost seemed
18001not only every way seeking to avoid the slightest outward manifestation
18002of itself, but within also seemed more than half distrustful of itself;
18003"A better man than I might well pass over in thee what he would quickly
18004enough resent in a younger man; aye, and in a happier, Captain Ahab."
18005
18006"Devils! Dost thou then so much as dare to critically think of me?--On
18007deck!"
18008
18009"Nay, sir, not yet; I do entreat. And I do dare, sir--to be forbearing!
18010Shall we not understand each other better than hitherto, Captain Ahab?"
18011
18012Ahab seized a loaded musket from the rack (forming part of most
18013South-Sea-men's cabin furniture), and pointing it towards Starbuck,
18014exclaimed: "There is one God that is Lord over the earth, and one
18015Captain that is lord over the Pequod.--On deck!"
18016
18017For an instant in the flashing eyes of the mate, and his fiery cheeks,
18018you would have almost thought that he had really received the blaze of
18019the levelled tube. But, mastering his emotion, he half calmly rose,
18020and as he quitted the cabin, paused for an instant and said: "Thou hast
18021outraged, not insulted me, sir; but for that I ask thee not to beware of
18022Starbuck; thou wouldst but laugh; but let Ahab beware of Ahab; beware of
18023thyself, old man."
18024
18025"He waxes brave, but nevertheless obeys; most careful bravery that!"
18026murmured Ahab, as Starbuck disappeared. "What's that he said--Ahab
18027beware of Ahab--there's something there!" Then unconsciously using the
18028musket for a staff, with an iron brow he paced to and fro in the little
18029cabin; but presently the thick plaits of his forehead relaxed, and
18030returning the gun to the rack, he went to the deck.
18031
18032"Thou art but too good a fellow, Starbuck," he said lowly to the mate;
18033then raising his voice to the crew: "Furl the t'gallant-sails, and
18034close-reef the top-sails, fore and aft; back the main-yard; up Burton,
18035and break out in the main-hold."
18036
18037It were perhaps vain to surmise exactly why it was, that as respecting
18038Starbuck, Ahab thus acted. It may have been a flash of honesty in him;
18039or mere prudential policy which, under the circumstance, imperiously
18040forbade the slightest symptom of open disaffection, however transient,
18041in the important chief officer of his ship. However it was, his orders
18042were executed; and the Burtons were hoisted.
18043
18044
18045
18046CHAPTER 110. Queequeg in His Coffin.
18047
18048
18049Upon searching, it was found that the casks last struck into the hold
18050were perfectly sound, and that the leak must be further off. So, it
18051being calm weather, they broke out deeper and deeper, disturbing the
18052slumbers of the huge ground-tier butts; and from that black midnight
18053sending those gigantic moles into the daylight above. So deep did they
18054go; and so ancient, and corroded, and weedy the aspect of the lowermost
18055puncheons, that you almost looked next for some mouldy corner-stone cask
18056containing coins of Captain Noah, with copies of the posted placards,
18057vainly warning the infatuated old world from the flood. Tierce after
18058tierce, too, of water, and bread, and beef, and shooks of staves, and
18059iron bundles of hoops, were hoisted out, till at last the piled decks
18060were hard to get about; and the hollow hull echoed under foot, as if
18061you were treading over empty catacombs, and reeled and rolled in the sea
18062like an air-freighted demijohn. Top-heavy was the ship as a dinnerless
18063student with all Aristotle in his head. Well was it that the Typhoons
18064did not visit them then.
18065
18066Now, at this time it was that my poor pagan companion, and fast
18067bosom-friend, Queequeg, was seized with a fever, which brought him nigh
18068to his endless end.
18069
18070Be it said, that in this vocation of whaling, sinecures are unknown;
18071dignity and danger go hand in hand; till you get to be Captain, the
18072higher you rise the harder you toil. So with poor Queequeg, who, as
18073harpooneer, must not only face all the rage of the living whale, but--as
18074we have elsewhere seen--mount his dead back in a rolling sea; and
18075finally descend into the gloom of the hold, and bitterly sweating
18076all day in that subterraneous confinement, resolutely manhandle the
18077clumsiest casks and see to their stowage. To be short, among whalemen,
18078the harpooneers are the holders, so called.
18079
18080Poor Queequeg! when the ship was about half disembowelled, you should
18081have stooped over the hatchway, and peered down upon him there; where,
18082stripped to his woollen drawers, the tattooed savage was crawling about
18083amid that dampness and slime, like a green spotted lizard at the bottom
18084of a well. And a well, or an ice-house, it somehow proved to him, poor
18085pagan; where, strange to say, for all the heat of his sweatings, he
18086caught a terrible chill which lapsed into a fever; and at last, after
18087some days' suffering, laid him in his hammock, close to the very sill
18088of the door of death. How he wasted and wasted away in those few
18089long-lingering days, till there seemed but little left of him but his
18090frame and tattooing. But as all else in him thinned, and his cheek-bones
18091grew sharper, his eyes, nevertheless, seemed growing fuller and fuller;
18092they became of a strange softness of lustre; and mildly but deeply
18093looked out at you there from his sickness, a wondrous testimony to that
18094immortal health in him which could not die, or be weakened. And like
18095circles on the water, which, as they grow fainter, expand; so his eyes
18096seemed rounding and rounding, like the rings of Eternity. An awe that
18097cannot be named would steal over you as you sat by the side of this
18098waning savage, and saw as strange things in his face, as any beheld who
18099were bystanders when Zoroaster died. For whatever is truly wondrous and
18100fearful in man, never yet was put into words or books. And the drawing
18101near of Death, which alike levels all, alike impresses all with a last
18102revelation, which only an author from the dead could adequately tell.
18103So that--let us say it again--no dying Chaldee or Greek had higher and
18104holier thoughts than those, whose mysterious shades you saw creeping
18105over the face of poor Queequeg, as he quietly lay in his swaying
18106hammock, and the rolling sea seemed gently rocking him to his final
18107rest, and the ocean's invisible flood-tide lifted him higher and higher
18108towards his destined heaven.
18109
18110Not a man of the crew but gave him up; and, as for Queequeg himself,
18111what he thought of his case was forcibly shown by a curious favour he
18112asked. He called one to him in the grey morning watch, when the day was
18113just breaking, and taking his hand, said that while in Nantucket he
18114had chanced to see certain little canoes of dark wood, like the rich
18115war-wood of his native isle; and upon inquiry, he had learned that all
18116whalemen who died in Nantucket, were laid in those same dark canoes,
18117and that the fancy of being so laid had much pleased him; for it was not
18118unlike the custom of his own race, who, after embalming a dead warrior,
18119stretched him out in his canoe, and so left him to be floated away to
18120the starry archipelagoes; for not only do they believe that the stars
18121are isles, but that far beyond all visible horizons, their own mild,
18122uncontinented seas, interflow with the blue heavens; and so form the
18123white breakers of the milky way. He added, that he shuddered at
18124the thought of being buried in his hammock, according to the usual
18125sea-custom, tossed like something vile to the death-devouring sharks.
18126No: he desired a canoe like those of Nantucket, all the more congenial
18127to him, being a whaleman, that like a whale-boat these coffin-canoes
18128were without a keel; though that involved but uncertain steering, and
18129much lee-way adown the dim ages.
18130
18131Now, when this strange circumstance was made known aft, the carpenter
18132was at once commanded to do Queequeg's bidding, whatever it might
18133include. There was some heathenish, coffin-coloured old lumber aboard,
18134which, upon a long previous voyage, had been cut from the aboriginal
18135groves of the Lackaday islands, and from these dark planks the coffin
18136was recommended to be made. No sooner was the carpenter apprised of
18137the order, than taking his rule, he forthwith with all the indifferent
18138promptitude of his character, proceeded into the forecastle and took
18139Queequeg's measure with great accuracy, regularly chalking Queequeg's
18140person as he shifted the rule.
18141
18142"Ah! poor fellow! he'll have to die now," ejaculated the Long Island
18143sailor.
18144
18145Going to his vice-bench, the carpenter for convenience sake and general
18146reference, now transferringly measured on it the exact length the coffin
18147was to be, and then made the transfer permanent by cutting two notches
18148at its extremities. This done, he marshalled the planks and his tools,
18149and to work.
18150
18151When the last nail was driven, and the lid duly planed and fitted,
18152he lightly shouldered the coffin and went forward with it, inquiring
18153whether they were ready for it yet in that direction.
18154
18155Overhearing the indignant but half-humorous cries with which the
18156people on deck began to drive the coffin away, Queequeg, to every one's
18157consternation, commanded that the thing should be instantly brought to
18158him, nor was there any denying him; seeing that, of all mortals, some
18159dying men are the most tyrannical; and certainly, since they will
18160shortly trouble us so little for evermore, the poor fellows ought to be
18161indulged.
18162
18163Leaning over in his hammock, Queequeg long regarded the coffin with
18164an attentive eye. He then called for his harpoon, had the wooden stock
18165drawn from it, and then had the iron part placed in the coffin along
18166with one of the paddles of his boat. All by his own request, also,
18167biscuits were then ranged round the sides within: a flask of fresh water
18168was placed at the head, and a small bag of woody earth scraped up in
18169the hold at the foot; and a piece of sail-cloth being rolled up for a
18170pillow, Queequeg now entreated to be lifted into his final bed, that he
18171might make trial of its comforts, if any it had. He lay without moving
18172a few minutes, then told one to go to his bag and bring out his little
18173god, Yojo. Then crossing his arms on his breast with Yojo between, he
18174called for the coffin lid (hatch he called it) to be placed over him.
18175The head part turned over with a leather hinge, and there lay Queequeg
18176in his coffin with little but his composed countenance in view. "Rarmai"
18177(it will do; it is easy), he murmured at last, and signed to be replaced
18178in his hammock.
18179
18180But ere this was done, Pip, who had been slily hovering near by all this
18181while, drew nigh to him where he lay, and with soft sobbings, took him
18182by the hand; in the other, holding his tambourine.
18183
18184"Poor rover! will ye never have done with all this weary roving? where
18185go ye now? But if the currents carry ye to those sweet Antilles where
18186the beaches are only beat with water-lilies, will ye do one little
18187errand for me? Seek out one Pip, who's now been missing long: I think
18188he's in those far Antilles. If ye find him, then comfort him; for he
18189must be very sad; for look! he's left his tambourine behind;--I found
18190it. Rig-a-dig, dig, dig! Now, Queequeg, die; and I'll beat ye your dying
18191march."
18192
18193"I have heard," murmured Starbuck, gazing down the scuttle, "that in
18194violent fevers, men, all ignorance, have talked in ancient tongues;
18195and that when the mystery is probed, it turns out always that in their
18196wholly forgotten childhood those ancient tongues had been really spoken
18197in their hearing by some lofty scholars. So, to my fond faith, poor Pip,
18198in this strange sweetness of his lunacy, brings heavenly vouchers of all
18199our heavenly homes. Where learned he that, but there?--Hark! he speaks
18200again: but more wildly now."
18201
18202"Form two and two! Let's make a General of him! Ho, where's his harpoon?
18203Lay it across here.--Rig-a-dig, dig, dig! huzza! Oh for a game cock
18204now to sit upon his head and crow! Queequeg dies game!--mind ye that;
18205Queequeg dies game!--take ye good heed of that; Queequeg dies game! I
18206say; game, game, game! but base little Pip, he died a coward; died all
18207a'shiver;--out upon Pip! Hark ye; if ye find Pip, tell all the Antilles
18208he's a runaway; a coward, a coward, a coward! Tell them he jumped from
18209a whale-boat! I'd never beat my tambourine over base Pip, and hail
18210him General, if he were once more dying here. No, no! shame upon all
18211cowards--shame upon them! Let 'em go drown like Pip, that jumped from a
18212whale-boat. Shame! shame!"
18213
18214During all this, Queequeg lay with closed eyes, as if in a dream. Pip
18215was led away, and the sick man was replaced in his hammock.
18216
18217But now that he had apparently made every preparation for death; now
18218that his coffin was proved a good fit, Queequeg suddenly rallied; soon
18219there seemed no need of the carpenter's box: and thereupon, when some
18220expressed their delighted surprise, he, in substance, said, that the
18221cause of his sudden convalescence was this;--at a critical moment, he
18222had just recalled a little duty ashore, which he was leaving undone;
18223and therefore had changed his mind about dying: he could not die yet,
18224he averred. They asked him, then, whether to live or die was a matter of
18225his own sovereign will and pleasure. He answered, certainly. In a word,
18226it was Queequeg's conceit, that if a man made up his mind to live, mere
18227sickness could not kill him: nothing but a whale, or a gale, or some
18228violent, ungovernable, unintelligent destroyer of that sort.
18229
18230Now, there is this noteworthy difference between savage and civilized;
18231that while a sick, civilized man may be six months convalescing,
18232generally speaking, a sick savage is almost half-well again in a day.
18233So, in good time my Queequeg gained strength; and at length after
18234sitting on the windlass for a few indolent days (but eating with a
18235vigorous appetite) he suddenly leaped to his feet, threw out his arms
18236and legs, gave himself a good stretching, yawned a little bit, and then
18237springing into the head of his hoisted boat, and poising a harpoon,
18238pronounced himself fit for a fight.
18239
18240With a wild whimsiness, he now used his coffin for a sea-chest; and
18241emptying into it his canvas bag of clothes, set them in order there.
18242Many spare hours he spent, in carving the lid with all manner of
18243grotesque figures and drawings; and it seemed that hereby he was
18244striving, in his rude way, to copy parts of the twisted tattooing on
18245his body. And this tattooing had been the work of a departed prophet and
18246seer of his island, who, by those hieroglyphic marks, had written out on
18247his body a complete theory of the heavens and the earth, and a mystical
18248treatise on the art of attaining truth; so that Queequeg in his own
18249proper person was a riddle to unfold; a wondrous work in one volume; but
18250whose mysteries not even himself could read, though his own live heart
18251beat against them; and these mysteries were therefore destined in
18252the end to moulder away with the living parchment whereon they were
18253inscribed, and so be unsolved to the last. And this thought it must
18254have been which suggested to Ahab that wild exclamation of his, when
18255one morning turning away from surveying poor Queequeg--"Oh, devilish
18256tantalization of the gods!"
18257
18258
18259
18260CHAPTER 111. The Pacific.
18261
18262
18263When gliding by the Bashee isles we emerged at last upon the great South
18264Sea; were it not for other things, I could have greeted my dear Pacific
18265with uncounted thanks, for now the long supplication of my youth was
18266answered; that serene ocean rolled eastwards from me a thousand leagues
18267of blue.
18268
18269There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently
18270awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath; like those
18271fabled undulations of the Ephesian sod over the buried Evangelist St.
18272John. And meet it is, that over these sea-pastures, wide-rolling watery
18273prairies and Potters' Fields of all four continents, the waves should
18274rise and fall, and ebb and flow unceasingly; for here, millions of mixed
18275shades and shadows, drowned dreams, somnambulisms, reveries; all that
18276we call lives and souls, lie dreaming, dreaming, still; tossing like
18277slumberers in their beds; the ever-rolling waves but made so by their
18278restlessness.
18279
18280To any meditative Magian rover, this serene Pacific, once beheld, must
18281ever after be the sea of his adoption. It rolls the midmost waters of
18282the world, the Indian ocean and Atlantic being but its arms. The same
18283waves wash the moles of the new-built Californian towns, but yesterday
18284planted by the recentest race of men, and lave the faded but still
18285gorgeous skirts of Asiatic lands, older than Abraham; while all between
18286float milky-ways of coral isles, and low-lying, endless, unknown
18287Archipelagoes, and impenetrable Japans. Thus this mysterious, divine
18288Pacific zones the world's whole bulk about; makes all coasts one bay
18289to it; seems the tide-beating heart of earth. Lifted by those eternal
18290swells, you needs must own the seductive god, bowing your head to Pan.
18291
18292But few thoughts of Pan stirred Ahab's brain, as standing like an
18293iron statue at his accustomed place beside the mizen rigging, with one
18294nostril he unthinkingly snuffed the sugary musk from the Bashee isles
18295(in whose sweet woods mild lovers must be walking), and with the other
18296consciously inhaled the salt breath of the new found sea; that sea in
18297which the hated White Whale must even then be swimming. Launched at
18298length upon these almost final waters, and gliding towards the Japanese
18299cruising-ground, the old man's purpose intensified itself. His firm lips
18300met like the lips of a vice; the Delta of his forehead's veins swelled
18301like overladen brooks; in his very sleep, his ringing cry ran through
18302the vaulted hull, "Stern all! the White Whale spouts thick blood!"
18303
18304
18305
18306CHAPTER 112. The Blacksmith.
18307
18308
18309Availing himself of the mild, summer-cool weather that now reigned in
18310these latitudes, and in preparation for the peculiarly active
18311pursuits shortly to be anticipated, Perth, the begrimed, blistered old
18312blacksmith, had not removed his portable forge to the hold again, after
18313concluding his contributory work for Ahab's leg, but still retained
18314it on deck, fast lashed to ringbolts by the foremast; being now almost
18315incessantly invoked by the headsmen, and harpooneers, and bowsmen to do
18316some little job for them; altering, or repairing, or new shaping their
18317various weapons and boat furniture. Often he would be surrounded by an
18318eager circle, all waiting to be served; holding boat-spades, pike-heads,
18319harpoons, and lances, and jealously watching his every sooty movement,
18320as he toiled. Nevertheless, this old man's was a patient hammer wielded
18321by a patient arm. No murmur, no impatience, no petulance did come from
18322him. Silent, slow, and solemn; bowing over still further his chronically
18323broken back, he toiled away, as if toil were life itself, and the
18324heavy beating of his hammer the heavy beating of his heart. And so it
18325was.--Most miserable!
18326
18327A peculiar walk in this old man, a certain slight but painful appearing
18328yawing in his gait, had at an early period of the voyage excited the
18329curiosity of the mariners. And to the importunity of their persisted
18330questionings he had finally given in; and so it came to pass that every
18331one now knew the shameful story of his wretched fate.
18332
18333Belated, and not innocently, one bitter winter's midnight, on the road
18334running between two country towns, the blacksmith half-stupidly felt
18335the deadly numbness stealing over him, and sought refuge in a leaning,
18336dilapidated barn. The issue was, the loss of the extremities of both
18337feet. Out of this revelation, part by part, at last came out the four
18338acts of the gladness, and the one long, and as yet uncatastrophied fifth
18339act of the grief of his life's drama.
18340
18341He was an old man, who, at the age of nearly sixty, had postponedly
18342encountered that thing in sorrow's technicals called ruin. He had been
18343an artisan of famed excellence, and with plenty to do; owned a house
18344and garden; embraced a youthful, daughter-like, loving wife, and three
18345blithe, ruddy children; every Sunday went to a cheerful-looking church,
18346planted in a grove. But one night, under cover of darkness, and further
18347concealed in a most cunning disguisement, a desperate burglar slid into
18348his happy home, and robbed them all of everything. And darker yet to
18349tell, the blacksmith himself did ignorantly conduct this burglar into
18350his family's heart. It was the Bottle Conjuror! Upon the opening of that
18351fatal cork, forth flew the fiend, and shrivelled up his home. Now, for
18352prudent, most wise, and economic reasons, the blacksmith's shop was in
18353the basement of his dwelling, but with a separate entrance to it; so
18354that always had the young and loving healthy wife listened with no
18355unhappy nervousness, but with vigorous pleasure, to the stout ringing of
18356her young-armed old husband's hammer; whose reverberations, muffled by
18357passing through the floors and walls, came up to her, not unsweetly,
18358in her nursery; and so, to stout Labor's iron lullaby, the blacksmith's
18359infants were rocked to slumber.
18360
18361Oh, woe on woe! Oh, Death, why canst thou not sometimes be timely? Hadst
18362thou taken this old blacksmith to thyself ere his full ruin came upon
18363him, then had the young widow had a delicious grief, and her orphans a
18364truly venerable, legendary sire to dream of in their after years; and
18365all of them a care-killing competency. But Death plucked down some
18366virtuous elder brother, on whose whistling daily toil solely hung the
18367responsibilities of some other family, and left the worse than useless
18368old man standing, till the hideous rot of life should make him easier to
18369harvest.
18370
18371Why tell the whole? The blows of the basement hammer every day grew more
18372and more between; and each blow every day grew fainter than the last;
18373the wife sat frozen at the window, with tearless eyes, glitteringly
18374gazing into the weeping faces of her children; the bellows fell; the
18375forge choked up with cinders; the house was sold; the mother dived
18376down into the long church-yard grass; her children twice followed her
18377thither; and the houseless, familyless old man staggered off a vagabond
18378in crape; his every woe unreverenced; his grey head a scorn to flaxen
18379curls!
18380
18381Death seems the only desirable sequel for a career like this; but Death
18382is only a launching into the region of the strange Untried; it is but
18383the first salutation to the possibilities of the immense Remote, the
18384Wild, the Watery, the Unshored; therefore, to the death-longing eyes of
18385such men, who still have left in them some interior compunctions against
18386suicide, does the all-contributed and all-receptive ocean alluringly
18387spread forth his whole plain of unimaginable, taking terrors, and
18388wonderful, new-life adventures; and from the hearts of infinite
18389Pacifics, the thousand mermaids sing to them--"Come hither,
18390broken-hearted; here is another life without the guilt of intermediate
18391death; here are wonders supernatural, without dying for them. Come
18392hither! bury thyself in a life which, to your now equally abhorred and
18393abhorring, landed world, is more oblivious than death. Come hither! put
18394up THY gravestone, too, within the churchyard, and come hither, till we
18395marry thee!"
18396
18397Hearkening to these voices, East and West, by early sunrise, and by fall
18398of eve, the blacksmith's soul responded, Aye, I come! And so Perth went
18399a-whaling.
18400
18401
18402
18403CHAPTER 113. The Forge.
18404
18405
18406With matted beard, and swathed in a bristling shark-skin apron, about
18407mid-day, Perth was standing between his forge and anvil, the latter
18408placed upon an iron-wood log, with one hand holding a pike-head in the
18409coals, and with the other at his forge's lungs, when Captain Ahab came
18410along, carrying in his hand a small rusty-looking leathern bag. While
18411yet a little distance from the forge, moody Ahab paused; till at last,
18412Perth, withdrawing his iron from the fire, began hammering it upon the
18413anvil--the red mass sending off the sparks in thick hovering flights,
18414some of which flew close to Ahab.
18415
18416"Are these thy Mother Carey's chickens, Perth? they are always flying
18417in thy wake; birds of good omen, too, but not to all;--look here, they
18418burn; but thou--thou liv'st among them without a scorch."
18419
18420"Because I am scorched all over, Captain Ahab," answered Perth, resting
18421for a moment on his hammer; "I am past scorching; not easily can'st thou
18422scorch a scar."
18423
18424"Well, well; no more. Thy shrunk voice sounds too calmly, sanely woeful
18425to me. In no Paradise myself, I am impatient of all misery in others
18426that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou
18427not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet
18428hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?--What wert thou making there?"
18429
18430"Welding an old pike-head, sir; there were seams and dents in it."
18431
18432"And can'st thou make it all smooth again, blacksmith, after such hard
18433usage as it had?"
18434
18435"I think so, sir."
18436
18437"And I suppose thou can'st smoothe almost any seams and dents; never
18438mind how hard the metal, blacksmith?"
18439
18440"Aye, sir, I think I can; all seams and dents but one."
18441
18442"Look ye here, then," cried Ahab, passionately advancing, and leaning
18443with both hands on Perth's shoulders; "look ye here--HERE--can ye
18444smoothe out a seam like this, blacksmith," sweeping one hand across his
18445ribbed brow; "if thou could'st, blacksmith, glad enough would I lay
18446my head upon thy anvil, and feel thy heaviest hammer between my eyes.
18447Answer! Can'st thou smoothe this seam?"
18448
18449"Oh! that is the one, sir! Said I not all seams and dents but one?"
18450
18451"Aye, blacksmith, it is the one; aye, man, it is unsmoothable; for
18452though thou only see'st it here in my flesh, it has worked down into the
18453bone of my skull--THAT is all wrinkles! But, away with child's play; no
18454more gaffs and pikes to-day. Look ye here!" jingling the leathern bag,
18455as if it were full of gold coins. "I, too, want a harpoon made; one that
18456a thousand yoke of fiends could not part, Perth; something that will
18457stick in a whale like his own fin-bone. There's the stuff," flinging
18458the pouch upon the anvil. "Look ye, blacksmith, these are the gathered
18459nail-stubbs of the steel shoes of racing horses."
18460
18461"Horse-shoe stubbs, sir? Why, Captain Ahab, thou hast here, then, the
18462best and stubbornest stuff we blacksmiths ever work."
18463
18464"I know it, old man; these stubbs will weld together like glue from the
18465melted bones of murderers. Quick! forge me the harpoon. And forge me
18466first, twelve rods for its shank; then wind, and twist, and hammer these
18467twelve together like the yarns and strands of a tow-line. Quick! I'll
18468blow the fire."
18469
18470When at last the twelve rods were made, Ahab tried them, one by one, by
18471spiralling them, with his own hand, round a long, heavy iron bolt. "A
18472flaw!" rejecting the last one. "Work that over again, Perth."
18473
18474This done, Perth was about to begin welding the twelve into one, when
18475Ahab stayed his hand, and said he would weld his own iron. As, then,
18476with regular, gasping hems, he hammered on the anvil, Perth passing to
18477him the glowing rods, one after the other, and the hard pressed forge
18478shooting up its intense straight flame, the Parsee passed silently, and
18479bowing over his head towards the fire, seemed invoking some curse or
18480some blessing on the toil. But, as Ahab looked up, he slid aside.
18481
18482"What's that bunch of lucifers dodging about there for?" muttered Stubb,
18483looking on from the forecastle. "That Parsee smells fire like a fusee;
18484and smells of it himself, like a hot musket's powder-pan."
18485
18486At last the shank, in one complete rod, received its final heat; and as
18487Perth, to temper it, plunged it all hissing into the cask of water near
18488by, the scalding steam shot up into Ahab's bent face.
18489
18490"Would'st thou brand me, Perth?" wincing for a moment with the pain;
18491"have I been but forging my own branding-iron, then?"
18492
18493"Pray God, not that; yet I fear something, Captain Ahab. Is not this
18494harpoon for the White Whale?"
18495
18496"For the white fiend! But now for the barbs; thou must make them
18497thyself, man. Here are my razors--the best of steel; here, and make the
18498barbs sharp as the needle-sleet of the Icy Sea."
18499
18500For a moment, the old blacksmith eyed the razors as though he would fain
18501not use them.
18502
18503"Take them, man, I have no need for them; for I now neither shave, sup,
18504nor pray till--but here--to work!"
18505
18506Fashioned at last into an arrowy shape, and welded by Perth to the
18507shank, the steel soon pointed the end of the iron; and as the blacksmith
18508was about giving the barbs their final heat, prior to tempering them, he
18509cried to Ahab to place the water-cask near.
18510
18511"No, no--no water for that; I want it of the true death-temper. Ahoy,
18512there! Tashtego, Queequeg, Daggoo! What say ye, pagans! Will ye give me
18513as much blood as will cover this barb?" holding it high up. A cluster of
18514dark nods replied, Yes. Three punctures were made in the heathen flesh,
18515and the White Whale's barbs were then tempered.
18516
18517"Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli!"
18518deliriously howled Ahab, as the malignant iron scorchingly devoured the
18519baptismal blood.
18520
18521Now, mustering the spare poles from below, and selecting one of hickory,
18522with the bark still investing it, Ahab fitted the end to the socket of
18523the iron. A coil of new tow-line was then unwound, and some fathoms of
18524it taken to the windlass, and stretched to a great tension. Pressing
18525his foot upon it, till the rope hummed like a harp-string, then eagerly
18526bending over it, and seeing no strandings, Ahab exclaimed, "Good! and
18527now for the seizings."
18528
18529At one extremity the rope was unstranded, and the separate spread yarns
18530were all braided and woven round the socket of the harpoon; the pole
18531was then driven hard up into the socket; from the lower end the rope
18532was traced half-way along the pole's length, and firmly secured so, with
18533intertwistings of twine. This done, pole, iron, and rope--like the Three
18534Fates--remained inseparable, and Ahab moodily stalked away with the
18535weapon; the sound of his ivory leg, and the sound of the hickory pole,
18536both hollowly ringing along every plank. But ere he entered his cabin,
18537light, unnatural, half-bantering, yet most piteous sound was heard. Oh,
18538Pip! thy wretched laugh, thy idle but unresting eye; all thy strange
18539mummeries not unmeaningly blended with the black tragedy of the
18540melancholy ship, and mocked it!
18541
18542
18543
18544CHAPTER 114. The Gilder.
18545
18546
18547Penetrating further and further into the heart of the Japanese cruising
18548ground, the Pequod was soon all astir in the fishery. Often, in mild,
18549pleasant weather, for twelve, fifteen, eighteen, and twenty hours on the
18550stretch, they were engaged in the boats, steadily pulling, or sailing,
18551or paddling after the whales, or for an interlude of sixty or seventy
18552minutes calmly awaiting their uprising; though with but small success
18553for their pains.
18554
18555At such times, under an abated sun; afloat all day upon smooth, slow
18556heaving swells; seated in his boat, light as a birch canoe; and so
18557sociably mixing with the soft waves themselves, that like hearth-stone
18558cats they purr against the gunwale; these are the times of dreamy
18559quietude, when beholding the tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the
18560ocean's skin, one forgets the tiger heart that pants beneath it; and
18561would not willingly remember, that this velvet paw but conceals a
18562remorseless fang.
18563
18564These are the times, when in his whale-boat the rover softly feels a
18565certain filial, confident, land-like feeling towards the sea; that he
18566regards it as so much flowery earth; and the distant ship revealing
18567only the tops of her masts, seems struggling forward, not through high
18568rolling waves, but through the tall grass of a rolling prairie: as when
18569the western emigrants' horses only show their erected ears, while their
18570hidden bodies widely wade through the amazing verdure.
18571
18572The long-drawn virgin vales; the mild blue hill-sides; as over these
18573there steals the hush, the hum; you almost swear that play-wearied
18574children lie sleeping in these solitudes, in some glad May-time, when
18575the flowers of the woods are plucked. And all this mixes with your most
18576mystic mood; so that fact and fancy, half-way meeting, interpenetrate,
18577and form one seamless whole.
18578
18579Nor did such soothing scenes, however temporary, fail of at least as
18580temporary an effect on Ahab. But if these secret golden keys did seem
18581to open in him his own secret golden treasuries, yet did his breath upon
18582them prove but tarnishing.
18583
18584Oh, grassy glades! oh, ever vernal endless landscapes in the soul; in
18585ye,--though long parched by the dead drought of the earthy life,--in ye,
18586men yet may roll, like young horses in new morning clover; and for some
18587few fleeting moments, feel the cool dew of the life immortal on them.
18588Would to God these blessed calms would last. But the mingled, mingling
18589threads of life are woven by warp and woof: calms crossed by storms, a
18590storm for every calm. There is no steady unretracing progress in this
18591life; we do not advance through fixed gradations, and at the last one
18592pause:--through infancy's unconscious spell, boyhood's thoughtless
18593faith, adolescence' doubt (the common doom), then scepticism, then
18594disbelief, resting at last in manhood's pondering repose of If. But once
18595gone through, we trace the round again; and are infants, boys, and men,
18596and Ifs eternally. Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no
18597more? In what rapt ether sails the world, of which the weariest will
18598never weary? Where is the foundling's father hidden? Our souls are like
18599those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of
18600our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.
18601
18602And that same day, too, gazing far down from his boat's side into that
18603same golden sea, Starbuck lowly murmured:--
18604
18605"Loveliness unfathomable, as ever lover saw in his young bride's
18606eye!--Tell me not of thy teeth-tiered sharks, and thy kidnapping
18607cannibal ways. Let faith oust fact; let fancy oust memory; I look deep
18608down and do believe."
18609
18610And Stubb, fish-like, with sparkling scales, leaped up in that same
18611golden light:--
18612
18613"I am Stubb, and Stubb has his history; but here Stubb takes oaths that
18614he has always been jolly!"
18615
18616
18617
18618CHAPTER 115. The Pequod Meets The Bachelor.
18619
18620
18621And jolly enough were the sights and the sounds that came bearing down
18622before the wind, some few weeks after Ahab's harpoon had been welded.
18623
18624It was a Nantucket ship, the Bachelor, which had just wedged in her
18625last cask of oil, and bolted down her bursting hatches; and now, in glad
18626holiday apparel, was joyously, though somewhat vain-gloriously, sailing
18627round among the widely-separated ships on the ground, previous to
18628pointing her prow for home.
18629
18630The three men at her mast-head wore long streamers of narrow red bunting
18631at their hats; from the stern, a whale-boat was suspended, bottom down;
18632and hanging captive from the bowsprit was seen the long lower jaw of the
18633last whale they had slain. Signals, ensigns, and jacks of all colours
18634were flying from her rigging, on every side. Sideways lashed in each of
18635her three basketed tops were two barrels of sperm; above which, in her
18636top-mast cross-trees, you saw slender breakers of the same precious
18637fluid; and nailed to her main truck was a brazen lamp.
18638
18639As was afterwards learned, the Bachelor had met with the most surprising
18640success; all the more wonderful, for that while cruising in the same
18641seas numerous other vessels had gone entire months without securing a
18642single fish. Not only had barrels of beef and bread been given away to
18643make room for the far more valuable sperm, but additional supplemental
18644casks had been bartered for, from the ships she had met; and these were
18645stowed along the deck, and in the captain's and officers' state-rooms.
18646Even the cabin table itself had been knocked into kindling-wood; and the
18647cabin mess dined off the broad head of an oil-butt, lashed down to the
18648floor for a centrepiece. In the forecastle, the sailors had actually
18649caulked and pitched their chests, and filled them; it was humorously
18650added, that the cook had clapped a head on his largest boiler, and
18651filled it; that the steward had plugged his spare coffee-pot and filled
18652it; that the harpooneers had headed the sockets of their irons and
18653filled them; that indeed everything was filled with sperm, except the
18654captain's pantaloons pockets, and those he reserved to thrust his hands
18655into, in self-complacent testimony of his entire satisfaction.
18656
18657As this glad ship of good luck bore down upon the moody Pequod, the
18658barbarian sound of enormous drums came from her forecastle; and drawing
18659still nearer, a crowd of her men were seen standing round her huge
18660try-pots, which, covered with the parchment-like POKE or stomach skin of
18661the black fish, gave forth a loud roar to every stroke of the clenched
18662hands of the crew. On the quarter-deck, the mates and harpooneers were
18663dancing with the olive-hued girls who had eloped with them from the
18664Polynesian Isles; while suspended in an ornamented boat, firmly secured
18665aloft between the foremast and mainmast, three Long Island negroes, with
18666glittering fiddle-bows of whale ivory, were presiding over the hilarious
18667jig. Meanwhile, others of the ship's company were tumultuously busy at
18668the masonry of the try-works, from which the huge pots had been
18669removed. You would have almost thought they were pulling down the cursed
18670Bastille, such wild cries they raised, as the now useless brick and
18671mortar were being hurled into the sea.
18672
18673Lord and master over all this scene, the captain stood erect on the
18674ship's elevated quarter-deck, so that the whole rejoicing drama was
18675full before him, and seemed merely contrived for his own individual
18676diversion.
18677
18678And Ahab, he too was standing on his quarter-deck, shaggy and black,
18679with a stubborn gloom; and as the two ships crossed each other's
18680wakes--one all jubilations for things passed, the other all forebodings
18681as to things to come--their two captains in themselves impersonated the
18682whole striking contrast of the scene.
18683
18684"Come aboard, come aboard!" cried the gay Bachelor's commander, lifting
18685a glass and a bottle in the air.
18686
18687"Hast seen the White Whale?" gritted Ahab in reply.
18688
18689"No; only heard of him; but don't believe in him at all," said the other
18690good-humoredly. "Come aboard!"
18691
18692"Thou art too damned jolly. Sail on. Hast lost any men?"
18693
18694"Not enough to speak of--two islanders, that's all;--but come aboard,
18695old hearty, come along. I'll soon take that black from your brow. Come
18696along, will ye (merry's the play); a full ship and homeward-bound."
18697
18698"How wondrous familiar is a fool!" muttered Ahab; then aloud, "Thou art
18699a full ship and homeward bound, thou sayst; well, then, call me an empty
18700ship, and outward-bound. So go thy ways, and I will mine. Forward there!
18701Set all sail, and keep her to the wind!"
18702
18703And thus, while the one ship went cheerily before the breeze, the other
18704stubbornly fought against it; and so the two vessels parted; the crew
18705of the Pequod looking with grave, lingering glances towards the receding
18706Bachelor; but the Bachelor's men never heeding their gaze for the lively
18707revelry they were in. And as Ahab, leaning over the taffrail, eyed the
18708homewardbound craft, he took from his pocket a small vial of sand, and
18709then looking from the ship to the vial, seemed thereby bringing two
18710remote associations together, for that vial was filled with Nantucket
18711soundings.
18712
18713
18714
18715CHAPTER 116. The Dying Whale.
18716
18717
18718Not seldom in this life, when, on the right side, fortune's favourites
18719sail close by us, we, though all adroop before, catch somewhat of the
18720rushing breeze, and joyfully feel our bagging sails fill out. So seemed
18721it with the Pequod. For next day after encountering the gay Bachelor,
18722whales were seen and four were slain; and one of them by Ahab.
18723
18724It was far down the afternoon; and when all the spearings of the crimson
18725fight were done: and floating in the lovely sunset sea and sky, sun
18726and whale both stilly died together; then, such a sweetness and such
18727plaintiveness, such inwreathing orisons curled up in that rosy air, that
18728it almost seemed as if far over from the deep green convent valleys of
18729the Manilla isles, the Spanish land-breeze, wantonly turned sailor, had
18730gone to sea, freighted with these vesper hymns.
18731
18732Soothed again, but only soothed to deeper gloom, Ahab, who had sterned
18733off from the whale, sat intently watching his final wanings from the now
18734tranquil boat. For that strange spectacle observable in all sperm whales
18735dying--the turning sunwards of the head, and so expiring--that strange
18736spectacle, beheld of such a placid evening, somehow to Ahab conveyed a
18737wondrousness unknown before.
18738
18739"He turns and turns him to it,--how slowly, but how steadfastly, his
18740homage-rendering and invoking brow, with his last dying motions. He too
18741worships fire; most faithful, broad, baronial vassal of the sun!--Oh
18742that these too-favouring eyes should see these too-favouring sights.
18743Look! here, far water-locked; beyond all hum of human weal or woe;
18744in these most candid and impartial seas; where to traditions no rocks
18745furnish tablets; where for long Chinese ages, the billows have still
18746rolled on speechless and unspoken to, as stars that shine upon the
18747Niger's unknown source; here, too, life dies sunwards full of faith; but
18748see! no sooner dead, than death whirls round the corpse, and it heads
18749some other way.
18750
18751"Oh, thou dark Hindoo half of nature, who of drowned bones hast builded
18752thy separate throne somewhere in the heart of these unverdured seas;
18753thou art an infidel, thou queen, and too truly speakest to me in the
18754wide-slaughtering Typhoon, and the hushed burial of its after calm. Nor
18755has this thy whale sunwards turned his dying head, and then gone round
18756again, without a lesson to me.
18757
18758"Oh, trebly hooped and welded hip of power! Oh, high aspiring, rainbowed
18759jet!--that one strivest, this one jettest all in vain! In vain, oh
18760whale, dost thou seek intercedings with yon all-quickening sun, that
18761only calls forth life, but gives it not again. Yet dost thou, darker
18762half, rock me with a prouder, if a darker faith. All thy unnamable
18763imminglings float beneath me here; I am buoyed by breaths of once living
18764things, exhaled as air, but water now.
18765
18766"Then hail, for ever hail, O sea, in whose eternal tossings the wild
18767fowl finds his only rest. Born of earth, yet suckled by the sea; though
18768hill and valley mothered me, ye billows are my foster-brothers!"
18769
18770
18771
18772CHAPTER 117. The Whale Watch.
18773
18774
18775The four whales slain that evening had died wide apart; one, far to
18776windward; one, less distant, to leeward; one ahead; one astern. These
18777last three were brought alongside ere nightfall; but the windward one
18778could not be reached till morning; and the boat that had killed it lay
18779by its side all night; and that boat was Ahab's.
18780
18781The waif-pole was thrust upright into the dead whale's spout-hole; and
18782the lantern hanging from its top, cast a troubled flickering glare
18783upon the black, glossy back, and far out upon the midnight waves, which
18784gently chafed the whale's broad flank, like soft surf upon a beach.
18785
18786Ahab and all his boat's crew seemed asleep but the Parsee; who crouching
18787in the bow, sat watching the sharks, that spectrally played round the
18788whale, and tapped the light cedar planks with their tails. A sound
18789like the moaning in squadrons over Asphaltites of unforgiven ghosts of
18790Gomorrah, ran shuddering through the air.
18791
18792Started from his slumbers, Ahab, face to face, saw the Parsee; and
18793hooped round by the gloom of the night they seemed the last men in a
18794flooded world. "I have dreamed it again," said he.
18795
18796"Of the hearses? Have I not said, old man, that neither hearse nor
18797coffin can be thine?"
18798
18799"And who are hearsed that die on the sea?"
18800
18801"But I said, old man, that ere thou couldst die on this voyage, two
18802hearses must verily be seen by thee on the sea; the first not made by
18803mortal hands; and the visible wood of the last one must be grown in
18804America."
18805
18806"Aye, aye! a strange sight that, Parsee:--a hearse and its plumes
18807floating over the ocean with the waves for the pall-bearers. Ha! Such a
18808sight we shall not soon see."
18809
18810"Believe it or not, thou canst not die till it be seen, old man."
18811
18812"And what was that saying about thyself?"
18813
18814"Though it come to the last, I shall still go before thee thy pilot."
18815
18816"And when thou art so gone before--if that ever befall--then ere I can
18817follow, thou must still appear to me, to pilot me still?--Was it not
18818so? Well, then, did I believe all ye say, oh my pilot! I have here two
18819pledges that I shall yet slay Moby Dick and survive it."
18820
18821"Take another pledge, old man," said the Parsee, as his eyes lighted up
18822like fire-flies in the gloom--"Hemp only can kill thee."
18823
18824"The gallows, ye mean.--I am immortal then, on land and on sea," cried
18825Ahab, with a laugh of derision;--"Immortal on land and on sea!"
18826
18827Both were silent again, as one man. The grey dawn came on, and the
18828slumbering crew arose from the boat's bottom, and ere noon the dead
18829whale was brought to the ship.
18830
18831
18832
18833CHAPTER 118. The Quadrant.
18834
18835
18836The season for the Line at length drew near; and every day when Ahab,
18837coming from his cabin, cast his eyes aloft, the vigilant helmsman would
18838ostentatiously handle his spokes, and the eager mariners quickly run to
18839the braces, and would stand there with all their eyes centrally fixed
18840on the nailed doubloon; impatient for the order to point the ship's
18841prow for the equator. In good time the order came. It was hard upon high
18842noon; and Ahab, seated in the bows of his high-hoisted boat, was
18843about taking his wonted daily observation of the sun to determine his
18844latitude.
18845
18846Now, in that Japanese sea, the days in summer are as freshets of
18847effulgences. That unblinkingly vivid Japanese sun seems the blazing
18848focus of the glassy ocean's immeasurable burning-glass. The sky looks
18849lacquered; clouds there are none; the horizon floats; and this nakedness
18850of unrelieved radiance is as the insufferable splendors of God's throne.
18851Well that Ahab's quadrant was furnished with coloured glasses, through
18852which to take sight of that solar fire. So, swinging his seated form
18853to the roll of the ship, and with his astrological-looking instrument
18854placed to his eye, he remained in that posture for some moments to
18855catch the precise instant when the sun should gain its precise meridian.
18856Meantime while his whole attention was absorbed, the Parsee was kneeling
18857beneath him on the ship's deck, and with face thrown up like Ahab's,
18858was eyeing the same sun with him; only the lids of his eyes half hooded
18859their orbs, and his wild face was subdued to an earthly passionlessness.
18860At length the desired observation was taken; and with his pencil upon
18861his ivory leg, Ahab soon calculated what his latitude must be at that
18862precise instant. Then falling into a moment's revery, he again looked up
18863towards the sun and murmured to himself: "Thou sea-mark! thou high and
18864mighty Pilot! thou tellest me truly where I AM--but canst thou cast the
18865least hint where I SHALL be? Or canst thou tell where some other thing
18866besides me is this moment living? Where is Moby Dick? This instant thou
18867must be eyeing him. These eyes of mine look into the very eye that is
18868even now beholding him; aye, and into the eye that is even now equally
18869beholding the objects on the unknown, thither side of thee, thou sun!"
18870
18871Then gazing at his quadrant, and handling, one after the other, its
18872numerous cabalistical contrivances, he pondered again, and muttered:
18873"Foolish toy! babies' plaything of haughty Admirals, and Commodores, and
18874Captains; the world brags of thee, of thy cunning and might; but what
18875after all canst thou do, but tell the poor, pitiful point, where thou
18876thyself happenest to be on this wide planet, and the hand that holds
18877thee: no! not one jot more! Thou canst not tell where one drop of water
18878or one grain of sand will be to-morrow noon; and yet with thy impotence
18879thou insultest the sun! Science! Curse thee, thou vain toy; and cursed
18880be all the things that cast man's eyes aloft to that heaven, whose live
18881vividness but scorches him, as these old eyes are even now scorched
18882with thy light, O sun! Level by nature to this earth's horizon are the
18883glances of man's eyes; not shot from the crown of his head, as if God
18884had meant him to gaze on his firmament. Curse thee, thou quadrant!"
18885dashing it to the deck, "no longer will I guide my earthly way by thee;
18886the level ship's compass, and the level deadreckoning, by log and by
18887line; THESE shall conduct me, and show me my place on the sea. Aye,"
18888lighting from the boat to the deck, "thus I trample on thee, thou paltry
18889thing that feebly pointest on high; thus I split and destroy thee!"
18890
18891As the frantic old man thus spoke and thus trampled with his live
18892and dead feet, a sneering triumph that seemed meant for Ahab, and a
18893fatalistic despair that seemed meant for himself--these passed over
18894the mute, motionless Parsee's face. Unobserved he rose and glided away;
18895while, awestruck by the aspect of their commander, the seamen clustered
18896together on the forecastle, till Ahab, troubledly pacing the deck,
18897shouted out--"To the braces! Up helm!--square in!"
18898
18899In an instant the yards swung round; and as the ship half-wheeled upon
18900her heel, her three firm-seated graceful masts erectly poised upon
18901her long, ribbed hull, seemed as the three Horatii pirouetting on one
18902sufficient steed.
18903
18904Standing between the knight-heads, Starbuck watched the Pequod's
18905tumultuous way, and Ahab's also, as he went lurching along the deck.
18906
18907"I have sat before the dense coal fire and watched it all aglow, full of
18908its tormented flaming life; and I have seen it wane at last, down, down,
18909to dumbest dust. Old man of oceans! of all this fiery life of thine,
18910what will at length remain but one little heap of ashes!"
18911
18912"Aye," cried Stubb, "but sea-coal ashes--mind ye that, Mr.
18913Starbuck--sea-coal, not your common charcoal. Well, well; I heard Ahab
18914mutter, 'Here some one thrusts these cards into these old hands of mine;
18915swears that I must play them, and no others.' And damn me, Ahab, but
18916thou actest right; live in the game, and die in it!"
18917
18918
18919
18920CHAPTER 119. The Candles.
18921
18922
18923Warmest climes but nurse the cruellest fangs: the tiger of Bengal
18924crouches in spiced groves of ceaseless verdure. Skies the most effulgent
18925but basket the deadliest thunders: gorgeous Cuba knows tornadoes
18926that never swept tame northern lands. So, too, it is, that in these
18927resplendent Japanese seas the mariner encounters the direst of all
18928storms, the Typhoon. It will sometimes burst from out that cloudless
18929sky, like an exploding bomb upon a dazed and sleepy town.
18930
18931Towards evening of that day, the Pequod was torn of her canvas, and
18932bare-poled was left to fight a Typhoon which had struck her directly
18933ahead. When darkness came on, sky and sea roared and split with the
18934thunder, and blazed with the lightning, that showed the disabled masts
18935fluttering here and there with the rags which the first fury of the
18936tempest had left for its after sport.
18937
18938Holding by a shroud, Starbuck was standing on the quarter-deck; at every
18939flash of the lightning glancing aloft, to see what additional disaster
18940might have befallen the intricate hamper there; while Stubb and Flask
18941were directing the men in the higher hoisting and firmer lashing of the
18942boats. But all their pains seemed naught. Though lifted to the very
18943top of the cranes, the windward quarter boat (Ahab's) did not escape.
18944A great rolling sea, dashing high up against the reeling ship's high
18945teetering side, stove in the boat's bottom at the stern, and left it
18946again, all dripping through like a sieve.
18947
18948"Bad work, bad work! Mr. Starbuck," said Stubb, regarding the wreck,
18949"but the sea will have its way. Stubb, for one, can't fight it. You see,
18950Mr. Starbuck, a wave has such a great long start before it leaps, all
18951round the world it runs, and then comes the spring! But as for me, all
18952the start I have to meet it, is just across the deck here. But never
18953mind; it's all in fun: so the old song says;"--(SINGS.)
18954
18955  Oh! jolly is the gale,
18956  And a joker is the whale,
18957  A' flourishin' his tail,--
18958  Such a funny, sporty, gamy, jesty, joky, hoky-poky lad, is the Ocean, oh!
18959
18960  The scud all a flyin',
18961  That's his flip only foamin';
18962  When he stirs in the spicin',--
18963  Such a funny, sporty, gamy, jesty, joky, hoky-poky lad, is the Ocean, oh!
18964
18965  Thunder splits the ships,
18966  But he only smacks his lips,
18967  A tastin' of this flip,--
18968  Such a funny, sporty, gamy, jesty, joky, hoky-poky lad, is the Ocean, oh!
18969
18970
18971"Avast Stubb," cried Starbuck, "let the Typhoon sing, and strike his
18972harp here in our rigging; but if thou art a brave man thou wilt hold thy
18973peace."
18974
18975"But I am not a brave man; never said I was a brave man; I am a coward;
18976and I sing to keep up my spirits. And I tell you what it is, Mr.
18977Starbuck, there's no way to stop my singing in this world but to cut my
18978throat. And when that's done, ten to one I sing ye the doxology for a
18979wind-up."
18980
18981"Madman! look through my eyes if thou hast none of thine own."
18982
18983"What! how can you see better of a dark night than anybody else, never
18984mind how foolish?"
18985
18986"Here!" cried Starbuck, seizing Stubb by the shoulder, and pointing his
18987hand towards the weather bow, "markest thou not that the gale comes from
18988the eastward, the very course Ahab is to run for Moby Dick? the very
18989course he swung to this day noon? now mark his boat there; where is
18990that stove? In the stern-sheets, man; where he is wont to stand--his
18991stand-point is stove, man! Now jump overboard, and sing away, if thou
18992must!
18993
18994"I don't half understand ye: what's in the wind?"
18995
18996"Yes, yes, round the Cape of Good Hope is the shortest way to
18997Nantucket," soliloquized Starbuck suddenly, heedless of Stubb's
18998question. "The gale that now hammers at us to stave us, we can turn it
18999into a fair wind that will drive us towards home. Yonder, to windward,
19000all is blackness of doom; but to leeward, homeward--I see it lightens up
19001there; but not with the lightning."
19002
19003At that moment in one of the intervals of profound darkness, following
19004the flashes, a voice was heard at his side; and almost at the same
19005instant a volley of thunder peals rolled overhead.
19006
19007"Who's there?"
19008
19009"Old Thunder!" said Ahab, groping his way along the bulwarks to his
19010pivot-hole; but suddenly finding his path made plain to him by elbowed
19011lances of fire.
19012
19013Now, as the lightning rod to a spire on shore is intended to carry off
19014the perilous fluid into the soil; so the kindred rod which at sea some
19015ships carry to each mast, is intended to conduct it into the water. But
19016as this conductor must descend to considerable depth, that its end may
19017avoid all contact with the hull; and as moreover, if kept constantly
19018towing there, it would be liable to many mishaps, besides interfering
19019not a little with some of the rigging, and more or less impeding the
19020vessel's way in the water; because of all this, the lower parts of a
19021ship's lightning-rods are not always overboard; but are generally made
19022in long slender links, so as to be the more readily hauled up into the
19023chains outside, or thrown down into the sea, as occasion may require.
19024
19025"The rods! the rods!" cried Starbuck to the crew, suddenly admonished to
19026vigilance by the vivid lightning that had just been darting flambeaux,
19027to light Ahab to his post. "Are they overboard? drop them over, fore and
19028aft. Quick!"
19029
19030"Avast!" cried Ahab; "let's have fair play here, though we be the weaker
19031side. Yet I'll contribute to raise rods on the Himmalehs and Andes, that
19032all the world may be secured; but out on privileges! Let them be, sir."
19033
19034"Look aloft!" cried Starbuck. "The corpusants! the corpusants!"
19035
19036All the yard-arms were tipped with a pallid fire; and touched at each
19037tri-pointed lightning-rod-end with three tapering white flames, each of
19038the three tall masts was silently burning in that sulphurous air, like
19039three gigantic wax tapers before an altar.
19040
19041"Blast the boat! let it go!" cried Stubb at this instant, as a swashing
19042sea heaved up under his own little craft, so that its gunwale violently
19043jammed his hand, as he was passing a lashing. "Blast it!"--but
19044slipping backward on the deck, his uplifted eyes caught the flames; and
19045immediately shifting his tone he cried--"The corpusants have mercy on us
19046all!"
19047
19048To sailors, oaths are household words; they will swear in the trance of
19049the calm, and in the teeth of the tempest; they will imprecate curses
19050from the topsail-yard-arms, when most they teeter over to a seething
19051sea; but in all my voyagings, seldom have I heard a common oath when
19052God's burning finger has been laid on the ship; when His "Mene, Mene,
19053Tekel Upharsin" has been woven into the shrouds and the cordage.
19054
19055While this pallidness was burning aloft, few words were heard from the
19056enchanted crew; who in one thick cluster stood on the forecastle,
19057all their eyes gleaming in that pale phosphorescence, like a far away
19058constellation of stars. Relieved against the ghostly light, the gigantic
19059jet negro, Daggoo, loomed up to thrice his real stature, and seemed
19060the black cloud from which the thunder had come. The parted mouth of
19061Tashtego revealed his shark-white teeth, which strangely gleamed as
19062if they too had been tipped by corpusants; while lit up by the
19063preternatural light, Queequeg's tattooing burned like Satanic blue
19064flames on his body.
19065
19066The tableau all waned at last with the pallidness aloft; and once more
19067the Pequod and every soul on her decks were wrapped in a pall. A moment
19068or two passed, when Starbuck, going forward, pushed against some one. It
19069was Stubb. "What thinkest thou now, man; I heard thy cry; it was not the
19070same in the song."
19071
19072"No, no, it wasn't; I said the corpusants have mercy on us all; and I
19073hope they will, still. But do they only have mercy on long faces?--have
19074they no bowels for a laugh? And look ye, Mr. Starbuck--but it's too dark
19075to look. Hear me, then: I take that mast-head flame we saw for a sign
19076of good luck; for those masts are rooted in a hold that is going to be
19077chock a' block with sperm-oil, d'ye see; and so, all that sperm will
19078work up into the masts, like sap in a tree. Yes, our three masts will
19079yet be as three spermaceti candles--that's the good promise we saw."
19080
19081At that moment Starbuck caught sight of Stubb's face slowly beginning
19082to glimmer into sight. Glancing upwards, he cried: "See! see!" and once
19083more the high tapering flames were beheld with what seemed redoubled
19084supernaturalness in their pallor.
19085
19086"The corpusants have mercy on us all," cried Stubb, again.
19087
19088At the base of the mainmast, full beneath the doubloon and the flame,
19089the Parsee was kneeling in Ahab's front, but with his head bowed away
19090from him; while near by, from the arched and overhanging rigging, where
19091they had just been engaged securing a spar, a number of the seamen,
19092arrested by the glare, now cohered together, and hung pendulous, like a
19093knot of numbed wasps from a drooping, orchard twig. In various enchanted
19094attitudes, like the standing, or stepping, or running skeletons in
19095Herculaneum, others remained rooted to the deck; but all their eyes
19096upcast.
19097
19098"Aye, aye, men!" cried Ahab. "Look up at it; mark it well; the white
19099flame but lights the way to the White Whale! Hand me those mainmast
19100links there; I would fain feel this pulse, and let mine beat against it;
19101blood against fire! So."
19102
19103Then turning--the last link held fast in his left hand, he put his foot
19104upon the Parsee; and with fixed upward eye, and high-flung right arm, he
19105stood erect before the lofty tri-pointed trinity of flames.
19106
19107"Oh! thou clear spirit of clear fire, whom on these seas I as Persian
19108once did worship, till in the sacramental act so burned by thee, that to
19109this hour I bear the scar; I now know thee, thou clear spirit, and I now
19110know that thy right worship is defiance. To neither love nor reverence
19111wilt thou be kind; and e'en for hate thou canst but kill; and all
19112are killed. No fearless fool now fronts thee. I own thy speechless,
19113placeless power; but to the last gasp of my earthquake life will
19114dispute its unconditional, unintegral mastery in me. In the midst of the
19115personified impersonal, a personality stands here. Though but a point at
19116best; whencesoe'er I came; wheresoe'er I go; yet while I earthly live,
19117the queenly personality lives in me, and feels her royal rights. But war
19118is pain, and hate is woe. Come in thy lowest form of love, and I will
19119kneel and kiss thee; but at thy highest, come as mere supernal power;
19120and though thou launchest navies of full-freighted worlds, there's that
19121in here that still remains indifferent. Oh, thou clear spirit, of thy
19122fire thou madest me, and like a true child of fire, I breathe it back to
19123thee."
19124
19125[SUDDEN, REPEATED FLASHES OF LIGHTNING; THE NINE FLAMES LEAP LENGTHWISE
19126TO THRICE THEIR PREVIOUS HEIGHT; AHAB, WITH THE REST, CLOSES HIS EYES,
19127HIS RIGHT HAND PRESSED HARD UPON THEM.]
19128
19129"I own thy speechless, placeless power; said I not so? Nor was it wrung
19130from me; nor do I now drop these links. Thou canst blind; but I can then
19131grope. Thou canst consume; but I can then be ashes. Take the homage of
19132these poor eyes, and shutter-hands. I would not take it. The lightning
19133flashes through my skull; mine eye-balls ache and ache; my whole beaten
19134brain seems as beheaded, and rolling on some stunning ground. Oh, oh!
19135Yet blindfold, yet will I talk to thee. Light though thou be, thou
19136leapest out of darkness; but I am darkness leaping out of light, leaping
19137out of thee! The javelins cease; open eyes; see, or not? There burn the
19138flames! Oh, thou magnanimous! now I do glory in my genealogy. But thou
19139art but my fiery father; my sweet mother, I know not. Oh, cruel! what
19140hast thou done with her? There lies my puzzle; but thine is greater.
19141Thou knowest not how came ye, hence callest thyself unbegotten;
19142certainly knowest not thy beginning, hence callest thyself unbegun. I
19143know that of me, which thou knowest not of thyself, oh, thou omnipotent.
19144There is some unsuffusing thing beyond thee, thou clear spirit, to whom
19145all thy eternity is but time, all thy creativeness mechanical. Through
19146thee, thy flaming self, my scorched eyes do dimly see it. Oh, thou
19147foundling fire, thou hermit immemorial, thou too hast thy incommunicable
19148riddle, thy unparticipated grief. Here again with haughty agony, I read
19149my sire. Leap! leap up, and lick the sky! I leap with thee; I burn with
19150thee; would fain be welded with thee; defyingly I worship thee!"
19151
19152"The boat! the boat!" cried Starbuck, "look at thy boat, old man!"
19153
19154Ahab's harpoon, the one forged at Perth's fire, remained firmly lashed
19155in its conspicuous crotch, so that it projected beyond his whale-boat's
19156bow; but the sea that had stove its bottom had caused the loose leather
19157sheath to drop off; and from the keen steel barb there now came a
19158levelled flame of pale, forked fire. As the silent harpoon burned there
19159like a serpent's tongue, Starbuck grasped Ahab by the arm--"God, God
19160is against thee, old man; forbear! 'tis an ill voyage! ill begun, ill
19161continued; let me square the yards, while we may, old man, and make a
19162fair wind of it homewards, to go on a better voyage than this."
19163
19164Overhearing Starbuck, the panic-stricken crew instantly ran to the
19165braces--though not a sail was left aloft. For the moment all the aghast
19166mate's thoughts seemed theirs; they raised a half mutinous cry. But
19167dashing the rattling lightning links to the deck, and snatching the
19168burning harpoon, Ahab waved it like a torch among them; swearing to
19169transfix with it the first sailor that but cast loose a rope's end.
19170Petrified by his aspect, and still more shrinking from the fiery dart
19171that he held, the men fell back in dismay, and Ahab again spoke:--
19172
19173"All your oaths to hunt the White Whale are as binding as mine; and
19174heart, soul, and body, lungs and life, old Ahab is bound. And that ye
19175may know to what tune this heart beats; look ye here; thus I blow out
19176the last fear!" And with one blast of his breath he extinguished the
19177flame.
19178
19179As in the hurricane that sweeps the plain, men fly the neighborhood of
19180some lone, gigantic elm, whose very height and strength but render it so
19181much the more unsafe, because so much the more a mark for thunderbolts;
19182so at those last words of Ahab's many of the mariners did run from him
19183in a terror of dismay.
19184
19185
19186
19187CHAPTER 120. The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch.
19188
19189AHAB STANDING BY THE HELM. STARBUCK APPROACHING HIM.
19190
19191
19192"We must send down the main-top-sail yard, sir. The band is working loose
19193and the lee lift is half-stranded. Shall I strike it, sir?"
19194
19195"Strike nothing; lash it. If I had sky-sail poles, I'd sway them up
19196now."
19197
19198"Sir!--in God's name!--sir?"
19199
19200"Well."
19201
19202"The anchors are working, sir. Shall I get them inboard?"
19203
19204"Strike nothing, and stir nothing, but lash everything. The wind rises,
19205but it has not got up to my table-lands yet. Quick, and see to it.--By
19206masts and keels! he takes me for the hunch-backed skipper of some
19207coasting smack. Send down my main-top-sail yard! Ho, gluepots! Loftiest
19208trucks were made for wildest winds, and this brain-truck of mine now
19209sails amid the cloud-scud. Shall I strike that? Oh, none but cowards
19210send down their brain-trucks in tempest time. What a hooroosh aloft
19211there! I would e'en take it for sublime, did I not know that the colic
19212is a noisy malady. Oh, take medicine, take medicine!"
19213
19214
19215
19216CHAPTER 121. Midnight.--The Forecastle Bulwarks.
19217
19218
19219STUBB AND FLASK MOUNTED ON THEM, AND PASSING ADDITIONAL LASHINGS OVER
19220THE ANCHORS THERE HANGING.
19221
19222
19223"No, Stubb; you may pound that knot there as much as you please, but you
19224will never pound into me what you were just now saying. And how long
19225ago is it since you said the very contrary? Didn't you once say that
19226whatever ship Ahab sails in, that ship should pay something extra on its
19227insurance policy, just as though it were loaded with powder barrels aft
19228and boxes of lucifers forward? Stop, now; didn't you say so?"
19229
19230"Well, suppose I did? What then? I've part changed my flesh since that
19231time, why not my mind? Besides, supposing we ARE loaded with powder
19232barrels aft and lucifers forward; how the devil could the lucifers get
19233afire in this drenching spray here? Why, my little man, you have
19234pretty red hair, but you couldn't get afire now. Shake yourself; you're
19235Aquarius, or the water-bearer, Flask; might fill pitchers at your coat
19236collar. Don't you see, then, that for these extra risks the Marine
19237Insurance companies have extra guarantees? Here are hydrants, Flask. But
19238hark, again, and I'll answer ye the other thing. First take your leg off
19239from the crown of the anchor here, though, so I can pass the rope;
19240now listen. What's the mighty difference between holding a mast's
19241lightning-rod in the storm, and standing close by a mast that hasn't
19242got any lightning-rod at all in a storm? Don't you see, you timber-head,
19243that no harm can come to the holder of the rod, unless the mast is first
19244struck? What are you talking about, then? Not one ship in a hundred
19245carries rods, and Ahab,--aye, man, and all of us,--were in no more
19246danger then, in my poor opinion, than all the crews in ten thousand
19247ships now sailing the seas. Why, you King-Post, you, I suppose you would
19248have every man in the world go about with a small lightning-rod running
19249up the corner of his hat, like a militia officer's skewered feather,
19250and trailing behind like his sash. Why don't ye be sensible, Flask? it's
19251easy to be sensible; why don't ye, then? any man with half an eye can be
19252sensible."
19253
19254"I don't know that, Stubb. You sometimes find it rather hard."
19255
19256"Yes, when a fellow's soaked through, it's hard to be sensible, that's
19257a fact. And I am about drenched with this spray. Never mind; catch the
19258turn there, and pass it. Seems to me we are lashing down these anchors
19259now as if they were never going to be used again. Tying these two
19260anchors here, Flask, seems like tying a man's hands behind him. And what
19261big generous hands they are, to be sure. These are your iron fists,
19262hey? What a hold they have, too! I wonder, Flask, whether the world is
19263anchored anywhere; if she is, she swings with an uncommon long cable,
19264though. There, hammer that knot down, and we've done. So; next to
19265touching land, lighting on deck is the most satisfactory. I say, just
19266wring out my jacket skirts, will ye? Thank ye. They laugh at long-togs
19267so, Flask; but seems to me, a Long tailed coat ought always to be worn
19268in all storms afloat. The tails tapering down that way, serve to carry
19269off the water, d'ye see. Same with cocked hats; the cocks form gable-end
19270eave-troughs, Flask. No more monkey-jackets and tarpaulins for me; I
19271must mount a swallow-tail, and drive down a beaver; so. Halloa! whew!
19272there goes my tarpaulin overboard; Lord, Lord, that the winds that come
19273from heaven should be so unmannerly! This is a nasty night, lad."
19274
19275
19276
19277CHAPTER 122. Midnight Aloft.--Thunder and Lightning.
19278
19279
19280THE MAIN-TOP-SAIL YARD.--TASHTEGO PASSING NEW LASHINGS AROUND IT.
19281
19282
19283"Um, um, um. Stop that thunder! Plenty too much thunder up here. What's
19284the use of thunder? Um, um, um. We don't want thunder; we want rum; give
19285us a glass of rum. Um, um, um!"
19286
19287
19288
19289CHAPTER 123. The Musket.
19290
19291
19292During the most violent shocks of the Typhoon, the man at the Pequod's
19293jaw-bone tiller had several times been reelingly hurled to the deck by
19294its spasmodic motions, even though preventer tackles had been attached
19295to it--for they were slack--because some play to the tiller was
19296indispensable.
19297
19298In a severe gale like this, while the ship is but a tossed shuttlecock
19299to the blast, it is by no means uncommon to see the needles in the
19300compasses, at intervals, go round and round. It was thus with the
19301Pequod's; at almost every shock the helmsman had not failed to notice
19302the whirling velocity with which they revolved upon the cards; it is
19303a sight that hardly anyone can behold without some sort of unwonted
19304emotion.
19305
19306Some hours after midnight, the Typhoon abated so much, that through the
19307strenuous exertions of Starbuck and Stubb--one engaged forward and the
19308other aft--the shivered remnants of the jib and fore and main-top-sails
19309were cut adrift from the spars, and went eddying away to leeward, like
19310the feathers of an albatross, which sometimes are cast to the winds when
19311that storm-tossed bird is on the wing.
19312
19313The three corresponding new sails were now bent and reefed, and a
19314storm-trysail was set further aft; so that the ship soon went through
19315the water with some precision again; and the course--for the present,
19316East-south-east--which he was to steer, if practicable, was once more
19317given to the helmsman. For during the violence of the gale, he had only
19318steered according to its vicissitudes. But as he was now bringing the
19319ship as near her course as possible, watching the compass meanwhile, lo!
19320a good sign! the wind seemed coming round astern; aye, the foul breeze
19321became fair!
19322
19323Instantly the yards were squared, to the lively song of "HO! THE
19324FAIR WIND! OH-YE-HO, CHEERLY MEN!" the crew singing for joy, that so
19325promising an event should so soon have falsified the evil portents
19326preceding it.
19327
19328In compliance with the standing order of his commander--to report
19329immediately, and at any one of the twenty-four hours, any decided change
19330in the affairs of the deck,--Starbuck had no sooner trimmed the yards to
19331the breeze--however reluctantly and gloomily,--than he mechanically went
19332below to apprise Captain Ahab of the circumstance.
19333
19334Ere knocking at his state-room, he involuntarily paused before it
19335a moment. The cabin lamp--taking long swings this way and that--was
19336burning fitfully, and casting fitful shadows upon the old man's bolted
19337door,--a thin one, with fixed blinds inserted, in place of upper panels.
19338The isolated subterraneousness of the cabin made a certain humming
19339silence to reign there, though it was hooped round by all the roar of
19340the elements. The loaded muskets in the rack were shiningly revealed, as
19341they stood upright against the forward bulkhead. Starbuck was an honest,
19342upright man; but out of Starbuck's heart, at that instant when he saw
19343the muskets, there strangely evolved an evil thought; but so blent with
19344its neutral or good accompaniments that for the instant he hardly knew
19345it for itself.
19346
19347"He would have shot me once," he murmured, "yes, there's the very musket
19348that he pointed at me;--that one with the studded stock; let me touch
19349it--lift it. Strange, that I, who have handled so many deadly lances,
19350strange, that I should shake so now. Loaded? I must see. Aye, aye; and
19351powder in the pan;--that's not good. Best spill it?--wait. I'll cure
19352myself of this. I'll hold the musket boldly while I think.--I come
19353to report a fair wind to him. But how fair? Fair for death and
19354doom,--THAT'S fair for Moby Dick. It's a fair wind that's only fair for
19355that accursed fish.--The very tube he pointed at me!--the very one;
19356THIS one--I hold it here; he would have killed me with the very thing I
19357handle now.--Aye and he would fain kill all his crew. Does he not say
19358he will not strike his spars to any gale? Has he not dashed his heavenly
19359quadrant? and in these same perilous seas, gropes he not his way by mere
19360dead reckoning of the error-abounding log? and in this very Typhoon, did
19361he not swear that he would have no lightning-rods? But shall this crazed
19362old man be tamely suffered to drag a whole ship's company down to doom
19363with him?--Yes, it would make him the wilful murderer of thirty men and
19364more, if this ship come to any deadly harm; and come to deadly harm, my
19365soul swears this ship will, if Ahab have his way. If, then, he were this
19366instant--put aside, that crime would not be his. Ha! is he muttering in
19367his sleep? Yes, just there,--in there, he's sleeping. Sleeping? aye,
19368but still alive, and soon awake again. I can't withstand thee, then, old
19369man. Not reasoning; not remonstrance; not entreaty wilt thou hearken to;
19370all this thou scornest. Flat obedience to thy own flat commands, this is
19371all thou breathest. Aye, and say'st the men have vow'd thy vow; say'st
19372all of us are Ahabs. Great God forbid!--But is there no other way? no
19373lawful way?--Make him a prisoner to be taken home? What! hope to wrest
19374this old man's living power from his own living hands? Only a fool
19375would try it. Say he were pinioned even; knotted all over with ropes
19376and hawsers; chained down to ring-bolts on this cabin floor; he would
19377be more hideous than a caged tiger, then. I could not endure the
19378sight; could not possibly fly his howlings; all comfort, sleep itself,
19379inestimable reason would leave me on the long intolerable voyage. What,
19380then, remains? The land is hundreds of leagues away, and locked Japan
19381the nearest. I stand alone here upon an open sea, with two oceans and
19382a whole continent between me and law.--Aye, aye, 'tis so.--Is heaven
19383a murderer when its lightning strikes a would-be murderer in his bed,
19384tindering sheets and skin together?--And would I be a murderer, then,
19385if"--and slowly, stealthily, and half sideways looking, he placed the
19386loaded musket's end against the door.
19387
19388"On this level, Ahab's hammock swings within; his head this way. A
19389touch, and Starbuck may survive to hug his wife and child again.--Oh
19390Mary! Mary!--boy! boy! boy!--But if I wake thee not to death, old man,
19391who can tell to what unsounded deeps Starbuck's body this day week
19392may sink, with all the crew! Great God, where art Thou? Shall I? shall
19393I?--The wind has gone down and shifted, sir; the fore and main topsails
19394are reefed and set; she heads her course."
19395
19396"Stern all! Oh Moby Dick, I clutch thy heart at last!"
19397
19398Such were the sounds that now came hurtling from out the old man's
19399tormented sleep, as if Starbuck's voice had caused the long dumb dream
19400to speak.
19401
19402The yet levelled musket shook like a drunkard's arm against the panel;
19403Starbuck seemed wrestling with an angel; but turning from the door, he
19404placed the death-tube in its rack, and left the place.
19405
19406"He's too sound asleep, Mr. Stubb; go thou down, and wake him, and tell
19407him. I must see to the deck here. Thou know'st what to say."
19408
19409
19410
19411CHAPTER 124. The Needle.
19412
19413
19414Next morning the not-yet-subsided sea rolled in long slow billows of
19415mighty bulk, and striving in the Pequod's gurgling track, pushed her on
19416like giants' palms outspread. The strong, unstaggering breeze abounded
19417so, that sky and air seemed vast outbellying sails; the whole world
19418boomed before the wind. Muffled in the full morning light, the invisible
19419sun was only known by the spread intensity of his place; where his
19420bayonet rays moved on in stacks. Emblazonings, as of crowned Babylonian
19421kings and queens, reigned over everything. The sea was as a crucible of
19422molten gold, that bubblingly leaps with light and heat.
19423
19424Long maintaining an enchanted silence, Ahab stood apart; and every time
19425the tetering ship loweringly pitched down her bowsprit, he turned to eye
19426the bright sun's rays produced ahead; and when she profoundly settled by
19427the stern, he turned behind, and saw the sun's rearward place, and how
19428the same yellow rays were blending with his undeviating wake.
19429
19430"Ha, ha, my ship! thou mightest well be taken now for the sea-chariot of
19431the sun. Ho, ho! all ye nations before my prow, I bring the sun to ye!
19432Yoke on the further billows; hallo! a tandem, I drive the sea!"
19433
19434But suddenly reined back by some counter thought, he hurried towards the
19435helm, huskily demanding how the ship was heading.
19436
19437"East-sou-east, sir," said the frightened steersman.
19438
19439"Thou liest!" smiting him with his clenched fist. "Heading East at this
19440hour in the morning, and the sun astern?"
19441
19442Upon this every soul was confounded; for the phenomenon just then
19443observed by Ahab had unaccountably escaped every one else; but its very
19444blinding palpableness must have been the cause.
19445
19446Thrusting his head half way into the binnacle, Ahab caught one glimpse
19447of the compasses; his uplifted arm slowly fell; for a moment he almost
19448seemed to stagger. Standing behind him Starbuck looked, and lo! the two
19449compasses pointed East, and the Pequod was as infallibly going West.
19450
19451But ere the first wild alarm could get out abroad among the crew,
19452the old man with a rigid laugh exclaimed, "I have it! It has happened
19453before. Mr. Starbuck, last night's thunder turned our compasses--that's
19454all. Thou hast before now heard of such a thing, I take it."
19455
19456"Aye; but never before has it happened to me, sir," said the pale mate,
19457gloomily.
19458
19459Here, it must needs be said, that accidents like this have in more than
19460one case occurred to ships in violent storms. The magnetic energy, as
19461developed in the mariner's needle, is, as all know, essentially one with
19462the electricity beheld in heaven; hence it is not to be much marvelled
19463at, that such things should be. Instances where the lightning has
19464actually struck the vessel, so as to smite down some of the spars and
19465rigging, the effect upon the needle has at times been still more fatal;
19466all its loadstone virtue being annihilated, so that the before magnetic
19467steel was of no more use than an old wife's knitting needle. But in
19468either case, the needle never again, of itself, recovers the original
19469virtue thus marred or lost; and if the binnacle compasses be affected,
19470the same fate reaches all the others that may be in the ship; even were
19471the lowermost one inserted into the kelson.
19472
19473Deliberately standing before the binnacle, and eyeing the transpointed
19474compasses, the old man, with the sharp of his extended hand, now took
19475the precise bearing of the sun, and satisfied that the needles were
19476exactly inverted, shouted out his orders for the ship's course to be
19477changed accordingly. The yards were hard up; and once more the Pequod
19478thrust her undaunted bows into the opposing wind, for the supposed fair
19479one had only been juggling her.
19480
19481Meanwhile, whatever were his own secret thoughts, Starbuck said nothing,
19482but quietly he issued all requisite orders; while Stubb and Flask--who
19483in some small degree seemed then to be sharing his feelings--likewise
19484unmurmuringly acquiesced. As for the men, though some of them lowly
19485rumbled, their fear of Ahab was greater than their fear of Fate. But as
19486ever before, the pagan harpooneers remained almost wholly unimpressed;
19487or if impressed, it was only with a certain magnetism shot into their
19488congenial hearts from inflexible Ahab's.
19489
19490For a space the old man walked the deck in rolling reveries. But
19491chancing to slip with his ivory heel, he saw the crushed copper
19492sight-tubes of the quadrant he had the day before dashed to the deck.
19493
19494"Thou poor, proud heaven-gazer and sun's pilot! yesterday I wrecked
19495thee, and to-day the compasses would fain have wrecked me. So, so. But
19496Ahab is lord over the level loadstone yet. Mr. Starbuck--a lance without
19497a pole; a top-maul, and the smallest of the sail-maker's needles.
19498Quick!"
19499
19500Accessory, perhaps, to the impulse dictating the thing he was now about
19501to do, were certain prudential motives, whose object might have been to
19502revive the spirits of his crew by a stroke of his subtile skill, in a
19503matter so wondrous as that of the inverted compasses. Besides, the old
19504man well knew that to steer by transpointed needles, though clumsily
19505practicable, was not a thing to be passed over by superstitious sailors,
19506without some shudderings and evil portents.
19507
19508"Men," said he, steadily turning upon the crew, as the mate handed
19509him the things he had demanded, "my men, the thunder turned old Ahab's
19510needles; but out of this bit of steel Ahab can make one of his own, that
19511will point as true as any."
19512
19513Abashed glances of servile wonder were exchanged by the sailors, as this
19514was said; and with fascinated eyes they awaited whatever magic might
19515follow. But Starbuck looked away.
19516
19517With a blow from the top-maul Ahab knocked off the steel head of the
19518lance, and then handing to the mate the long iron rod remaining, bade
19519him hold it upright, without its touching the deck. Then, with the maul,
19520after repeatedly smiting the upper end of this iron rod, he placed the
19521blunted needle endwise on the top of it, and less strongly hammered
19522that, several times, the mate still holding the rod as before. Then
19523going through some small strange motions with it--whether indispensable
19524to the magnetizing of the steel, or merely intended to augment the awe
19525of the crew, is uncertain--he called for linen thread; and moving to the
19526binnacle, slipped out the two reversed needles there, and horizontally
19527suspended the sail-needle by its middle, over one of the compass-cards.
19528At first, the steel went round and round, quivering and vibrating at
19529either end; but at last it settled to its place, when Ahab, who had
19530been intently watching for this result, stepped frankly back from the
19531binnacle, and pointing his stretched arm towards it, exclaimed,--"Look
19532ye, for yourselves, if Ahab be not lord of the level loadstone! The sun
19533is East, and that compass swears it!"
19534
19535One after another they peered in, for nothing but their own eyes could
19536persuade such ignorance as theirs, and one after another they slunk
19537away.
19538
19539In his fiery eyes of scorn and triumph, you then saw Ahab in all his
19540fatal pride.
19541
19542
19543
19544CHAPTER 125. The Log and Line.
19545
19546
19547While now the fated Pequod had been so long afloat this voyage, the log
19548and line had but very seldom been in use. Owing to a confident reliance
19549upon other means of determining the vessel's place, some merchantmen,
19550and many whalemen, especially when cruising, wholly neglect to heave the
19551log; though at the same time, and frequently more for form's sake than
19552anything else, regularly putting down upon the customary slate the
19553course steered by the ship, as well as the presumed average rate of
19554progression every hour. It had been thus with the Pequod. The wooden
19555reel and angular log attached hung, long untouched, just beneath the
19556railing of the after bulwarks. Rains and spray had damped it; sun and
19557wind had warped it; all the elements had combined to rot a thing that
19558hung so idly. But heedless of all this, his mood seized Ahab, as he
19559happened to glance upon the reel, not many hours after the magnet scene,
19560and he remembered how his quadrant was no more, and recalled his frantic
19561oath about the level log and line. The ship was sailing plungingly;
19562astern the billows rolled in riots.
19563
19564"Forward, there! Heave the log!"
19565
19566Two seamen came. The golden-hued Tahitian and the grizzly Manxman. "Take
19567the reel, one of ye, I'll heave."
19568
19569They went towards the extreme stern, on the ship's lee side, where the
19570deck, with the oblique energy of the wind, was now almost dipping into
19571the creamy, sidelong-rushing sea.
19572
19573The Manxman took the reel, and holding it high up, by the projecting
19574handle-ends of the spindle, round which the spool of line revolved, so
19575stood with the angular log hanging downwards, till Ahab advanced to him.
19576
19577Ahab stood before him, and was lightly unwinding some thirty or forty
19578turns to form a preliminary hand-coil to toss overboard, when the old
19579Manxman, who was intently eyeing both him and the line, made bold to
19580speak.
19581
19582"Sir, I mistrust it; this line looks far gone, long heat and wet have
19583spoiled it."
19584
19585"'Twill hold, old gentleman. Long heat and wet, have they spoiled thee?
19586Thou seem'st to hold. Or, truer perhaps, life holds thee; not thou it."
19587
19588"I hold the spool, sir. But just as my captain says. With these
19589grey hairs of mine 'tis not worth while disputing, 'specially with a
19590superior, who'll ne'er confess."
19591
19592"What's that? There now's a patched professor in Queen Nature's
19593granite-founded College; but methinks he's too subservient. Where wert
19594thou born?"
19595
19596"In the little rocky Isle of Man, sir."
19597
19598"Excellent! Thou'st hit the world by that."
19599
19600"I know not, sir, but I was born there."
19601
19602"In the Isle of Man, hey? Well, the other way, it's good. Here's a man
19603from Man; a man born in once independent Man, and now unmanned of Man;
19604which is sucked in--by what? Up with the reel! The dead, blind wall
19605butts all inquiring heads at last. Up with it! So."
19606
19607The log was heaved. The loose coils rapidly straightened out in a long
19608dragging line astern, and then, instantly, the reel began to whirl. In
19609turn, jerkingly raised and lowered by the rolling billows, the towing
19610resistance of the log caused the old reelman to stagger strangely.
19611
19612"Hold hard!"
19613
19614Snap! the overstrained line sagged down in one long festoon; the tugging
19615log was gone.
19616
19617"I crush the quadrant, the thunder turns the needles, and now the mad
19618sea parts the log-line. But Ahab can mend all. Haul in here, Tahitian;
19619reel up, Manxman. And look ye, let the carpenter make another log, and
19620mend thou the line. See to it."
19621
19622"There he goes now; to him nothing's happened; but to me, the skewer
19623seems loosening out of the middle of the world. Haul in, haul in,
19624Tahitian! These lines run whole, and whirling out: come in broken, and
19625dragging slow. Ha, Pip? come to help; eh, Pip?"
19626
19627"Pip? whom call ye Pip? Pip jumped from the whale-boat. Pip's missing.
19628Let's see now if ye haven't fished him up here, fisherman. It drags
19629hard; I guess he's holding on. Jerk him, Tahiti! Jerk him off; we haul
19630in no cowards here. Ho! there's his arm just breaking water. A hatchet!
19631a hatchet! cut it off--we haul in no cowards here. Captain Ahab! sir,
19632sir! here's Pip, trying to get on board again."
19633
19634"Peace, thou crazy loon," cried the Manxman, seizing him by the arm.
19635"Away from the quarter-deck!"
19636
19637"The greater idiot ever scolds the lesser," muttered Ahab, advancing.
19638"Hands off from that holiness! Where sayest thou Pip was, boy?
19639
19640"Astern there, sir, astern! Lo! lo!"
19641
19642"And who art thou, boy? I see not my reflection in the vacant pupils of
19643thy eyes. Oh God! that man should be a thing for immortal souls to sieve
19644through! Who art thou, boy?"
19645
19646"Bell-boy, sir; ship's-crier; ding, dong, ding! Pip! Pip! Pip!
19647One hundred pounds of clay reward for Pip; five feet high--looks
19648cowardly--quickest known by that! Ding, dong, ding! Who's seen Pip the
19649coward?"
19650
19651"There can be no hearts above the snow-line. Oh, ye frozen heavens! look
19652down here. Ye did beget this luckless child, and have abandoned him,
19653ye creative libertines. Here, boy; Ahab's cabin shall be Pip's home
19654henceforth, while Ahab lives. Thou touchest my inmost centre, boy; thou
19655art tied to me by cords woven of my heart-strings. Come, let's down."
19656
19657"What's this? here's velvet shark-skin," intently gazing at Ahab's hand,
19658and feeling it. "Ah, now, had poor Pip but felt so kind a thing as this,
19659perhaps he had ne'er been lost! This seems to me, sir, as a man-rope;
19660something that weak souls may hold by. Oh, sir, let old Perth now come
19661and rivet these two hands together; the black one with the white, for I
19662will not let this go."
19663
19664"Oh, boy, nor will I thee, unless I should thereby drag thee to worse
19665horrors than are here. Come, then, to my cabin. Lo! ye believers in
19666gods all goodness, and in man all ill, lo you! see the omniscient gods
19667oblivious of suffering man; and man, though idiotic, and knowing not
19668what he does, yet full of the sweet things of love and gratitude. Come!
19669I feel prouder leading thee by thy black hand, than though I grasped an
19670Emperor's!"
19671
19672"There go two daft ones now," muttered the old Manxman. "One daft with
19673strength, the other daft with weakness. But here's the end of the rotten
19674line--all dripping, too. Mend it, eh? I think we had best have a new
19675line altogether. I'll see Mr. Stubb about it."
19676
19677
19678
19679CHAPTER 126. The Life-Buoy.
19680
19681
19682Steering now south-eastward by Ahab's levelled steel, and her progress
19683solely determined by Ahab's level log and line; the Pequod held on
19684her path towards the Equator. Making so long a passage through such
19685unfrequented waters, descrying no ships, and ere long, sideways impelled
19686by unvarying trade winds, over waves monotonously mild; all these seemed
19687the strange calm things preluding some riotous and desperate scene.
19688
19689At last, when the ship drew near to the outskirts, as it were, of the
19690Equatorial fishing-ground, and in the deep darkness that goes before the
19691dawn, was sailing by a cluster of rocky islets; the watch--then headed
19692by Flask--was startled by a cry so plaintively wild and unearthly--like
19693half-articulated wailings of the ghosts of all Herod's murdered
19694Innocents--that one and all, they started from their reveries, and for
19695the space of some moments stood, or sat, or leaned all transfixedly
19696listening, like the carved Roman slave, while that wild cry remained
19697within hearing. The Christian or civilized part of the crew said it was
19698mermaids, and shuddered; but the pagan harpooneers remained unappalled.
19699Yet the grey Manxman--the oldest mariner of all--declared that the wild
19700thrilling sounds that were heard, were the voices of newly drowned men
19701in the sea.
19702
19703Below in his hammock, Ahab did not hear of this till grey dawn, when
19704he came to the deck; it was then recounted to him by Flask, not
19705unaccompanied with hinted dark meanings. He hollowly laughed, and thus
19706explained the wonder.
19707
19708Those rocky islands the ship had passed were the resort of great numbers
19709of seals, and some young seals that had lost their dams, or some dams
19710that had lost their cubs, must have risen nigh the ship and kept company
19711with her, crying and sobbing with their human sort of wail. But this
19712only the more affected some of them, because most mariners cherish a
19713very superstitious feeling about seals, arising not only from their
19714peculiar tones when in distress, but also from the human look of their
19715round heads and semi-intelligent faces, seen peeringly uprising from
19716the water alongside. In the sea, under certain circumstances, seals have
19717more than once been mistaken for men.
19718
19719But the bodings of the crew were destined to receive a most plausible
19720confirmation in the fate of one of their number that morning. At
19721sun-rise this man went from his hammock to his mast-head at the fore;
19722and whether it was that he was not yet half waked from his sleep (for
19723sailors sometimes go aloft in a transition state), whether it was thus
19724with the man, there is now no telling; but, be that as it may, he
19725had not been long at his perch, when a cry was heard--a cry and a
19726rushing--and looking up, they saw a falling phantom in the air; and
19727looking down, a little tossed heap of white bubbles in the blue of the
19728sea.
19729
19730The life-buoy--a long slender cask--was dropped from the stern, where it
19731always hung obedient to a cunning spring; but no hand rose to seize it,
19732and the sun having long beat upon this cask it had shrunken, so that it
19733slowly filled, and that parched wood also filled at its every pore; and
19734the studded iron-bound cask followed the sailor to the bottom, as if to
19735yield him his pillow, though in sooth but a hard one.
19736
19737And thus the first man of the Pequod that mounted the mast to look out
19738for the White Whale, on the White Whale's own peculiar ground; that man
19739was swallowed up in the deep. But few, perhaps, thought of that at the
19740time. Indeed, in some sort, they were not grieved at this event, at
19741least as a portent; for they regarded it, not as a foreshadowing of evil
19742in the future, but as the fulfilment of an evil already presaged. They
19743declared that now they knew the reason of those wild shrieks they had
19744heard the night before. But again the old Manxman said nay.
19745
19746The lost life-buoy was now to be replaced; Starbuck was directed to see
19747to it; but as no cask of sufficient lightness could be found, and as
19748in the feverish eagerness of what seemed the approaching crisis of
19749the voyage, all hands were impatient of any toil but what was directly
19750connected with its final end, whatever that might prove to be;
19751therefore, they were going to leave the ship's stern unprovided with a
19752buoy, when by certain strange signs and inuendoes Queequeg hinted a hint
19753concerning his coffin.
19754
19755"A life-buoy of a coffin!" cried Starbuck, starting.
19756
19757"Rather queer, that, I should say," said Stubb.
19758
19759"It will make a good enough one," said Flask, "the carpenter here can
19760arrange it easily."
19761
19762"Bring it up; there's nothing else for it," said Starbuck, after a
19763melancholy pause. "Rig it, carpenter; do not look at me so--the coffin,
19764I mean. Dost thou hear me? Rig it."
19765
19766"And shall I nail down the lid, sir?" moving his hand as with a hammer.
19767
19768"Aye."
19769
19770"And shall I caulk the seams, sir?" moving his hand as with a
19771caulking-iron.
19772
19773"Aye."
19774
19775"And shall I then pay over the same with pitch, sir?" moving his hand as
19776with a pitch-pot.
19777
19778"Away! what possesses thee to this? Make a life-buoy of the coffin, and
19779no more.--Mr. Stubb, Mr. Flask, come forward with me."
19780
19781"He goes off in a huff. The whole he can endure; at the parts he baulks.
19782Now I don't like this. I make a leg for Captain Ahab, and he wears it
19783like a gentleman; but I make a bandbox for Queequeg, and he won't put
19784his head into it. Are all my pains to go for nothing with that coffin?
19785And now I'm ordered to make a life-buoy of it. It's like turning an old
19786coat; going to bring the flesh on the other side now. I don't like this
19787cobbling sort of business--I don't like it at all; it's undignified;
19788it's not my place. Let tinkers' brats do tinkerings; we are their
19789betters. I like to take in hand none but clean, virgin, fair-and-square
19790mathematical jobs, something that regularly begins at the beginning, and
19791is at the middle when midway, and comes to an end at the conclusion; not
19792a cobbler's job, that's at an end in the middle, and at the beginning at
19793the end. It's the old woman's tricks to be giving cobbling jobs. Lord!
19794what an affection all old women have for tinkers. I know an old woman of
19795sixty-five who ran away with a bald-headed young tinker once. And that's
19796the reason I never would work for lonely widow old women ashore, when
19797I kept my job-shop in the Vineyard; they might have taken it into their
19798lonely old heads to run off with me. But heigh-ho! there are no caps at
19799sea but snow-caps. Let me see. Nail down the lid; caulk the seams; pay
19800over the same with pitch; batten them down tight, and hang it with the
19801snap-spring over the ship's stern. Were ever such things done before
19802with a coffin? Some superstitious old carpenters, now, would be tied
19803up in the rigging, ere they would do the job. But I'm made of knotty
19804Aroostook hemlock; I don't budge. Cruppered with a coffin! Sailing
19805about with a grave-yard tray! But never mind. We workers in woods make
19806bridal-bedsteads and card-tables, as well as coffins and hearses. We
19807work by the month, or by the job, or by the profit; not for us to ask
19808the why and wherefore of our work, unless it be too confounded cobbling,
19809and then we stash it if we can. Hem! I'll do the job, now, tenderly.
19810I'll have me--let's see--how many in the ship's company, all told? But
19811I've forgotten. Any way, I'll have me thirty separate, Turk's-headed
19812life-lines, each three feet long hanging all round to the coffin. Then,
19813if the hull go down, there'll be thirty lively fellows all fighting for
19814one coffin, a sight not seen very often beneath the sun! Come hammer,
19815caulking-iron, pitch-pot, and marling-spike! Let's to it."
19816
19817
19818
19819CHAPTER 127. The Deck.
19820
19821
19822THE COFFIN LAID UPON TWO LINE-TUBS, BETWEEN THE VICE-BENCH AND THE OPEN
19823HATCHWAY; THE CARPENTER CAULKING ITS SEAMS; THE STRING OF TWISTED OAKUM
19824SLOWLY UNWINDING FROM A LARGE ROLL OF IT PLACED IN THE BOSOM OF
19825HIS FROCK.--AHAB COMES SLOWLY FROM THE CABIN-GANGWAY, AND HEARS PIP
19826FOLLOWING HIM.
19827
19828
19829"Back, lad; I will be with ye again presently. He goes! Not this hand
19830complies with my humor more genially than that boy.--Middle aisle of a
19831church! What's here?"
19832
19833"Life-buoy, sir. Mr. Starbuck's orders. Oh, look, sir! Beware the
19834hatchway!"
19835
19836"Thank ye, man. Thy coffin lies handy to the vault."
19837
19838"Sir? The hatchway? oh! So it does, sir, so it does."
19839
19840"Art not thou the leg-maker? Look, did not this stump come from thy
19841shop?"
19842
19843"I believe it did, sir; does the ferrule stand, sir?"
19844
19845"Well enough. But art thou not also the undertaker?"
19846
19847"Aye, sir; I patched up this thing here as a coffin for Queequeg; but
19848they've set me now to turning it into something else."
19849
19850"Then tell me; art thou not an arrant, all-grasping, intermeddling,
19851monopolising, heathenish old scamp, to be one day making legs, and the
19852next day coffins to clap them in, and yet again life-buoys out of those
19853same coffins? Thou art as unprincipled as the gods, and as much of a
19854jack-of-all-trades."
19855
19856"But I do not mean anything, sir. I do as I do."
19857
19858"The gods again. Hark ye, dost thou not ever sing working about a
19859coffin? The Titans, they say, hummed snatches when chipping out the
19860craters for volcanoes; and the grave-digger in the play sings, spade in
19861hand. Dost thou never?"
19862
19863"Sing, sir? Do I sing? Oh, I'm indifferent enough, sir, for that; but
19864the reason why the grave-digger made music must have been because there
19865was none in his spade, sir. But the caulking mallet is full of it. Hark
19866to it."
19867
19868"Aye, and that's because the lid there's a sounding-board; and what in
19869all things makes the sounding-board is this--there's naught beneath. And
19870yet, a coffin with a body in it rings pretty much the same, Carpenter.
19871Hast thou ever helped carry a bier, and heard the coffin knock against
19872the churchyard gate, going in?
19873
19874"Faith, sir, I've--"
19875
19876"Faith? What's that?"
19877
19878"Why, faith, sir, it's only a sort of exclamation-like--that's all,
19879sir."
19880
19881"Um, um; go on."
19882
19883"I was about to say, sir, that--"
19884
19885"Art thou a silk-worm? Dost thou spin thy own shroud out of thyself?
19886Look at thy bosom! Despatch! and get these traps out of sight."
19887
19888"He goes aft. That was sudden, now; but squalls come sudden in hot
19889latitudes. I've heard that the Isle of Albemarle, one of the Gallipagos,
19890is cut by the Equator right in the middle. Seems to me some sort of
19891Equator cuts yon old man, too, right in his middle. He's always under
19892the Line--fiery hot, I tell ye! He's looking this way--come, oakum;
19893quick. Here we go again. This wooden mallet is the cork, and I'm the
19894professor of musical glasses--tap, tap!"
19895
19896(AHAB TO HIMSELF.)
19897
19898"There's a sight! There's a sound! The grey-headed woodpecker tapping
19899the hollow tree! Blind and dumb might well be envied now. See! that
19900thing rests on two line-tubs, full of tow-lines. A most malicious wag,
19901that fellow. Rat-tat! So man's seconds tick! Oh! how immaterial are all
19902materials! What things real are there, but imponderable thoughts? Here
19903now's the very dreaded symbol of grim death, by a mere hap, made
19904the expressive sign of the help and hope of most endangered life.
19905A life-buoy of a coffin! Does it go further? Can it be that in some
19906spiritual sense the coffin is, after all, but an immortality-preserver!
19907I'll think of that. But no. So far gone am I in the dark side of earth,
19908that its other side, the theoretic bright one, seems but uncertain
19909twilight to me. Will ye never have done, Carpenter, with that accursed
19910sound? I go below; let me not see that thing here when I return
19911again. Now, then, Pip, we'll talk this over; I do suck most wondrous
19912philosophies from thee! Some unknown conduits from the unknown worlds
19913must empty into thee!"
19914
19915
19916
19917CHAPTER 128. The Pequod Meets The Rachel.
19918
19919
19920Next day, a large ship, the Rachel, was descried, bearing directly down
19921upon the Pequod, all her spars thickly clustering with men. At the
19922time the Pequod was making good speed through the water; but as the
19923broad-winged windward stranger shot nigh to her, the boastful sails all
19924fell together as blank bladders that are burst, and all life fled from
19925the smitten hull.
19926
19927"Bad news; she brings bad news," muttered the old Manxman. But ere her
19928commander, who, with trumpet to mouth, stood up in his boat; ere he
19929could hopefully hail, Ahab's voice was heard.
19930
19931"Hast seen the White Whale?"
19932
19933"Aye, yesterday. Have ye seen a whale-boat adrift?"
19934
19935Throttling his joy, Ahab negatively answered this unexpected question;
19936and would then have fain boarded the stranger, when the stranger captain
19937himself, having stopped his vessel's way, was seen descending her
19938side. A few keen pulls, and his boat-hook soon clinched the Pequod's
19939main-chains, and he sprang to the deck. Immediately he was recognised by
19940Ahab for a Nantucketer he knew. But no formal salutation was exchanged.
19941
19942"Where was he?--not killed!--not killed!" cried Ahab, closely advancing.
19943"How was it?"
19944
19945It seemed that somewhat late on the afternoon of the day previous, while
19946three of the stranger's boats were engaged with a shoal of whales, which
19947had led them some four or five miles from the ship; and while they were
19948yet in swift chase to windward, the white hump and head of Moby Dick had
19949suddenly loomed up out of the water, not very far to leeward; whereupon,
19950the fourth rigged boat--a reserved one--had been instantly lowered in
19951chase. After a keen sail before the wind, this fourth boat--the swiftest
19952keeled of all--seemed to have succeeded in fastening--at least, as
19953well as the man at the mast-head could tell anything about it. In the
19954distance he saw the diminished dotted boat; and then a swift gleam
19955of bubbling white water; and after that nothing more; whence it was
19956concluded that the stricken whale must have indefinitely run away with
19957his pursuers, as often happens. There was some apprehension, but no
19958positive alarm, as yet. The recall signals were placed in the rigging;
19959darkness came on; and forced to pick up her three far to windward
19960boats--ere going in quest of the fourth one in the precisely opposite
19961direction--the ship had not only been necessitated to leave that boat to
19962its fate till near midnight, but, for the time, to increase her distance
19963from it. But the rest of her crew being at last safe aboard, she crowded
19964all sail--stunsail on stunsail--after the missing boat; kindling a fire
19965in her try-pots for a beacon; and every other man aloft on the look-out.
19966But though when she had thus sailed a sufficient distance to gain the
19967presumed place of the absent ones when last seen; though she then
19968paused to lower her spare boats to pull all around her; and not finding
19969anything, had again dashed on; again paused, and lowered her boats; and
19970though she had thus continued doing till daylight; yet not the least
19971glimpse of the missing keel had been seen.
19972
19973The story told, the stranger Captain immediately went on to reveal his
19974object in boarding the Pequod. He desired that ship to unite with his
19975own in the search; by sailing over the sea some four or five miles
19976apart, on parallel lines, and so sweeping a double horizon, as it were.
19977
19978"I will wager something now," whispered Stubb to Flask, "that some one
19979in that missing boat wore off that Captain's best coat; mayhap, his
19980watch--he's so cursed anxious to get it back. Who ever heard of two
19981pious whale-ships cruising after one missing whale-boat in the height of
19982the whaling season? See, Flask, only see how pale he looks--pale in the
19983very buttons of his eyes--look--it wasn't the coat--it must have been
19984the--"
19985
19986"My boy, my own boy is among them. For God's sake--I beg, I
19987conjure"--here exclaimed the stranger Captain to Ahab, who thus far
19988had but icily received his petition. "For eight-and-forty hours let me
19989charter your ship--I will gladly pay for it, and roundly pay for it--if
19990there be no other way--for eight-and-forty hours only--only that--you
19991must, oh, you must, and you SHALL do this thing."
19992
19993"His son!" cried Stubb, "oh, it's his son he's lost! I take back the
19994coat and watch--what says Ahab? We must save that boy."
19995
19996"He's drowned with the rest on 'em, last night," said the old Manx
19997sailor standing behind them; "I heard; all of ye heard their spirits."
19998
19999Now, as it shortly turned out, what made this incident of the Rachel's
20000the more melancholy, was the circumstance, that not only was one of the
20001Captain's sons among the number of the missing boat's crew; but among
20002the number of the other boat's crews, at the same time, but on the other
20003hand, separated from the ship during the dark vicissitudes of the chase,
20004there had been still another son; as that for a time, the wretched
20005father was plunged to the bottom of the cruellest perplexity; which
20006was only solved for him by his chief mate's instinctively adopting the
20007ordinary procedure of a whale-ship in such emergencies, that is, when
20008placed between jeopardized but divided boats, always to pick up the
20009majority first. But the captain, for some unknown constitutional reason,
20010had refrained from mentioning all this, and not till forced to it by
20011Ahab's iciness did he allude to his one yet missing boy; a little lad,
20012but twelve years old, whose father with the earnest but unmisgiving
20013hardihood of a Nantucketer's paternal love, had thus early sought to
20014initiate him in the perils and wonders of a vocation almost immemorially
20015the destiny of all his race. Nor does it unfrequently occur, that
20016Nantucket captains will send a son of such tender age away from them,
20017for a protracted three or four years' voyage in some other ship than
20018their own; so that their first knowledge of a whaleman's career shall
20019be unenervated by any chance display of a father's natural but untimely
20020partiality, or undue apprehensiveness and concern.
20021
20022Meantime, now the stranger was still beseeching his poor boon of Ahab;
20023and Ahab still stood like an anvil, receiving every shock, but without
20024the least quivering of his own.
20025
20026"I will not go," said the stranger, "till you say aye to me. Do to me
20027as you would have me do to you in the like case. For YOU too have a boy,
20028Captain Ahab--though but a child, and nestling safely at home now--a
20029child of your old age too--Yes, yes, you relent; I see it--run, run,
20030men, now, and stand by to square in the yards."
20031
20032"Avast," cried Ahab--"touch not a rope-yarn"; then in a voice that
20033prolongingly moulded every word--"Captain Gardiner, I will not do it.
20034Even now I lose time. Good-bye, good-bye. God bless ye, man, and may I
20035forgive myself, but I must go. Mr. Starbuck, look at the binnacle watch,
20036and in three minutes from this present instant warn off all strangers:
20037then brace forward again, and let the ship sail as before."
20038
20039Hurriedly turning, with averted face, he descended into his cabin,
20040leaving the strange captain transfixed at this unconditional and utter
20041rejection of his so earnest suit. But starting from his enchantment,
20042Gardiner silently hurried to the side; more fell than stepped into his
20043boat, and returned to his ship.
20044
20045Soon the two ships diverged their wakes; and long as the strange vessel
20046was in view, she was seen to yaw hither and thither at every dark spot,
20047however small, on the sea. This way and that her yards were swung round;
20048starboard and larboard, she continued to tack; now she beat against a
20049head sea; and again it pushed her before it; while all the while, her
20050masts and yards were thickly clustered with men, as three tall cherry
20051trees, when the boys are cherrying among the boughs.
20052
20053But by her still halting course and winding, woeful way, you plainly saw
20054that this ship that so wept with spray, still remained without comfort.
20055She was Rachel, weeping for her children, because they were not.
20056
20057
20058
20059CHAPTER 129. The Cabin.
20060
20061
20062(AHAB MOVING TO GO ON DECK; PIP CATCHES HIM BY THE HAND TO FOLLOW.)
20063
20064"Lad, lad, I tell thee thou must not follow Ahab now. The hour is coming
20065when Ahab would not scare thee from him, yet would not have thee by him.
20066There is that in thee, poor lad, which I feel too curing to my malady.
20067Like cures like; and for this hunt, my malady becomes my most desired
20068health. Do thou abide below here, where they shall serve thee, as if
20069thou wert the captain. Aye, lad, thou shalt sit here in my own screwed
20070chair; another screw to it, thou must be."
20071
20072"No, no, no! ye have not a whole body, sir; do ye but use poor me for
20073your one lost leg; only tread upon me, sir; I ask no more, so I remain a
20074part of ye."
20075
20076"Oh! spite of million villains, this makes me a bigot in the fadeless
20077fidelity of man!--and a black! and crazy!--but methinks like-cures-like
20078applies to him too; he grows so sane again."
20079
20080"They tell me, sir, that Stubb did once desert poor little Pip, whose
20081drowned bones now show white, for all the blackness of his living skin.
20082But I will never desert ye, sir, as Stubb did him. Sir, I must go with
20083ye."
20084
20085"If thou speakest thus to me much more, Ahab's purpose keels up in him.
20086I tell thee no; it cannot be."
20087
20088"Oh good master, master, master!
20089
20090"Weep so, and I will murder thee! have a care, for Ahab too is mad.
20091Listen, and thou wilt often hear my ivory foot upon the deck, and still
20092know that I am there. And now I quit thee. Thy hand!--Met! True art
20093thou, lad, as the circumference to its centre. So: God for ever bless
20094thee; and if it come to that,--God for ever save thee, let what will
20095befall."
20096
20097(AHAB GOES; PIP STEPS ONE STEP FORWARD.)
20098
20099
20100"Here he this instant stood; I stand in his air,--but I'm alone. Now
20101were even poor Pip here I could endure it, but he's missing. Pip! Pip!
20102Ding, dong, ding! Who's seen Pip? He must be up here; let's try the
20103door. What? neither lock, nor bolt, nor bar; and yet there's no opening
20104it. It must be the spell; he told me to stay here: Aye, and told me this
20105screwed chair was mine. Here, then, I'll seat me, against the transom,
20106in the ship's full middle, all her keel and her three masts before me.
20107Here, our old sailors say, in their black seventy-fours great
20108admirals sometimes sit at table, and lord it over rows of captains and
20109lieutenants. Ha! what's this? epaulets! epaulets! the epaulets all come
20110crowding! Pass round the decanters; glad to see ye; fill up, monsieurs!
20111What an odd feeling, now, when a black boy's host to white men with gold
20112lace upon their coats!--Monsieurs, have ye seen one Pip?--a little
20113negro lad, five feet high, hang-dog look, and cowardly! Jumped from a
20114whale-boat once;--seen him? No! Well then, fill up again, captains, and
20115let's drink shame upon all cowards! I name no names. Shame upon them!
20116Put one foot upon the table. Shame upon all cowards.--Hist! above there,
20117I hear ivory--Oh, master! master! I am indeed down-hearted when you walk
20118over me. But here I'll stay, though this stern strikes rocks; and they
20119bulge through; and oysters come to join me."
20120
20121
20122
20123CHAPTER 130. The Hat.
20124
20125
20126And now that at the proper time and place, after so long and wide a
20127preliminary cruise, Ahab,--all other whaling waters swept--seemed to
20128have chased his foe into an ocean-fold, to slay him the more securely
20129there; now, that he found himself hard by the very latitude and
20130longitude where his tormenting wound had been inflicted; now that a
20131vessel had been spoken which on the very day preceding had actually
20132encountered Moby Dick;--and now that all his successive meetings with
20133various ships contrastingly concurred to show the demoniac indifference
20134with which the white whale tore his hunters, whether sinning or sinned
20135against; now it was that there lurked a something in the old man's eyes,
20136which it was hardly sufferable for feeble souls to see. As the unsetting
20137polar star, which through the livelong, arctic, six months' night
20138sustains its piercing, steady, central gaze; so Ahab's purpose now
20139fixedly gleamed down upon the constant midnight of the gloomy crew. It
20140domineered above them so, that all their bodings, doubts, misgivings,
20141fears, were fain to hide beneath their souls, and not sprout forth a
20142single spear or leaf.
20143
20144In this foreshadowing interval too, all humor, forced or natural,
20145vanished. Stubb no more strove to raise a smile; Starbuck no more strove
20146to check one. Alike, joy and sorrow, hope and fear, seemed ground to
20147finest dust, and powdered, for the time, in the clamped mortar of
20148Ahab's iron soul. Like machines, they dumbly moved about the deck, ever
20149conscious that the old man's despot eye was on them.
20150
20151But did you deeply scan him in his more secret confidential hours; when
20152he thought no glance but one was on him; then you would have seen that
20153even as Ahab's eyes so awed the crew's, the inscrutable Parsee's glance
20154awed his; or somehow, at least, in some wild way, at times affected it.
20155Such an added, gliding strangeness began to invest the thin Fedallah
20156now; such ceaseless shudderings shook him; that the men looked dubious
20157at him; half uncertain, as it seemed, whether indeed he were a mortal
20158substance, or else a tremulous shadow cast upon the deck by some unseen
20159being's body. And that shadow was always hovering there. For not by
20160night, even, had Fedallah ever certainly been known to slumber, or go
20161below. He would stand still for hours: but never sat or leaned; his wan
20162but wondrous eyes did plainly say--We two watchmen never rest.
20163
20164Nor, at any time, by night or day could the mariners now step upon the
20165deck, unless Ahab was before them; either standing in his pivot-hole, or
20166exactly pacing the planks between two undeviating limits,--the main-mast
20167and the mizen; or else they saw him standing in the cabin-scuttle,--his
20168living foot advanced upon the deck, as if to step; his hat slouched
20169heavily over his eyes; so that however motionless he stood, however the
20170days and nights were added on, that he had not swung in his hammock;
20171yet hidden beneath that slouching hat, they could never tell unerringly
20172whether, for all this, his eyes were really closed at times; or whether
20173he was still intently scanning them; no matter, though he stood so in
20174the scuttle for a whole hour on the stretch, and the unheeded night-damp
20175gathered in beads of dew upon that stone-carved coat and hat. The
20176clothes that the night had wet, the next day's sunshine dried upon him;
20177and so, day after day, and night after night; he went no more beneath
20178the planks; whatever he wanted from the cabin that thing he sent for.
20179
20180He ate in the same open air; that is, his two only meals,--breakfast and
20181dinner: supper he never touched; nor reaped his beard; which darkly grew
20182all gnarled, as unearthed roots of trees blown over, which still grow
20183idly on at naked base, though perished in the upper verdure. But though
20184his whole life was now become one watch on deck; and though the Parsee's
20185mystic watch was without intermission as his own; yet these two never
20186seemed to speak--one man to the other--unless at long intervals some
20187passing unmomentous matter made it necessary. Though such a potent spell
20188seemed secretly to join the twain; openly, and to the awe-struck crew,
20189they seemed pole-like asunder. If by day they chanced to speak one word;
20190by night, dumb men were both, so far as concerned the slightest verbal
20191interchange. At times, for longest hours, without a single hail, they
20192stood far parted in the starlight; Ahab in his scuttle, the Parsee by
20193the mainmast; but still fixedly gazing upon each other; as if in the
20194Parsee Ahab saw his forethrown shadow, in Ahab the Parsee his abandoned
20195substance.
20196
20197And yet, somehow, did Ahab--in his own proper self, as daily, hourly,
20198and every instant, commandingly revealed to his subordinates,--Ahab
20199seemed an independent lord; the Parsee but his slave. Still again both
20200seemed yoked together, and an unseen tyrant driving them; the lean shade
20201siding the solid rib. For be this Parsee what he may, all rib and keel
20202was solid Ahab.
20203
20204At the first faintest glimmering of the dawn, his iron voice was heard
20205from aft,--"Man the mast-heads!"--and all through the day, till after
20206sunset and after twilight, the same voice every hour, at the striking of
20207the helmsman's bell, was heard--"What d'ye see?--sharp! sharp!"
20208
20209But when three or four days had slided by, after meeting the
20210children-seeking Rachel; and no spout had yet been seen; the monomaniac
20211old man seemed distrustful of his crew's fidelity; at least, of nearly
20212all except the Pagan harpooneers; he seemed to doubt, even, whether
20213Stubb and Flask might not willingly overlook the sight he sought. But if
20214these suspicions were really his, he sagaciously refrained from verbally
20215expressing them, however his actions might seem to hint them.
20216
20217"I will have the first sight of the whale myself,"--he said. "Aye!
20218Ahab must have the doubloon!" and with his own hands he rigged a nest
20219of basketed bowlines; and sending a hand aloft, with a single sheaved
20220block, to secure to the main-mast head, he received the two ends of the
20221downward-reeved rope; and attaching one to his basket prepared a pin for
20222the other end, in order to fasten it at the rail. This done, with that
20223end yet in his hand and standing beside the pin, he looked round upon
20224his crew, sweeping from one to the other; pausing his glance long upon
20225Daggoo, Queequeg, Tashtego; but shunning Fedallah; and then settling his
20226firm relying eye upon the chief mate, said,--"Take the rope, sir--I give
20227it into thy hands, Starbuck." Then arranging his person in the basket,
20228he gave the word for them to hoist him to his perch, Starbuck being
20229the one who secured the rope at last; and afterwards stood near it. And
20230thus, with one hand clinging round the royal mast, Ahab gazed abroad
20231upon the sea for miles and miles,--ahead, astern, this side, and
20232that,--within the wide expanded circle commanded at so great a height.
20233
20234When in working with his hands at some lofty almost isolated place in
20235the rigging, which chances to afford no foothold, the sailor at sea is
20236hoisted up to that spot, and sustained there by the rope; under these
20237circumstances, its fastened end on deck is always given in strict charge
20238to some one man who has the special watch of it. Because in such a
20239wilderness of running rigging, whose various different relations aloft
20240cannot always be infallibly discerned by what is seen of them at the
20241deck; and when the deck-ends of these ropes are being every few minutes
20242cast down from the fastenings, it would be but a natural fatality, if,
20243unprovided with a constant watchman, the hoisted sailor should by some
20244carelessness of the crew be cast adrift and fall all swooping to the
20245sea. So Ahab's proceedings in this matter were not unusual; the only
20246strange thing about them seemed to be, that Starbuck, almost the one
20247only man who had ever ventured to oppose him with anything in the
20248slightest degree approaching to decision--one of those too, whose
20249faithfulness on the look-out he had seemed to doubt somewhat;--it was
20250strange, that this was the very man he should select for his watchman;
20251freely giving his whole life into such an otherwise distrusted person's
20252hands.
20253
20254Now, the first time Ahab was perched aloft; ere he had been there ten
20255minutes; one of those red-billed savage sea-hawks which so often fly
20256incommodiously close round the manned mast-heads of whalemen in these
20257latitudes; one of these birds came wheeling and screaming round his head
20258in a maze of untrackably swift circlings. Then it darted a thousand feet
20259straight up into the air; then spiralized downwards, and went eddying
20260again round his head.
20261
20262But with his gaze fixed upon the dim and distant horizon, Ahab seemed
20263not to mark this wild bird; nor, indeed, would any one else have marked
20264it much, it being no uncommon circumstance; only now almost the least
20265heedful eye seemed to see some sort of cunning meaning in almost every
20266sight.
20267
20268"Your hat, your hat, sir!" suddenly cried the Sicilian seaman, who
20269being posted at the mizen-mast-head, stood directly behind Ahab, though
20270somewhat lower than his level, and with a deep gulf of air dividing
20271them.
20272
20273But already the sable wing was before the old man's eyes; the long
20274hooked bill at his head: with a scream, the black hawk darted away with
20275his prize.
20276
20277An eagle flew thrice round Tarquin's head, removing his cap to replace
20278it, and thereupon Tanaquil, his wife, declared that Tarquin would
20279be king of Rome. But only by the replacing of the cap was that omen
20280accounted good. Ahab's hat was never restored; the wild hawk flew on and
20281on with it; far in advance of the prow: and at last disappeared; while
20282from the point of that disappearance, a minute black spot was dimly
20283discerned, falling from that vast height into the sea.
20284
20285
20286
20287CHAPTER 131. The Pequod Meets The Delight.
20288
20289
20290The intense Pequod sailed on; the rolling waves and days went by; the
20291life-buoy-coffin still lightly swung; and another ship, most miserably
20292misnamed the Delight, was descried. As she drew nigh, all eyes were
20293fixed upon her broad beams, called shears, which, in some whaling-ships,
20294cross the quarter-deck at the height of eight or nine feet; serving to
20295carry the spare, unrigged, or disabled boats.
20296
20297Upon the stranger's shears were beheld the shattered, white ribs, and
20298some few splintered planks, of what had once been a whale-boat; but you
20299now saw through this wreck, as plainly as you see through the peeled,
20300half-unhinged, and bleaching skeleton of a horse.
20301
20302"Hast seen the White Whale?"
20303
20304"Look!" replied the hollow-cheeked captain from his taffrail; and with
20305his trumpet he pointed to the wreck.
20306
20307"Hast killed him?"
20308
20309"The harpoon is not yet forged that ever will do that," answered the
20310other, sadly glancing upon a rounded hammock on the deck, whose gathered
20311sides some noiseless sailors were busy in sewing together.
20312
20313"Not forged!" and snatching Perth's levelled iron from the crotch, Ahab
20314held it out, exclaiming--"Look ye, Nantucketer; here in this hand I hold
20315his death! Tempered in blood, and tempered by lightning are these barbs;
20316and I swear to temper them triply in that hot place behind the fin,
20317where the White Whale most feels his accursed life!"
20318
20319"Then God keep thee, old man--see'st thou that"--pointing to the
20320hammock--"I bury but one of five stout men, who were alive only
20321yesterday; but were dead ere night. Only THAT one I bury; the rest were
20322buried before they died; you sail upon their tomb." Then turning to his
20323crew--"Are ye ready there? place the plank then on the rail, and
20324lift the body; so, then--Oh! God"--advancing towards the hammock with
20325uplifted hands--"may the resurrection and the life--"
20326
20327"Brace forward! Up helm!" cried Ahab like lightning to his men.
20328
20329But the suddenly started Pequod was not quick enough to escape the sound
20330of the splash that the corpse soon made as it struck the sea; not so
20331quick, indeed, but that some of the flying bubbles might have sprinkled
20332her hull with their ghostly baptism.
20333
20334As Ahab now glided from the dejected Delight, the strange life-buoy
20335hanging at the Pequod's stern came into conspicuous relief.
20336
20337"Ha! yonder! look yonder, men!" cried a foreboding voice in her wake.
20338"In vain, oh, ye strangers, ye fly our sad burial; ye but turn us your
20339taffrail to show us your coffin!"
20340
20341
20342
20343CHAPTER 132. The Symphony.
20344
20345
20346It was a clear steel-blue day. The firmaments of air and sea were
20347hardly separable in that all-pervading azure; only, the pensive air was
20348transparently pure and soft, with a woman's look, and the robust and
20349man-like sea heaved with long, strong, lingering swells, as Samson's
20350chest in his sleep.
20351
20352Hither, and thither, on high, glided the snow-white wings of small,
20353unspeckled birds; these were the gentle thoughts of the feminine air;
20354but to and fro in the deeps, far down in the bottomless blue, rushed
20355mighty leviathans, sword-fish, and sharks; and these were the strong,
20356troubled, murderous thinkings of the masculine sea.
20357
20358But though thus contrasting within, the contrast was only in shades and
20359shadows without; those two seemed one; it was only the sex, as it were,
20360that distinguished them.
20361
20362Aloft, like a royal czar and king, the sun seemed giving this gentle
20363air to this bold and rolling sea; even as bride to groom. And at the
20364girdling line of the horizon, a soft and tremulous motion--most seen
20365here at the Equator--denoted the fond, throbbing trust, the loving
20366alarms, with which the poor bride gave her bosom away.
20367
20368Tied up and twisted; gnarled and knotted with wrinkles; haggardly firm
20369and unyielding; his eyes glowing like coals, that still glow in the
20370ashes of ruin; untottering Ahab stood forth in the clearness of the
20371morn; lifting his splintered helmet of a brow to the fair girl's
20372forehead of heaven.
20373
20374Oh, immortal infancy, and innocency of the azure! Invisible winged
20375creatures that frolic all round us! Sweet childhood of air and sky! how
20376oblivious were ye of old Ahab's close-coiled woe! But so have I seen
20377little Miriam and Martha, laughing-eyed elves, heedlessly gambol around
20378their old sire; sporting with the circle of singed locks which grew on
20379the marge of that burnt-out crater of his brain.
20380
20381Slowly crossing the deck from the scuttle, Ahab leaned over the side and
20382watched how his shadow in the water sank and sank to his gaze, the more
20383and the more that he strove to pierce the profundity. But the lovely
20384aromas in that enchanted air did at last seem to dispel, for a moment,
20385the cankerous thing in his soul. That glad, happy air, that winsome
20386sky, did at last stroke and caress him; the step-mother world, so long
20387cruel--forbidding--now threw affectionate arms round his stubborn neck,
20388and did seem to joyously sob over him, as if over one, that however
20389wilful and erring, she could yet find it in her heart to save and to
20390bless. From beneath his slouched hat Ahab dropped a tear into the sea;
20391nor did all the Pacific contain such wealth as that one wee drop.
20392
20393Starbuck saw the old man; saw him, how he heavily leaned over the side;
20394and he seemed to hear in his own true heart the measureless sobbing that
20395stole out of the centre of the serenity around. Careful not to touch
20396him, or be noticed by him, he yet drew near to him, and stood there.
20397
20398Ahab turned.
20399
20400"Starbuck!"
20401
20402"Sir."
20403
20404"Oh, Starbuck! it is a mild, mild wind, and a mild looking sky. On such
20405a day--very much such a sweetness as this--I struck my first whale--a
20406boy-harpooneer of eighteen! Forty--forty--forty years ago!--ago! Forty
20407years of continual whaling! forty years of privation, and peril, and
20408storm-time! forty years on the pitiless sea! for forty years has Ahab
20409forsaken the peaceful land, for forty years to make war on the horrors
20410of the deep! Aye and yes, Starbuck, out of those forty years I have not
20411spent three ashore. When I think of this life I have led; the desolation
20412of solitude it has been; the masoned, walled-town of a Captain's
20413exclusiveness, which admits but small entrance to any sympathy from the
20414green country without--oh, weariness! heaviness! Guinea-coast slavery of
20415solitary command!--when I think of all this; only half-suspected, not so
20416keenly known to me before--and how for forty years I have fed upon dry
20417salted fare--fit emblem of the dry nourishment of my soil!--when the
20418poorest landsman has had fresh fruit to his daily hand, and broken the
20419world's fresh bread to my mouldy crusts--away, whole oceans away, from
20420that young girl-wife I wedded past fifty, and sailed for Cape Horn
20421the next day, leaving but one dent in my marriage pillow--wife?
20422wife?--rather a widow with her husband alive! Aye, I widowed that poor
20423girl when I married her, Starbuck; and then, the madness, the frenzy,
20424the boiling blood and the smoking brow, with which, for a thousand
20425lowerings old Ahab has furiously, foamingly chased his prey--more a
20426demon than a man!--aye, aye! what a forty years' fool--fool--old fool,
20427has old Ahab been! Why this strife of the chase? why weary, and palsy
20428the arm at the oar, and the iron, and the lance? how the richer or
20429better is Ahab now? Behold. Oh, Starbuck! is it not hard, that with this
20430weary load I bear, one poor leg should have been snatched from under
20431me? Here, brush this old hair aside; it blinds me, that I seem to weep.
20432Locks so grey did never grow but from out some ashes! But do I look
20433very old, so very, very old, Starbuck? I feel deadly faint, bowed, and
20434humped, as though I were Adam, staggering beneath the piled
20435centuries since Paradise. God! God! God!--crack my heart!--stave my
20436brain!--mockery! mockery! bitter, biting mockery of grey hairs, have
20437I lived enough joy to wear ye; and seem and feel thus intolerably old?
20438Close! stand close to me, Starbuck; let me look into a human eye; it is
20439better than to gaze into sea or sky; better than to gaze upon God. By
20440the green land; by the bright hearth-stone! this is the magic glass,
20441man; I see my wife and my child in thine eye. No, no; stay on board, on
20442board!--lower not when I do; when branded Ahab gives chase to Moby Dick.
20443That hazard shall not be thine. No, no! not with the far away home I see
20444in that eye!"
20445
20446"Oh, my Captain! my Captain! noble soul! grand old heart, after all! why
20447should any one give chase to that hated fish! Away with me! let us
20448fly these deadly waters! let us home! Wife and child, too, are
20449Starbuck's--wife and child of his brotherly, sisterly, play-fellow
20450youth; even as thine, sir, are the wife and child of thy loving,
20451longing, paternal old age! Away! let us away!--this instant let me alter
20452the course! How cheerily, how hilariously, O my Captain, would we bowl
20453on our way to see old Nantucket again! I think, sir, they have some such
20454mild blue days, even as this, in Nantucket."
20455
20456"They have, they have. I have seen them--some summer days in the
20457morning. About this time--yes, it is his noon nap now--the boy
20458vivaciously wakes; sits up in bed; and his mother tells him of me, of
20459cannibal old me; how I am abroad upon the deep, but will yet come back
20460to dance him again."
20461
20462"'Tis my Mary, my Mary herself! She promised that my boy, every morning,
20463should be carried to the hill to catch the first glimpse of his father's
20464sail! Yes, yes! no more! it is done! we head for Nantucket! Come, my
20465Captain, study out the course, and let us away! See, see! the boy's face
20466from the window! the boy's hand on the hill!"
20467
20468But Ahab's glance was averted; like a blighted fruit tree he shook, and
20469cast his last, cindered apple to the soil.
20470
20471"What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what
20472cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor
20473commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep
20474pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly
20475making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not
20476so much as dare? Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this
20477arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy
20478in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power;
20479how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think
20480thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that
20481living, and not I. By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in
20482this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike. And all
20483the time, lo! that smiling sky, and this unsounded sea! Look! see yon
20484Albicore! who put it into him to chase and fang that flying-fish? Where
20485do murderers go, man! Who's to doom, when the judge himself is dragged
20486to the bar? But it is a mild, mild wind, and a mild looking sky; and
20487the air smells now, as if it blew from a far-away meadow; they have been
20488making hay somewhere under the slopes of the Andes, Starbuck, and the
20489mowers are sleeping among the new-mown hay. Sleeping? Aye, toil we how
20490we may, we all sleep at last on the field. Sleep? Aye, and rust amid
20491greenness; as last year's scythes flung down, and left in the half-cut
20492swaths--Starbuck!"
20493
20494But blanched to a corpse's hue with despair, the Mate had stolen away.
20495
20496Ahab crossed the deck to gaze over on the other side; but started at
20497two reflected, fixed eyes in the water there. Fedallah was motionlessly
20498leaning over the same rail.
20499
20500
20501
20502CHAPTER 133. The Chase--First Day.
20503
20504
20505That night, in the mid-watch, when the old man--as his wont at
20506intervals--stepped forth from the scuttle in which he leaned, and went
20507to his pivot-hole, he suddenly thrust out his face fiercely, snuffing
20508up the sea air as a sagacious ship's dog will, in drawing nigh to
20509some barbarous isle. He declared that a whale must be near. Soon that
20510peculiar odor, sometimes to a great distance given forth by the
20511living sperm whale, was palpable to all the watch; nor was any mariner
20512surprised when, after inspecting the compass, and then the dog-vane, and
20513then ascertaining the precise bearing of the odor as nearly as possible,
20514Ahab rapidly ordered the ship's course to be slightly altered, and the
20515sail to be shortened.
20516
20517The acute policy dictating these movements was sufficiently vindicated
20518at daybreak, by the sight of a long sleek on the sea directly and
20519lengthwise ahead, smooth as oil, and resembling in the pleated watery
20520wrinkles bordering it, the polished metallic-like marks of some swift
20521tide-rip, at the mouth of a deep, rapid stream.
20522
20523"Man the mast-heads! Call all hands!"
20524
20525Thundering with the butts of three clubbed handspikes on the forecastle
20526deck, Daggoo roused the sleepers with such judgment claps that they
20527seemed to exhale from the scuttle, so instantaneously did they appear
20528with their clothes in their hands.
20529
20530"What d'ye see?" cried Ahab, flattening his face to the sky.
20531
20532"Nothing, nothing sir!" was the sound hailing down in reply.
20533
20534"T'gallant sails!--stunsails! alow and aloft, and on both sides!"
20535
20536All sail being set, he now cast loose the life-line, reserved for
20537swaying him to the main royal-mast head; and in a few moments they were
20538hoisting him thither, when, while but two thirds of the way aloft,
20539and while peering ahead through the horizontal vacancy between the
20540main-top-sail and top-gallant-sail, he raised a gull-like cry in the
20541air. "There she blows!--there she blows! A hump like a snow-hill! It is
20542Moby Dick!"
20543
20544Fired by the cry which seemed simultaneously taken up by the three
20545look-outs, the men on deck rushed to the rigging to behold the famous
20546whale they had so long been pursuing. Ahab had now gained his final
20547perch, some feet above the other look-outs, Tashtego standing just
20548beneath him on the cap of the top-gallant-mast, so that the Indian's
20549head was almost on a level with Ahab's heel. From this height the whale
20550was now seen some mile or so ahead, at every roll of the sea revealing
20551his high sparkling hump, and regularly jetting his silent spout into the
20552air. To the credulous mariners it seemed the same silent spout they had
20553so long ago beheld in the moonlit Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
20554
20555"And did none of ye see it before?" cried Ahab, hailing the perched men
20556all around him.
20557
20558"I saw him almost that same instant, sir, that Captain Ahab did, and I
20559cried out," said Tashtego.
20560
20561"Not the same instant; not the same--no, the doubloon is mine, Fate
20562reserved the doubloon for me. I only; none of ye could have raised the
20563White Whale first. There she blows!--there she blows!--there she blows!
20564There again!--there again!" he cried, in long-drawn, lingering, methodic
20565tones, attuned to the gradual prolongings of the whale's visible jets.
20566"He's going to sound! In stunsails! Down top-gallant-sails! Stand by
20567three boats. Mr. Starbuck, remember, stay on board, and keep the ship.
20568Helm there! Luff, luff a point! So; steady, man, steady! There go
20569flukes! No, no; only black water! All ready the boats there? Stand by,
20570stand by! Lower me, Mr. Starbuck; lower, lower,--quick, quicker!" and he
20571slid through the air to the deck.
20572
20573"He is heading straight to leeward, sir," cried Stubb, "right away from
20574us; cannot have seen the ship yet."
20575
20576"Be dumb, man! Stand by the braces! Hard down the helm!--brace up!
20577Shiver her!--shiver her!--So; well that! Boats, boats!"
20578
20579Soon all the boats but Starbuck's were dropped; all the boat-sails
20580set--all the paddles plying; with rippling swiftness, shooting to
20581leeward; and Ahab heading the onset. A pale, death-glimmer lit up
20582Fedallah's sunken eyes; a hideous motion gnawed his mouth.
20583
20584Like noiseless nautilus shells, their light prows sped through the sea;
20585but only slowly they neared the foe. As they neared him, the ocean grew
20586still more smooth; seemed drawing a carpet over its waves; seemed a
20587noon-meadow, so serenely it spread. At length the breathless hunter came
20588so nigh his seemingly unsuspecting prey, that his entire dazzling hump
20589was distinctly visible, sliding along the sea as if an isolated thing,
20590and continually set in a revolving ring of finest, fleecy, greenish
20591foam. He saw the vast, involved wrinkles of the slightly projecting head
20592beyond. Before it, far out on the soft Turkish-rugged waters, went
20593the glistening white shadow from his broad, milky forehead, a musical
20594rippling playfully accompanying the shade; and behind, the blue waters
20595interchangeably flowed over into the moving valley of his steady wake;
20596and on either hand bright bubbles arose and danced by his side. But
20597these were broken again by the light toes of hundreds of gay fowl softly
20598feathering the sea, alternate with their fitful flight; and like to
20599some flag-staff rising from the painted hull of an argosy, the tall but
20600shattered pole of a recent lance projected from the white whale's back;
20601and at intervals one of the cloud of soft-toed fowls hovering, and
20602to and fro skimming like a canopy over the fish, silently perched and
20603rocked on this pole, the long tail feathers streaming like pennons.
20604
20605A gentle joyousness--a mighty mildness of repose in swiftness, invested
20606the gliding whale. Not the white bull Jupiter swimming away with
20607ravished Europa clinging to his graceful horns; his lovely, leering
20608eyes sideways intent upon the maid; with smooth bewitching fleetness,
20609rippling straight for the nuptial bower in Crete; not Jove, not that
20610great majesty Supreme! did surpass the glorified White Whale as he so
20611divinely swam.
20612
20613On each soft side--coincident with the parted swell, that but once
20614leaving him, then flowed so wide away--on each bright side, the whale
20615shed off enticings. No wonder there had been some among the hunters who
20616namelessly transported and allured by all this serenity, had ventured
20617to assail it; but had fatally found that quietude but the vesture of
20618tornadoes. Yet calm, enticing calm, oh, whale! thou glidest on, to all
20619who for the first time eye thee, no matter how many in that same way
20620thou may'st have bejuggled and destroyed before.
20621
20622And thus, through the serene tranquillities of the tropical sea, among
20623waves whose hand-clappings were suspended by exceeding rapture, Moby
20624Dick moved on, still withholding from sight the full terrors of his
20625submerged trunk, entirely hiding the wrenched hideousness of his jaw.
20626But soon the fore part of him slowly rose from the water; for an instant
20627his whole marbleized body formed a high arch, like Virginia's Natural
20628Bridge, and warningly waving his bannered flukes in the air, the
20629grand god revealed himself, sounded, and went out of sight. Hoveringly
20630halting, and dipping on the wing, the white sea-fowls longingly lingered
20631over the agitated pool that he left.
20632
20633With oars apeak, and paddles down, the sheets of their sails adrift, the
20634three boats now stilly floated, awaiting Moby Dick's reappearance.
20635
20636"An hour," said Ahab, standing rooted in his boat's stern; and he gazed
20637beyond the whale's place, towards the dim blue spaces and wide wooing
20638vacancies to leeward. It was only an instant; for again his eyes seemed
20639whirling round in his head as he swept the watery circle. The breeze now
20640freshened; the sea began to swell.
20641
20642"The birds!--the birds!" cried Tashtego.
20643
20644In long Indian file, as when herons take wing, the white birds were
20645now all flying towards Ahab's boat; and when within a few yards began
20646fluttering over the water there, wheeling round and round, with joyous,
20647expectant cries. Their vision was keener than man's; Ahab could discover
20648no sign in the sea. But suddenly as he peered down and down into its
20649depths, he profoundly saw a white living spot no bigger than a white
20650weasel, with wonderful celerity uprising, and magnifying as it rose,
20651till it turned, and then there were plainly revealed two long crooked
20652rows of white, glistening teeth, floating up from the undiscoverable
20653bottom. It was Moby Dick's open mouth and scrolled jaw; his vast,
20654shadowed bulk still half blending with the blue of the sea. The
20655glittering mouth yawned beneath the boat like an open-doored marble
20656tomb; and giving one sidelong sweep with his steering oar, Ahab whirled
20657the craft aside from this tremendous apparition. Then, calling upon
20658Fedallah to change places with him, went forward to the bows, and
20659seizing Perth's harpoon, commanded his crew to grasp their oars and
20660stand by to stern.
20661
20662Now, by reason of this timely spinning round the boat upon its axis, its
20663bow, by anticipation, was made to face the whale's head while yet
20664under water. But as if perceiving this stratagem, Moby Dick, with that
20665malicious intelligence ascribed to him, sidelingly transplanted himself,
20666as it were, in an instant, shooting his pleated head lengthwise beneath
20667the boat.
20668
20669Through and through; through every plank and each rib, it thrilled for
20670an instant, the whale obliquely lying on his back, in the manner of
20671a biting shark, slowly and feelingly taking its bows full within his
20672mouth, so that the long, narrow, scrolled lower jaw curled high up into
20673the open air, and one of the teeth caught in a row-lock. The bluish
20674pearl-white of the inside of the jaw was within six inches of Ahab's
20675head, and reached higher than that. In this attitude the White Whale
20676now shook the slight cedar as a mildly cruel cat her mouse. With
20677unastonished eyes Fedallah gazed, and crossed his arms; but the
20678tiger-yellow crew were tumbling over each other's heads to gain the
20679uttermost stern.
20680
20681And now, while both elastic gunwales were springing in and out, as the
20682whale dallied with the doomed craft in this devilish way; and from his
20683body being submerged beneath the boat, he could not be darted at from
20684the bows, for the bows were almost inside of him, as it were; and
20685while the other boats involuntarily paused, as before a quick crisis
20686impossible to withstand, then it was that monomaniac Ahab, furious with
20687this tantalizing vicinity of his foe, which placed him all alive and
20688helpless in the very jaws he hated; frenzied with all this, he seized
20689the long bone with his naked hands, and wildly strove to wrench it from
20690its gripe. As now he thus vainly strove, the jaw slipped from him; the
20691frail gunwales bent in, collapsed, and snapped, as both jaws, like an
20692enormous shears, sliding further aft, bit the craft completely in twain,
20693and locked themselves fast again in the sea, midway between the two
20694floating wrecks. These floated aside, the broken ends drooping, the crew
20695at the stern-wreck clinging to the gunwales, and striving to hold fast
20696to the oars to lash them across.
20697
20698At that preluding moment, ere the boat was yet snapped, Ahab, the first
20699to perceive the whale's intent, by the crafty upraising of his head, a
20700movement that loosed his hold for the time; at that moment his hand
20701had made one final effort to push the boat out of the bite. But only
20702slipping further into the whale's mouth, and tilting over sideways as it
20703slipped, the boat had shaken off his hold on the jaw; spilled him out of
20704it, as he leaned to the push; and so he fell flat-faced upon the sea.
20705
20706Ripplingly withdrawing from his prey, Moby Dick now lay at a little
20707distance, vertically thrusting his oblong white head up and down in the
20708billows; and at the same time slowly revolving his whole spindled body;
20709so that when his vast wrinkled forehead rose--some twenty or more feet
20710out of the water--the now rising swells, with all their confluent waves,
20711dazzlingly broke against it; vindictively tossing their shivered spray
20712still higher into the air.* So, in a gale, the but half baffled Channel
20713billows only recoil from the base of the Eddystone, triumphantly to
20714overleap its summit with their scud.
20715
20716
20717*This motion is peculiar to the sperm whale. It receives its designation
20718(pitchpoling) from its being likened to that preliminary up-and-down
20719poise of the whale-lance, in the exercise called pitchpoling, previously
20720described. By this motion the whale must best and most comprehensively
20721view whatever objects may be encircling him.
20722
20723
20724But soon resuming his horizontal attitude, Moby Dick swam swiftly round
20725and round the wrecked crew; sideways churning the water in his vengeful
20726wake, as if lashing himself up to still another and more deadly assault.
20727The sight of the splintered boat seemed to madden him, as the blood of
20728grapes and mulberries cast before Antiochus's elephants in the book
20729of Maccabees. Meanwhile Ahab half smothered in the foam of the whale's
20730insolent tail, and too much of a cripple to swim,--though he could still
20731keep afloat, even in the heart of such a whirlpool as that; helpless
20732Ahab's head was seen, like a tossed bubble which the least chance shock
20733might burst. From the boat's fragmentary stern, Fedallah incuriously and
20734mildly eyed him; the clinging crew, at the other drifting end, could not
20735succor him; more than enough was it for them to look to themselves.
20736For so revolvingly appalling was the White Whale's aspect, and so
20737planetarily swift the ever-contracting circles he made, that he seemed
20738horizontally swooping upon them. And though the other boats, unharmed,
20739still hovered hard by; still they dared not pull into the eddy to
20740strike, lest that should be the signal for the instant destruction of
20741the jeopardized castaways, Ahab and all; nor in that case could they
20742themselves hope to escape. With straining eyes, then, they remained on
20743the outer edge of the direful zone, whose centre had now become the old
20744man's head.
20745
20746Meantime, from the beginning all this had been descried from the ship's
20747mast heads; and squaring her yards, she had borne down upon the scene;
20748and was now so nigh, that Ahab in the water hailed her!--"Sail on
20749the"--but that moment a breaking sea dashed on him from Moby Dick, and
20750whelmed him for the time. But struggling out of it again, and chancing
20751to rise on a towering crest, he shouted,--"Sail on the whale!--Drive him
20752off!"
20753
20754The Pequod's prows were pointed; and breaking up the charmed circle, she
20755effectually parted the white whale from his victim. As he sullenly swam
20756off, the boats flew to the rescue.
20757
20758Dragged into Stubb's boat with blood-shot, blinded eyes, the white brine
20759caking in his wrinkles; the long tension of Ahab's bodily strength did
20760crack, and helplessly he yielded to his body's doom: for a time, lying
20761all crushed in the bottom of Stubb's boat, like one trodden under foot
20762of herds of elephants. Far inland, nameless wails came from him, as
20763desolate sounds from out ravines.
20764
20765But this intensity of his physical prostration did but so much the more
20766abbreviate it. In an instant's compass, great hearts sometimes condense
20767to one deep pang, the sum total of those shallow pains kindly diffused
20768through feebler men's whole lives. And so, such hearts, though summary
20769in each one suffering; still, if the gods decree it, in their
20770life-time aggregate a whole age of woe, wholly made up of instantaneous
20771intensities; for even in their pointless centres, those noble natures
20772contain the entire circumferences of inferior souls.
20773
20774"The harpoon," said Ahab, half way rising, and draggingly leaning on one
20775bended arm--"is it safe?"
20776
20777"Aye, sir, for it was not darted; this is it," said Stubb, showing it.
20778
20779"Lay it before me;--any missing men?"
20780
20781"One, two, three, four, five;--there were five oars, sir, and here are
20782five men."
20783
20784"That's good.--Help me, man; I wish to stand. So, so, I see him! there!
20785there! going to leeward still; what a leaping spout!--Hands off from me!
20786The eternal sap runs up in Ahab's bones again! Set the sail; out oars;
20787the helm!"
20788
20789It is often the case that when a boat is stove, its crew, being picked
20790up by another boat, help to work that second boat; and the chase is thus
20791continued with what is called double-banked oars. It was thus now. But
20792the added power of the boat did not equal the added power of the whale,
20793for he seemed to have treble-banked his every fin; swimming with a
20794velocity which plainly showed, that if now, under these circumstances,
20795pushed on, the chase would prove an indefinitely prolonged, if not a
20796hopeless one; nor could any crew endure for so long a period, such an
20797unintermitted, intense straining at the oar; a thing barely tolerable
20798only in some one brief vicissitude. The ship itself, then, as it
20799sometimes happens, offered the most promising intermediate means of
20800overtaking the chase. Accordingly, the boats now made for her, and were
20801soon swayed up to their cranes--the two parts of the wrecked boat having
20802been previously secured by her--and then hoisting everything to her
20803side, and stacking her canvas high up, and sideways outstretching it
20804with stun-sails, like the double-jointed wings of an albatross; the
20805Pequod bore down in the leeward wake of Moby-Dick. At the well known,
20806methodic intervals, the whale's glittering spout was regularly announced
20807from the manned mast-heads; and when he would be reported as just gone
20808down, Ahab would take the time, and then pacing the deck, binnacle-watch
20809in hand, so soon as the last second of the allotted hour expired, his
20810voice was heard.--"Whose is the doubloon now? D'ye see him?" and if the
20811reply was, No, sir! straightway he commanded them to lift him to his
20812perch. In this way the day wore on; Ahab, now aloft and motionless;
20813anon, unrestingly pacing the planks.
20814
20815As he was thus walking, uttering no sound, except to hail the men aloft,
20816or to bid them hoist a sail still higher, or to spread one to a still
20817greater breadth--thus to and fro pacing, beneath his slouched hat, at
20818every turn he passed his own wrecked boat, which had been dropped upon
20819the quarter-deck, and lay there reversed; broken bow to shattered stern.
20820At last he paused before it; and as in an already over-clouded sky fresh
20821troops of clouds will sometimes sail across, so over the old man's face
20822there now stole some such added gloom as this.
20823
20824Stubb saw him pause; and perhaps intending, not vainly, though, to
20825evince his own unabated fortitude, and thus keep up a valiant place in
20826his Captain's mind, he advanced, and eyeing the wreck exclaimed--"The
20827thistle the ass refused; it pricked his mouth too keenly, sir; ha! ha!"
20828
20829"What soulless thing is this that laughs before a wreck? Man, man! did
20830I not know thee brave as fearless fire (and as mechanical) I could swear
20831thou wert a poltroon. Groan nor laugh should be heard before a wreck."
20832
20833"Aye, sir," said Starbuck drawing near, "'tis a solemn sight; an omen,
20834and an ill one."
20835
20836"Omen? omen?--the dictionary! If the gods think to speak outright to
20837man, they will honourably speak outright; not shake their heads, and
20838give an old wives' darkling hint.--Begone! Ye two are the opposite poles
20839of one thing; Starbuck is Stubb reversed, and Stubb is Starbuck; and
20840ye two are all mankind; and Ahab stands alone among the millions of
20841the peopled earth, nor gods nor men his neighbors! Cold, cold--I
20842shiver!--How now? Aloft there! D'ye see him? Sing out for every spout,
20843though he spout ten times a second!"
20844
20845The day was nearly done; only the hem of his golden robe was rustling.
20846Soon, it was almost dark, but the look-out men still remained unset.
20847
20848"Can't see the spout now, sir;--too dark"--cried a voice from the air.
20849
20850"How heading when last seen?"
20851
20852"As before, sir,--straight to leeward."
20853
20854"Good! he will travel slower now 'tis night. Down royals and top-gallant
20855stun-sails, Mr. Starbuck. We must not run over him before morning; he's
20856making a passage now, and may heave-to a while. Helm there! keep her
20857full before the wind!--Aloft! come down!--Mr. Stubb, send a fresh hand
20858to the fore-mast head, and see it manned till morning."--Then advancing
20859towards the doubloon in the main-mast--"Men, this gold is mine, for I
20860earned it; but I shall let it abide here till the White Whale is dead;
20861and then, whosoever of ye first raises him, upon the day he shall be
20862killed, this gold is that man's; and if on that day I shall again raise
20863him, then, ten times its sum shall be divided among all of ye! Away
20864now!--the deck is thine, sir!"
20865
20866And so saying, he placed himself half way within the scuttle, and
20867slouching his hat, stood there till dawn, except when at intervals
20868rousing himself to see how the night wore on.
20869
20870
20871
20872CHAPTER 134. The Chase--Second Day.
20873
20874
20875At day-break, the three mast-heads were punctually manned afresh.
20876
20877"D'ye see him?" cried Ahab after allowing a little space for the light
20878to spread.
20879
20880"See nothing, sir."
20881
20882"Turn up all hands and make sail! he travels faster than I thought
20883for;--the top-gallant sails!--aye, they should have been kept on her all
20884night. But no matter--'tis but resting for the rush."
20885
20886Here be it said, that this pertinacious pursuit of one particular whale,
20887continued through day into night, and through night into day, is a thing
20888by no means unprecedented in the South sea fishery. For such is the
20889wonderful skill, prescience of experience, and invincible confidence
20890acquired by some great natural geniuses among the Nantucket commanders;
20891that from the simple observation of a whale when last descried, they
20892will, under certain given circumstances, pretty accurately foretell both
20893the direction in which he will continue to swim for a time, while out of
20894sight, as well as his probable rate of progression during that period.
20895And, in these cases, somewhat as a pilot, when about losing sight of
20896a coast, whose general trending he well knows, and which he desires
20897shortly to return to again, but at some further point; like as this
20898pilot stands by his compass, and takes the precise bearing of the
20899cape at present visible, in order the more certainly to hit aright
20900the remote, unseen headland, eventually to be visited: so does the
20901fisherman, at his compass, with the whale; for after being chased, and
20902diligently marked, through several hours of daylight, then, when night
20903obscures the fish, the creature's future wake through the darkness
20904is almost as established to the sagacious mind of the hunter, as the
20905pilot's coast is to him. So that to this hunter's wondrous skill, the
20906proverbial evanescence of a thing writ in water, a wake, is to all
20907desired purposes well nigh as reliable as the steadfast land. And as the
20908mighty iron Leviathan of the modern railway is so familiarly known in
20909its every pace, that, with watches in their hands, men time his rate as
20910doctors that of a baby's pulse; and lightly say of it, the up train or
20911the down train will reach such or such a spot, at such or such an hour;
20912even so, almost, there are occasions when these Nantucketers time that
20913other Leviathan of the deep, according to the observed humor of his
20914speed; and say to themselves, so many hours hence this whale will have
20915gone two hundred miles, will have about reached this or that degree of
20916latitude or longitude. But to render this acuteness at all successful in
20917the end, the wind and the sea must be the whaleman's allies; for of what
20918present avail to the becalmed or windbound mariner is the skill that
20919assures him he is exactly ninety-three leagues and a quarter from his
20920port? Inferable from these statements, are many collateral subtile
20921matters touching the chase of whales.
20922
20923The ship tore on; leaving such a furrow in the sea as when a
20924cannon-ball, missent, becomes a plough-share and turns up the level
20925field.
20926
20927"By salt and hemp!" cried Stubb, "but this swift motion of the deck
20928creeps up one's legs and tingles at the heart. This ship and I are two
20929brave fellows!--Ha, ha! Some one take me up, and launch me, spine-wise,
20930on the sea,--for by live-oaks! my spine's a keel. Ha, ha! we go the gait
20931that leaves no dust behind!"
20932
20933"There she blows--she blows!--she blows!--right ahead!" was now the
20934mast-head cry.
20935
20936"Aye, aye!" cried Stubb, "I knew it--ye can't escape--blow on and
20937split your spout, O whale! the mad fiend himself is after ye! blow your
20938trump--blister your lungs!--Ahab will dam off your blood, as a miller
20939shuts his watergate upon the stream!"
20940
20941And Stubb did but speak out for well nigh all that crew. The frenzies
20942of the chase had by this time worked them bubblingly up, like old wine
20943worked anew. Whatever pale fears and forebodings some of them might
20944have felt before; these were not only now kept out of sight through the
20945growing awe of Ahab, but they were broken up, and on all sides routed,
20946as timid prairie hares that scatter before the bounding bison. The hand
20947of Fate had snatched all their souls; and by the stirring perils of
20948the previous day; the rack of the past night's suspense; the fixed,
20949unfearing, blind, reckless way in which their wild craft went plunging
20950towards its flying mark; by all these things, their hearts were bowled
20951along. The wind that made great bellies of their sails, and rushed the
20952vessel on by arms invisible as irresistible; this seemed the symbol of
20953that unseen agency which so enslaved them to the race.
20954
20955They were one man, not thirty. For as the one ship that held them all;
20956though it was put together of all contrasting things--oak, and maple,
20957and pine wood; iron, and pitch, and hemp--yet all these ran into each
20958other in the one concrete hull, which shot on its way, both balanced and
20959directed by the long central keel; even so, all the individualities of
20960the crew, this man's valor, that man's fear; guilt and guiltiness, all
20961varieties were welded into oneness, and were all directed to that fatal
20962goal which Ahab their one lord and keel did point to.
20963
20964The rigging lived. The mast-heads, like the tops of tall palms, were
20965outspreadingly tufted with arms and legs. Clinging to a spar with one
20966hand, some reached forth the other with impatient wavings; others,
20967shading their eyes from the vivid sunlight, sat far out on the rocking
20968yards; all the spars in full bearing of mortals, ready and ripe for
20969their fate. Ah! how they still strove through that infinite blueness to
20970seek out the thing that might destroy them!
20971
20972"Why sing ye not out for him, if ye see him?" cried Ahab, when, after
20973the lapse of some minutes since the first cry, no more had been heard.
20974"Sway me up, men; ye have been deceived; not Moby Dick casts one odd jet
20975that way, and then disappears."
20976
20977It was even so; in their headlong eagerness, the men had mistaken some
20978other thing for the whale-spout, as the event itself soon proved; for
20979hardly had Ahab reached his perch; hardly was the rope belayed to its
20980pin on deck, when he struck the key-note to an orchestra, that made the
20981air vibrate as with the combined discharges of rifles. The triumphant
20982halloo of thirty buckskin lungs was heard, as--much nearer to the ship
20983than the place of the imaginary jet, less than a mile ahead--Moby Dick
20984bodily burst into view! For not by any calm and indolent spoutings; not
20985by the peaceable gush of that mystic fountain in his head, did the White
20986Whale now reveal his vicinity; but by the far more wondrous phenomenon
20987of breaching. Rising with his utmost velocity from the furthest depths,
20988the Sperm Whale thus booms his entire bulk into the pure element of
20989air, and piling up a mountain of dazzling foam, shows his place to the
20990distance of seven miles and more. In those moments, the torn, enraged
20991waves he shakes off, seem his mane; in some cases, this breaching is his
20992act of defiance.
20993
20994"There she breaches! there she breaches!" was the cry, as in his
20995immeasurable bravadoes the White Whale tossed himself salmon-like to
20996Heaven. So suddenly seen in the blue plain of the sea, and relieved
20997against the still bluer margin of the sky, the spray that he raised, for
20998the moment, intolerably glittered and glared like a glacier; and
20999stood there gradually fading and fading away from its first sparkling
21000intensity, to the dim mistiness of an advancing shower in a vale.
21001
21002"Aye, breach your last to the sun, Moby Dick!" cried Ahab, "thy hour and
21003thy harpoon are at hand!--Down! down all of ye, but one man at the fore.
21004The boats!--stand by!"
21005
21006Unmindful of the tedious rope-ladders of the shrouds, the men, like
21007shooting stars, slid to the deck, by the isolated backstays and
21008halyards; while Ahab, less dartingly, but still rapidly was dropped from
21009his perch.
21010
21011"Lower away," he cried, so soon as he had reached his boat--a spare one,
21012rigged the afternoon previous. "Mr. Starbuck, the ship is thine--keep
21013away from the boats, but keep near them. Lower, all!"
21014
21015As if to strike a quick terror into them, by this time being the first
21016assailant himself, Moby Dick had turned, and was now coming for the
21017three crews. Ahab's boat was central; and cheering his men, he told them
21018he would take the whale head-and-head,--that is, pull straight up to his
21019forehead,--a not uncommon thing; for when within a certain limit, such
21020a course excludes the coming onset from the whale's sidelong vision.
21021But ere that close limit was gained, and while yet all three boats were
21022plain as the ship's three masts to his eye; the White Whale churning
21023himself into furious speed, almost in an instant as it were, rushing
21024among the boats with open jaws, and a lashing tail, offered appalling
21025battle on every side; and heedless of the irons darted at him from every
21026boat, seemed only intent on annihilating each separate plank of which
21027those boats were made. But skilfully manoeuvred, incessantly wheeling
21028like trained chargers in the field; the boats for a while eluded him;
21029though, at times, but by a plank's breadth; while all the time, Ahab's
21030unearthly slogan tore every other cry but his to shreds.
21031
21032But at last in his untraceable evolutions, the White Whale so crossed
21033and recrossed, and in a thousand ways entangled the slack of the three
21034lines now fast to him, that they foreshortened, and, of themselves,
21035warped the devoted boats towards the planted irons in him; though now
21036for a moment the whale drew aside a little, as if to rally for a more
21037tremendous charge. Seizing that opportunity, Ahab first paid out more
21038line: and then was rapidly hauling and jerking in upon it again--hoping
21039that way to disencumber it of some snarls--when lo!--a sight more savage
21040than the embattled teeth of sharks!
21041
21042Caught and twisted--corkscrewed in the mazes of the line, loose harpoons
21043and lances, with all their bristling barbs and points, came flashing
21044and dripping up to the chocks in the bows of Ahab's boat. Only one
21045thing could be done. Seizing the boat-knife, he critically reached
21046within--through--and then, without--the rays of steel; dragged in
21047the line beyond, passed it, inboard, to the bowsman, and then, twice
21048sundering the rope near the chocks--dropped the intercepted fagot of
21049steel into the sea; and was all fast again. That instant, the White
21050Whale made a sudden rush among the remaining tangles of the other lines;
21051by so doing, irresistibly dragged the more involved boats of Stubb and
21052Flask towards his flukes; dashed them together like two rolling husks on
21053a surf-beaten beach, and then, diving down into the sea, disappeared in
21054a boiling maelstrom, in which, for a space, the odorous cedar chips of
21055the wrecks danced round and round, like the grated nutmeg in a swiftly
21056stirred bowl of punch.
21057
21058While the two crews were yet circling in the waters, reaching out after
21059the revolving line-tubs, oars, and other floating furniture, while
21060aslope little Flask bobbed up and down like an empty vial, twitching his
21061legs upwards to escape the dreaded jaws of sharks; and Stubb was lustily
21062singing out for some one to ladle him up; and while the old man's
21063line--now parting--admitted of his pulling into the creamy pool to
21064rescue whom he could;--in that wild simultaneousness of a thousand
21065concreted perils,--Ahab's yet unstricken boat seemed drawn up towards
21066Heaven by invisible wires,--as, arrow-like, shooting perpendicularly
21067from the sea, the White Whale dashed his broad forehead against its
21068bottom, and sent it, turning over and over, into the air; till it fell
21069again--gunwale downwards--and Ahab and his men struggled out from under
21070it, like seals from a sea-side cave.
21071
21072The first uprising momentum of the whale--modifying its direction as
21073he struck the surface--involuntarily launched him along it, to a little
21074distance from the centre of the destruction he had made; and with his
21075back to it, he now lay for a moment slowly feeling with his flukes from
21076side to side; and whenever a stray oar, bit of plank, the least chip
21077or crumb of the boats touched his skin, his tail swiftly drew back, and
21078came sideways smiting the sea. But soon, as if satisfied that his work
21079for that time was done, he pushed his pleated forehead through the
21080ocean, and trailing after him the intertangled lines, continued his
21081leeward way at a traveller's methodic pace.
21082
21083As before, the attentive ship having descried the whole fight, again
21084came bearing down to the rescue, and dropping a boat, picked up the
21085floating mariners, tubs, oars, and whatever else could be caught at, and
21086safely landed them on her decks. Some sprained shoulders, wrists, and
21087ankles; livid contusions; wrenched harpoons and lances; inextricable
21088intricacies of rope; shattered oars and planks; all these were there;
21089but no fatal or even serious ill seemed to have befallen any one. As
21090with Fedallah the day before, so Ahab was now found grimly clinging to
21091his boat's broken half, which afforded a comparatively easy float; nor
21092did it so exhaust him as the previous day's mishap.
21093
21094But when he was helped to the deck, all eyes were fastened upon him; as
21095instead of standing by himself he still half-hung upon the shoulder of
21096Starbuck, who had thus far been the foremost to assist him. His ivory
21097leg had been snapped off, leaving but one short sharp splinter.
21098
21099"Aye, aye, Starbuck, 'tis sweet to lean sometimes, be the leaner who he
21100will; and would old Ahab had leaned oftener than he has."
21101
21102"The ferrule has not stood, sir," said the carpenter, now coming up; "I
21103put good work into that leg."
21104
21105"But no bones broken, sir, I hope," said Stubb with true concern.
21106
21107"Aye! and all splintered to pieces, Stubb!--d'ye see it.--But even with
21108a broken bone, old Ahab is untouched; and I account no living bone of
21109mine one jot more me, than this dead one that's lost. Nor white whale,
21110nor man, nor fiend, can so much as graze old Ahab in his own proper and
21111inaccessible being. Can any lead touch yonder floor, any mast scrape
21112yonder roof?--Aloft there! which way?"
21113
21114"Dead to leeward, sir."
21115
21116"Up helm, then; pile on the sail again, ship keepers! down the rest of
21117the spare boats and rig them--Mr. Starbuck away, and muster the boat's
21118crews."
21119
21120"Let me first help thee towards the bulwarks, sir."
21121
21122"Oh, oh, oh! how this splinter gores me now! Accursed fate! that the
21123unconquerable captain in the soul should have such a craven mate!"
21124
21125"Sir?"
21126
21127"My body, man, not thee. Give me something for a cane--there, that
21128shivered lance will do. Muster the men. Surely I have not seen him yet.
21129By heaven it cannot be!--missing?--quick! call them all."
21130
21131The old man's hinted thought was true. Upon mustering the company, the
21132Parsee was not there.
21133
21134"The Parsee!" cried Stubb--"he must have been caught in--"
21135
21136"The black vomit wrench thee!--run all of ye above, alow, cabin,
21137forecastle--find him--not gone--not gone!"
21138
21139But quickly they returned to him with the tidings that the Parsee was
21140nowhere to be found.
21141
21142"Aye, sir," said Stubb--"caught among the tangles of your line--I
21143thought I saw him dragging under."
21144
21145"MY line! MY line? Gone?--gone? What means that little word?--What
21146death-knell rings in it, that old Ahab shakes as if he were the belfry.
21147The harpoon, too!--toss over the litter there,--d'ye see it?--the forged
21148iron, men, the white whale's--no, no, no,--blistered fool! this hand did
21149dart it!--'tis in the fish!--Aloft there! Keep him nailed--Quick!--all
21150hands to the rigging of the boats--collect the oars--harpooneers!
21151the irons, the irons!--hoist the royals higher--a pull on all the
21152sheets!--helm there! steady, steady for your life! I'll ten times girdle
21153the unmeasured globe; yea and dive straight through it, but I'll slay
21154him yet!"
21155
21156"Great God! but for one single instant show thyself," cried Starbuck;
21157"never, never wilt thou capture him, old man--In Jesus' name no more of
21158this, that's worse than devil's madness. Two days chased; twice stove
21159to splinters; thy very leg once more snatched from under thee; thy evil
21160shadow gone--all good angels mobbing thee with warnings:--
21161
21162"What more wouldst thou have?--Shall we keep chasing this murderous fish
21163till he swamps the last man? Shall we be dragged by him to the bottom
21164of the sea? Shall we be towed by him to the infernal world? Oh,
21165oh,--Impiety and blasphemy to hunt him more!"
21166
21167"Starbuck, of late I've felt strangely moved to thee; ever since that
21168hour we both saw--thou know'st what, in one another's eyes. But in this
21169matter of the whale, be the front of thy face to me as the palm of this
21170hand--a lipless, unfeatured blank. Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. This
21171whole act's immutably decreed. 'Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion
21172years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates' lieutenant; I act
21173under orders. Look thou, underling! that thou obeyest mine.--Stand round
21174me, men. Ye see an old man cut down to the stump; leaning on a shivered
21175lance; propped up on a lonely foot. 'Tis Ahab--his body's part; but
21176Ahab's soul's a centipede, that moves upon a hundred legs. I feel
21177strained, half stranded, as ropes that tow dismasted frigates in a gale;
21178and I may look so. But ere I break, ye'll hear me crack; and till ye hear
21179THAT, know that Ahab's hawser tows his purpose yet. Believe ye, men, in
21180the things called omens? Then laugh aloud, and cry encore! For ere they
21181drown, drowning things will twice rise to the surface; then rise again,
21182to sink for evermore. So with Moby Dick--two days he's floated--tomorrow
21183will be the third. Aye, men, he'll rise once more,--but only to spout
21184his last! D'ye feel brave men, brave?"
21185
21186"As fearless fire," cried Stubb.
21187
21188"And as mechanical," muttered Ahab. Then as the men went forward, he
21189muttered on: "The things called omens! And yesterday I talked the same
21190to Starbuck there, concerning my broken boat. Oh! how valiantly I seek
21191to drive out of others' hearts what's clinched so fast in mine!--The
21192Parsee--the Parsee!--gone, gone? and he was to go before:--but still was
21193to be seen again ere I could perish--How's that?--There's a riddle now
21194might baffle all the lawyers backed by the ghosts of the whole line
21195of judges:--like a hawk's beak it pecks my brain. I'LL, I'LL solve it,
21196though!"
21197
21198When dusk descended, the whale was still in sight to leeward.
21199
21200So once more the sail was shortened, and everything passed nearly as
21201on the previous night; only, the sound of hammers, and the hum of the
21202grindstone was heard till nearly daylight, as the men toiled by lanterns
21203in the complete and careful rigging of the spare boats and sharpening
21204their fresh weapons for the morrow. Meantime, of the broken keel of
21205Ahab's wrecked craft the carpenter made him another leg; while still as
21206on the night before, slouched Ahab stood fixed within his scuttle; his
21207hid, heliotrope glance anticipatingly gone backward on its dial; sat due
21208eastward for the earliest sun.
21209
21210
21211
21212CHAPTER 135. The Chase.--Third Day.
21213
21214
21215The morning of the third day dawned fair and fresh, and once more the
21216solitary night-man at the fore-mast-head was relieved by crowds of the
21217daylight look-outs, who dotted every mast and almost every spar.
21218
21219"D'ye see him?" cried Ahab; but the whale was not yet in sight.
21220
21221"In his infallible wake, though; but follow that wake, that's all. Helm
21222there; steady, as thou goest, and hast been going. What a lovely day
21223again! were it a new-made world, and made for a summer-house to the
21224angels, and this morning the first of its throwing open to them, a
21225fairer day could not dawn upon that world. Here's food for thought, had
21226Ahab time to think; but Ahab never thinks; he only feels, feels, feels;
21227THAT'S tingling enough for mortal man! to think's audacity. God only has
21228that right and privilege. Thinking is, or ought to be, a coolness and a
21229calmness; and our poor hearts throb, and our poor brains beat too much
21230for that. And yet, I've sometimes thought my brain was very calm--frozen
21231calm, this old skull cracks so, like a glass in which the contents
21232turned to ice, and shiver it. And still this hair is growing now; this
21233moment growing, and heat must breed it; but no, it's like that sort
21234of common grass that will grow anywhere, between the earthy clefts of
21235Greenland ice or in Vesuvius lava. How the wild winds blow it; they whip
21236it about me as the torn shreds of split sails lash the tossed ship they
21237cling to. A vile wind that has no doubt blown ere this through prison
21238corridors and cells, and wards of hospitals, and ventilated them, and
21239now comes blowing hither as innocent as fleeces. Out upon it!--it's
21240tainted. Were I the wind, I'd blow no more on such a wicked, miserable
21241world. I'd crawl somewhere to a cave, and slink there. And yet, 'tis a
21242noble and heroic thing, the wind! who ever conquered it? In every fight
21243it has the last and bitterest blow. Run tilting at it, and you but run
21244through it. Ha! a coward wind that strikes stark naked men, but will not
21245stand to receive a single blow. Even Ahab is a braver thing--a nobler
21246thing than THAT. Would now the wind but had a body; but all the things
21247that most exasperate and outrage mortal man, all these things are
21248bodiless, but only bodiless as objects, not as agents. There's a most
21249special, a most cunning, oh, a most malicious difference! And yet, I
21250say again, and swear it now, that there's something all glorious and
21251gracious in the wind. These warm Trade Winds, at least, that in the
21252clear heavens blow straight on, in strong and steadfast, vigorous
21253mildness; and veer not from their mark, however the baser currents of
21254the sea may turn and tack, and mightiest Mississippies of the land swift
21255and swerve about, uncertain where to go at last. And by the eternal
21256Poles! these same Trades that so directly blow my good ship on; these
21257Trades, or something like them--something so unchangeable, and full as
21258strong, blow my keeled soul along! To it! Aloft there! What d'ye see?"
21259
21260"Nothing, sir."
21261
21262"Nothing! and noon at hand! The doubloon goes a-begging! See the sun!
21263Aye, aye, it must be so. I've oversailed him. How, got the start? Aye,
21264he's chasing ME now; not I, HIM--that's bad; I might have known it, too.
21265Fool! the lines--the harpoons he's towing. Aye, aye, I have run him by
21266last night. About! about! Come down, all of ye, but the regular look
21267outs! Man the braces!"
21268
21269Steering as she had done, the wind had been somewhat on the Pequod's
21270quarter, so that now being pointed in the reverse direction, the braced
21271ship sailed hard upon the breeze as she rechurned the cream in her own
21272white wake.
21273
21274"Against the wind he now steers for the open jaw," murmured Starbuck to
21275himself, as he coiled the new-hauled main-brace upon the rail. "God keep
21276us, but already my bones feel damp within me, and from the inside wet my
21277flesh. I misdoubt me that I disobey my God in obeying him!"
21278
21279"Stand by to sway me up!" cried Ahab, advancing to the hempen basket.
21280"We should meet him soon."
21281
21282"Aye, aye, sir," and straightway Starbuck did Ahab's bidding, and once
21283more Ahab swung on high.
21284
21285A whole hour now passed; gold-beaten out to ages. Time itself now held
21286long breaths with keen suspense. But at last, some three points off the
21287weather bow, Ahab descried the spout again, and instantly from the three
21288mast-heads three shrieks went up as if the tongues of fire had voiced
21289it.
21290
21291"Forehead to forehead I meet thee, this third time, Moby Dick! On deck
21292there!--brace sharper up; crowd her into the wind's eye. He's too
21293far off to lower yet, Mr. Starbuck. The sails shake! Stand over that
21294helmsman with a top-maul! So, so; he travels fast, and I must down. But
21295let me have one more good round look aloft here at the sea; there's
21296time for that. An old, old sight, and yet somehow so young; aye, and
21297not changed a wink since I first saw it, a boy, from the sand-hills of
21298Nantucket! The same!--the same!--the same to Noah as to me. There's
21299a soft shower to leeward. Such lovely leewardings! They must lead
21300somewhere--to something else than common land, more palmy than the
21301palms. Leeward! the white whale goes that way; look to windward,
21302then; the better if the bitterer quarter. But good bye, good bye, old
21303mast-head! What's this?--green? aye, tiny mosses in these warped cracks.
21304No such green weather stains on Ahab's head! There's the difference now
21305between man's old age and matter's. But aye, old mast, we both grow old
21306together; sound in our hulls, though, are we not, my ship? Aye, minus
21307a leg, that's all. By heaven this dead wood has the better of my live
21308flesh every way. I can't compare with it; and I've known some ships made
21309of dead trees outlast the lives of men made of the most vital stuff of
21310vital fathers. What's that he said? he should still go before me, my
21311pilot; and yet to be seen again? But where? Will I have eyes at the
21312bottom of the sea, supposing I descend those endless stairs? and all
21313night I've been sailing from him, wherever he did sink to. Aye, aye,
21314like many more thou told'st direful truth as touching thyself, O Parsee;
21315but, Ahab, there thy shot fell short. Good-bye, mast-head--keep a good
21316eye upon the whale, the while I'm gone. We'll talk to-morrow, nay,
21317to-night, when the white whale lies down there, tied by head and tail."
21318
21319He gave the word; and still gazing round him, was steadily lowered
21320through the cloven blue air to the deck.
21321
21322In due time the boats were lowered; but as standing in his shallop's
21323stern, Ahab just hovered upon the point of the descent, he waved to the
21324mate,--who held one of the tackle-ropes on deck--and bade him pause.
21325
21326"Starbuck!"
21327
21328"Sir?"
21329
21330"For the third time my soul's ship starts upon this voyage, Starbuck."
21331
21332"Aye, sir, thou wilt have it so."
21333
21334"Some ships sail from their ports, and ever afterwards are missing,
21335Starbuck!"
21336
21337"Truth, sir: saddest truth."
21338
21339"Some men die at ebb tide; some at low water; some at the full of
21340the flood;--and I feel now like a billow that's all one crested comb,
21341Starbuck. I am old;--shake hands with me, man."
21342
21343Their hands met; their eyes fastened; Starbuck's tears the glue.
21344
21345"Oh, my captain, my captain!--noble heart--go not--go not!--see, it's a
21346brave man that weeps; how great the agony of the persuasion then!"
21347
21348"Lower away!"--cried Ahab, tossing the mate's arm from him. "Stand by
21349the crew!"
21350
21351In an instant the boat was pulling round close under the stern.
21352
21353"The sharks! the sharks!" cried a voice from the low cabin-window there;
21354"O master, my master, come back!"
21355
21356But Ahab heard nothing; for his own voice was high-lifted then; and the
21357boat leaped on.
21358
21359Yet the voice spake true; for scarce had he pushed from the ship, when
21360numbers of sharks, seemingly rising from out the dark waters beneath
21361the hull, maliciously snapped at the blades of the oars, every time they
21362dipped in the water; and in this way accompanied the boat with their
21363bites. It is a thing not uncommonly happening to the whale-boats in
21364those swarming seas; the sharks at times apparently following them in
21365the same prescient way that vultures hover over the banners of marching
21366regiments in the east. But these were the first sharks that had been
21367observed by the Pequod since the White Whale had been first descried;
21368and whether it was that Ahab's crew were all such tiger-yellow
21369barbarians, and therefore their flesh more musky to the senses of the
21370sharks--a matter sometimes well known to affect them,--however it was,
21371they seemed to follow that one boat without molesting the others.
21372
21373"Heart of wrought steel!" murmured Starbuck gazing over the side, and
21374following with his eyes the receding boat--"canst thou yet ring boldly
21375to that sight?--lowering thy keel among ravening sharks, and followed by
21376them, open-mouthed to the chase; and this the critical third day?--For
21377when three days flow together in one continuous intense pursuit; be sure
21378the first is the morning, the second the noon, and the third the evening
21379and the end of that thing--be that end what it may. Oh! my God! what
21380is this that shoots through me, and leaves me so deadly calm, yet
21381expectant,--fixed at the top of a shudder! Future things swim before me,
21382as in empty outlines and skeletons; all the past is somehow grown dim.
21383Mary, girl! thou fadest in pale glories behind me; boy! I seem to
21384see but thy eyes grown wondrous blue. Strangest problems of life seem
21385clearing; but clouds sweep between--Is my journey's end coming? My legs
21386feel faint; like his who has footed it all day. Feel thy heart,--beats
21387it yet? Stir thyself, Starbuck!--stave it off--move, move!
21388speak aloud!--Mast-head there! See ye my boy's hand on the
21389hill?--Crazed;--aloft there!--keep thy keenest eye upon the boats:--
21390
21391"Mark well the whale!--Ho! again!--drive off that hawk! see! he pecks--he
21392tears the vane"--pointing to the red flag flying at the main-truck--"Ha!
21393he soars away with it!--Where's the old man now? see'st thou that sight,
21394oh Ahab!--shudder, shudder!"
21395
21396The boats had not gone very far, when by a signal from the mast-heads--a
21397downward pointed arm, Ahab knew that the whale had sounded; but
21398intending to be near him at the next rising, he held on his way a little
21399sideways from the vessel; the becharmed crew maintaining the profoundest
21400silence, as the head-beat waves hammered and hammered against the
21401opposing bow.
21402
21403"Drive, drive in your nails, oh ye waves! to their uttermost heads
21404drive them in! ye but strike a thing without a lid; and no coffin and no
21405hearse can be mine:--and hemp only can kill me! Ha! ha!"
21406
21407Suddenly the waters around them slowly swelled in broad circles; then
21408quickly upheaved, as if sideways sliding from a submerged berg of
21409ice, swiftly rising to the surface. A low rumbling sound was heard; a
21410subterraneous hum; and then all held their breaths; as bedraggled with
21411trailing ropes, and harpoons, and lances, a vast form shot lengthwise,
21412but obliquely from the sea. Shrouded in a thin drooping veil of mist, it
21413hovered for a moment in the rainbowed air; and then fell swamping back
21414into the deep. Crushed thirty feet upwards, the waters flashed for
21415an instant like heaps of fountains, then brokenly sank in a shower of
21416flakes, leaving the circling surface creamed like new milk round the
21417marble trunk of the whale.
21418
21419"Give way!" cried Ahab to the oarsmen, and the boats darted forward to
21420the attack; but maddened by yesterday's fresh irons that corroded in
21421him, Moby Dick seemed combinedly possessed by all the angels that fell
21422from heaven. The wide tiers of welded tendons overspreading his broad
21423white forehead, beneath the transparent skin, looked knitted together;
21424as head on, he came churning his tail among the boats; and once more
21425flailed them apart; spilling out the irons and lances from the two
21426mates' boats, and dashing in one side of the upper part of their bows,
21427but leaving Ahab's almost without a scar.
21428
21429While Daggoo and Queequeg were stopping the strained planks; and as the
21430whale swimming out from them, turned, and showed one entire flank as he
21431shot by them again; at that moment a quick cry went up. Lashed round
21432and round to the fish's back; pinioned in the turns upon turns in which,
21433during the past night, the whale had reeled the involutions of the lines
21434around him, the half torn body of the Parsee was seen; his sable raiment
21435frayed to shreds; his distended eyes turned full upon old Ahab.
21436
21437The harpoon dropped from his hand.
21438
21439"Befooled, befooled!"--drawing in a long lean breath--"Aye, Parsee! I
21440see thee again.--Aye, and thou goest before; and this, THIS then is the
21441hearse that thou didst promise. But I hold thee to the last letter of
21442thy word. Where is the second hearse? Away, mates, to the ship! those
21443boats are useless now; repair them if ye can in time, and return to
21444me; if not, Ahab is enough to die--Down, men! the first thing that but
21445offers to jump from this boat I stand in, that thing I harpoon. Ye are
21446not other men, but my arms and my legs; and so obey me.--Where's the
21447whale? gone down again?"
21448
21449But he looked too nigh the boat; for as if bent upon escaping with the
21450corpse he bore, and as if the particular place of the last encounter had
21451been but a stage in his leeward voyage, Moby Dick was now again steadily
21452swimming forward; and had almost passed the ship,--which thus far had
21453been sailing in the contrary direction to him, though for the present
21454her headway had been stopped. He seemed swimming with his utmost
21455velocity, and now only intent upon pursuing his own straight path in the
21456sea.
21457
21458"Oh! Ahab," cried Starbuck, "not too late is it, even now, the third
21459day, to desist. See! Moby Dick seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that
21460madly seekest him!"
21461
21462Setting sail to the rising wind, the lonely boat was swiftly impelled to
21463leeward, by both oars and canvas. And at last when Ahab was sliding
21464by the vessel, so near as plainly to distinguish Starbuck's face as he
21465leaned over the rail, he hailed him to turn the vessel about, and follow
21466him, not too swiftly, at a judicious interval. Glancing upwards, he
21467saw Tashtego, Queequeg, and Daggoo, eagerly mounting to the three
21468mast-heads; while the oarsmen were rocking in the two staved boats
21469which had but just been hoisted to the side, and were busily at work in
21470repairing them. One after the other, through the port-holes, as he sped,
21471he also caught flying glimpses of Stubb and Flask, busying themselves
21472on deck among bundles of new irons and lances. As he saw all this; as he
21473heard the hammers in the broken boats; far other hammers seemed driving
21474a nail into his heart. But he rallied. And now marking that the vane or
21475flag was gone from the main-mast-head, he shouted to Tashtego, who had
21476just gained that perch, to descend again for another flag, and a hammer
21477and nails, and so nail it to the mast.
21478
21479Whether fagged by the three days' running chase, and the resistance
21480to his swimming in the knotted hamper he bore; or whether it was some
21481latent deceitfulness and malice in him: whichever was true, the White
21482Whale's way now began to abate, as it seemed, from the boat so rapidly
21483nearing him once more; though indeed the whale's last start had not been
21484so long a one as before. And still as Ahab glided over the waves the
21485unpitying sharks accompanied him; and so pertinaciously stuck to the
21486boat; and so continually bit at the plying oars, that the blades became
21487jagged and crunched, and left small splinters in the sea, at almost
21488every dip.
21489
21490"Heed them not! those teeth but give new rowlocks to your oars. Pull on!
21491'tis the better rest, the shark's jaw than the yielding water."
21492
21493"But at every bite, sir, the thin blades grow smaller and smaller!"
21494
21495"They will last long enough! pull on!--But who can tell"--he
21496muttered--"whether these sharks swim to feast on the whale or on
21497Ahab?--But pull on! Aye, all alive, now--we near him. The helm! take the
21498helm! let me pass,"--and so saying two of the oarsmen helped him forward
21499to the bows of the still flying boat.
21500
21501At length as the craft was cast to one side, and ran ranging along
21502with the White Whale's flank, he seemed strangely oblivious of its
21503advance--as the whale sometimes will--and Ahab was fairly within the
21504smoky mountain mist, which, thrown off from the whale's spout, curled
21505round his great, Monadnock hump; he was even thus close to him; when,
21506with body arched back, and both arms lengthwise high-lifted to the
21507poise, he darted his fierce iron, and his far fiercer curse into the
21508hated whale. As both steel and curse sank to the socket, as if sucked
21509into a morass, Moby Dick sideways writhed; spasmodically rolled his nigh
21510flank against the bow, and, without staving a hole in it, so suddenly
21511canted the boat over, that had it not been for the elevated part of the
21512gunwale to which he then clung, Ahab would once more have been tossed
21513into the sea. As it was, three of the oarsmen--who foreknew not the
21514precise instant of the dart, and were therefore unprepared for its
21515effects--these were flung out; but so fell, that, in an instant two of
21516them clutched the gunwale again, and rising to its level on a combing
21517wave, hurled themselves bodily inboard again; the third man helplessly
21518dropping astern, but still afloat and swimming.
21519
21520Almost simultaneously, with a mighty volition of ungraduated,
21521instantaneous swiftness, the White Whale darted through the weltering
21522sea. But when Ahab cried out to the steersman to take new turns with
21523the line, and hold it so; and commanded the crew to turn round on their
21524seats, and tow the boat up to the mark; the moment the treacherous line
21525felt that double strain and tug, it snapped in the empty air!
21526
21527"What breaks in me? Some sinew cracks!--'tis whole again; oars! oars!
21528Burst in upon him!"
21529
21530Hearing the tremendous rush of the sea-crashing boat, the whale wheeled
21531round to present his blank forehead at bay; but in that evolution,
21532catching sight of the nearing black hull of the ship; seemingly seeing
21533in it the source of all his persecutions; bethinking it--it may be--a
21534larger and nobler foe; of a sudden, he bore down upon its advancing
21535prow, smiting his jaws amid fiery showers of foam.
21536
21537Ahab staggered; his hand smote his forehead. "I grow blind; hands!
21538stretch out before me that I may yet grope my way. Is't night?"
21539
21540"The whale! The ship!" cried the cringing oarsmen.
21541
21542"Oars! oars! Slope downwards to thy depths, O sea, that ere it be for
21543ever too late, Ahab may slide this last, last time upon his mark! I see:
21544the ship! the ship! Dash on, my men! Will ye not save my ship?"
21545
21546But as the oarsmen violently forced their boat through the
21547sledge-hammering seas, the before whale-smitten bow-ends of two planks
21548burst through, and in an instant almost, the temporarily disabled boat
21549lay nearly level with the waves; its half-wading, splashing crew, trying
21550hard to stop the gap and bale out the pouring water.
21551
21552Meantime, for that one beholding instant, Tashtego's mast-head hammer
21553remained suspended in his hand; and the red flag, half-wrapping him as
21554with a plaid, then streamed itself straight out from him, as his own
21555forward-flowing heart; while Starbuck and Stubb, standing upon the
21556bowsprit beneath, caught sight of the down-coming monster just as soon
21557as he.
21558
21559"The whale, the whale! Up helm, up helm! Oh, all ye sweet powers of air,
21560now hug me close! Let not Starbuck die, if die he must, in a woman's
21561fainting fit. Up helm, I say--ye fools, the jaw! the jaw! Is this the
21562end of all my bursting prayers? all my life-long fidelities? Oh, Ahab,
21563Ahab, lo, thy work. Steady! helmsman, steady. Nay, nay! Up helm again!
21564He turns to meet us! Oh, his unappeasable brow drives on towards one,
21565whose duty tells him he cannot depart. My God, stand by me now!"
21566
21567"Stand not by me, but stand under me, whoever you are that will now help
21568Stubb; for Stubb, too, sticks here. I grin at thee, thou grinning whale!
21569Who ever helped Stubb, or kept Stubb awake, but Stubb's own unwinking
21570eye? And now poor Stubb goes to bed upon a mattrass that is all too
21571soft; would it were stuffed with brushwood! I grin at thee, thou
21572grinning whale! Look ye, sun, moon, and stars! I call ye assassins of
21573as good a fellow as ever spouted up his ghost. For all that, I would yet
21574ring glasses with ye, would ye but hand the cup! Oh, oh! oh, oh! thou
21575grinning whale, but there'll be plenty of gulping soon! Why fly ye
21576not, O Ahab! For me, off shoes and jacket to it; let Stubb die in
21577his drawers! A most mouldy and over salted death, though;--cherries!
21578cherries! cherries! Oh, Flask, for one red cherry ere we die!"
21579
21580"Cherries? I only wish that we were where they grow. Oh, Stubb, I hope
21581my poor mother's drawn my part-pay ere this; if not, few coppers will
21582now come to her, for the voyage is up."
21583
21584From the ship's bows, nearly all the seamen now hung inactive; hammers,
21585bits of plank, lances, and harpoons, mechanically retained in their
21586hands, just as they had darted from their various employments; all their
21587enchanted eyes intent upon the whale, which from side to side strangely
21588vibrating his predestinating head, sent a broad band of overspreading
21589semicircular foam before him as he rushed. Retribution, swift vengeance,
21590eternal malice were in his whole aspect, and spite of all that mortal
21591man could do, the solid white buttress of his forehead smote the ship's
21592starboard bow, till men and timbers reeled. Some fell flat upon their
21593faces. Like dislodged trucks, the heads of the harpooneers aloft shook
21594on their bull-like necks. Through the breach, they heard the waters
21595pour, as mountain torrents down a flume.
21596
21597"The ship! The hearse!--the second hearse!" cried Ahab from the boat;
21598"its wood could only be American!"
21599
21600Diving beneath the settling ship, the whale ran quivering along its
21601keel; but turning under water, swiftly shot to the surface again, far
21602off the other bow, but within a few yards of Ahab's boat, where, for a
21603time, he lay quiescent.
21604
21605"I turn my body from the sun. What ho, Tashtego! let me hear thy hammer.
21606Oh! ye three unsurrendered spires of mine; thou uncracked keel; and only
21607god-bullied hull; thou firm deck, and haughty helm, and Pole-pointed
21608prow,--death-glorious ship! must ye then perish, and without me? Am I
21609cut off from the last fond pride of meanest shipwrecked captains? Oh,
21610lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in
21611my topmost grief. Ho, ho! from all your furthest bounds, pour ye now in,
21612ye bold billows of my whole foregone life, and top this one piled comber
21613of my death! Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering
21614whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at
21615thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins
21616and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let
21617me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee,
21618thou damned whale! THUS, I give up the spear!"
21619
21620The harpoon was darted; the stricken whale flew forward; with igniting
21621velocity the line ran through the grooves;--ran foul. Ahab stooped to
21622clear it; he did clear it; but the flying turn caught him round the
21623neck, and voicelessly as Turkish mutes bowstring their victim, he was
21624shot out of the boat, ere the crew knew he was gone. Next instant, the
21625heavy eye-splice in the rope's final end flew out of the stark-empty
21626tub, knocked down an oarsman, and smiting the sea, disappeared in its
21627depths.
21628
21629For an instant, the tranced boat's crew stood still; then turned. "The
21630ship? Great God, where is the ship?" Soon they through dim, bewildering
21631mediums saw her sidelong fading phantom, as in the gaseous Fata Morgana;
21632only the uppermost masts out of water; while fixed by infatuation, or
21633fidelity, or fate, to their once lofty perches, the pagan harpooneers
21634still maintained their sinking lookouts on the sea. And now, concentric
21635circles seized the lone boat itself, and all its crew, and each floating
21636oar, and every lance-pole, and spinning, animate and inanimate, all
21637round and round in one vortex, carried the smallest chip of the Pequod
21638out of sight.
21639
21640But as the last whelmings intermixingly poured themselves over the
21641sunken head of the Indian at the mainmast, leaving a few inches of the
21642erect spar yet visible, together with long streaming yards of the flag,
21643which calmly undulated, with ironical coincidings, over the destroying
21644billows they almost touched;--at that instant, a red arm and a hammer
21645hovered backwardly uplifted in the open air, in the act of nailing
21646the flag faster and yet faster to the subsiding spar. A sky-hawk that
21647tauntingly had followed the main-truck downwards from its natural home
21648among the stars, pecking at the flag, and incommoding Tashtego there;
21649this bird now chanced to intercept its broad fluttering wing between the
21650hammer and the wood; and simultaneously feeling that etherial thrill,
21651the submerged savage beneath, in his death-gasp, kept his hammer frozen
21652there; and so the bird of heaven, with archangelic shrieks, and his
21653imperial beak thrust upwards, and his whole captive form folded in the
21654flag of Ahab, went down with his ship, which, like Satan, would not sink
21655to hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven along with her, and
21656helmeted herself with it.
21657
21658Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen white
21659surf beat against its steep sides; then all collapsed, and the great
21660shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.
21661
21662
21663
21664
21665Epilogue
21666
21667"AND I ONLY AM ESCAPED ALONE TO TELL THEE" Job.
21668
21669The drama's done. Why then here does any one step forth?--Because one
21670did survive the wreck.
21671
21672It so chanced, that after the Parsee's disappearance, I was he whom the
21673Fates ordained to take the place of Ahab's bowsman, when that bowsman
21674assumed the vacant post; the same, who, when on the last day the three
21675men were tossed from out of the rocking boat, was dropped astern. So,
21676floating on the margin of the ensuing scene, and in full sight of it,
21677when the halfspent suction of the sunk ship reached me, I was then,
21678but slowly, drawn towards the closing vortex. When I reached it, it had
21679subsided to a creamy pool. Round and round, then, and ever contracting
21680towards the button-like black bubble at the axis of that slowly wheeling
21681circle, like another Ixion I did revolve. Till, gaining that vital
21682centre, the black bubble upward burst; and now, liberated by reason of
21683its cunning spring, and, owing to its great buoyancy, rising with great
21684force, the coffin life-buoy shot lengthwise from the sea, fell over, and
21685floated by my side. Buoyed up by that coffin, for almost one whole day
21686and night, I floated on a soft and dirgelike main. The unharming sharks,
21687they glided by as if with padlocks on their mouths; the savage sea-hawks
21688sailed with sheathed beaks. On the second day, a sail drew near, nearer,
21689and picked me up at last. It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in
21690her retracing search after her missing children, only found another
21691orphan.