Herman Melville "Moby Dick".
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‘And God created great whales.’ —GENESIS.
‘Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.’ —JONAH.
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.
In bed we concocted our plans for the morrow.
But to my surprise and no small concern, Queequeg now gave me to understand, that he had been diligently consulting Yojo— the name of his black little god...
For several days after leaving Nantucket, nothing above hatches was seen of Captain Ahab. The mates regularly relieved each other at the watches, and for aught that could be seen to the contrary, they seemed to be the only com- manders of the ship; only they sometimes issued from the cabin with orders so sudden and peremptory, that after all it was plain they but commanded vicariously. Yes, their su- preme lord and dictator was there, though hitherto unseen by any eyes not permitted to penetrate into the now sacred retreat of the cabin.
He tossed the still lighted pipe into the sea. The fire hissed in the waves; the same instant the ship shot by the bubble the sinking pipe made. With slouched hat, Ahab lurchingly paced the planks.
A rumpled Chinese jacket of black cotton funereally invested him, with wide black trowsers of the same dark stuff.
Ahab cried out to the white-turbaned old man at their head, ‘All ready there, Fedallah?
‘
I have it, I have it,’ cried Stubb, with delight, striking something in the subterranean regions, ‘a purse! a purse!’
Dropping his spade, he thrust both hands in, and drew out handfuls of something that looked like ripe Windsor soap, or rich mottled old cheese; very unctuous and savory withal. You might easily dent it with your thumb; it is of a hue between yellow and ash colour. And this, good friends, is ambergris, worth a gold guinea an ounce to any druggist.
Though in many natural objects, whiteness refiningly enhances beauty, as if imparting some special virtue of its own, as in marbles, japonicas, and pearls; and though var- ious nations have in some way recognised a certain royal preeminence in this hue; even the barbaric, grand old kings of Pegu placing the title ‘Lord of the White Elephants’ above all their other magniloquent ascriptions of dominion...
For an instant, the tranced boat’s crew stood still; then turned. ‘The ship? Great God, where is the ship?
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Thank You for Watching!
