{"id":"01KF7FPNZ729G2QP6A9Q338GX5","cid":"bafkreied5e4mwck3xim45d677dadza2ez2tbq7hk4yfp5t2weqgnldl6ny","type":"chapter","properties":{"end_line":17372,"extracted_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:16.567Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"A Bower in the Arsacides","source_file":"01KESYVB66H8YEVTN88DWE9W8D","start_line":17319,"text":"CHAPTER 102. A Bower in the Arsacides.\r\n\r\nHitherto, in descriptively treating of the Sperm Whale, I have chiefly\r\ndwelt upon the marvels of his outer aspect; or separately and in detail\r\nupon some few interior structural features. But to a large and thorough\r\nsweeping comprehension of him, it behooves me now to unbutton him still\r\nfurther, and untagging the points of his hose, unbuckling his garters,\r\nand casting loose the hooks and the eyes of the joints of his innermost\r\nbones, set him before you in his ultimatum; that is to say, in his\r\nunconditional skeleton.\r\n\r\nBut how now, Ishmael? How is it, that you, a mere oarsman in the\r\nfishery, pretend to know aught about the subterranean parts of the\r\nwhale? Did erudite Stubb, mounted upon your capstan, deliver lectures\r\non the anatomy of the Cetacea; and by help of the windlass, hold up a\r\nspecimen rib for exhibition? Explain thyself, Ishmael. Can you land a\r\nfull-grown whale on your deck for examination, as a cook dishes a\r\nroast-pig? Surely not. A veritable witness have you hitherto been,\r\nIshmael; but have a care how you seize the privilege of Jonah alone;\r\nthe privilege of discoursing upon the joists and beams; the rafters,\r\nridge-pole, sleepers, and under-pinnings, making up the frame-work of\r\nleviathan; and belike of the tallow-vats, dairy-rooms, butteries, and\r\ncheeseries in his bowels.\r\n\r\nI confess, that since Jonah, few whalemen have penetrated very far\r\nbeneath the skin of the adult whale; nevertheless, I have been blessed\r\nwith an opportunity to dissect him in miniature. In a ship I belonged\r\nto, a small cub Sperm Whale was once bodily hoisted to the deck for his\r\npoke or bag, to make sheaths for the barbs of the harpoons, and for the\r\nheads of the lances. Think you I let that chance go, without using my\r\nboat-hatchet and jack-knife, and breaking the seal and reading all the\r\ncontents of that young cub?\r\n\r\nAnd as for my exact knowledge of the bones of the leviathan in their\r\ngigantic, full grown development, for that rare knowledge I am indebted\r\nto my late royal friend Tranquo, king of Tranque, one of the Arsacides.\r\nFor being at Tranque, years ago, when attached to the trading-ship Dey\r\nof Algiers, I was invited to spend part of the Arsacidean holidays with\r\nthe lord of Tranque, at his retired palm villa at Pupella; a sea-side\r\nglen not very far distant from what our sailors called Bamboo-Town, his\r\ncapital.\r\n\r\nAmong many other fine qualities, my royal friend Tranquo, being gifted\r\nwith a devout love for all matters of barbaric vertu, had brought\r\ntogether in Pupella whatever rare things the more ingenious of his\r\npeople could invent; chiefly carved woods of wonderful devices,\r\nchiselled shells, inlaid spears, costly paddles, aromatic canoes; and\r\nall these distributed among whatever natural wonders, the\r\nwonder-freighted, tribute-rendering waves had cast upon his shores.\r\n\r\nChief among these latter was a great Sperm Whale, which, after an\r\nunusually long raging gale, had been found dead and stranded, with his\r\nhead against a cocoa-nut tree, whose plumage-like, tufted droopings\r\nseemed his verdant jet. When the vast body had at last been stripped of\r","title":"A Bower in the Arsacides"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KF7FPKDT5SHSH1ZQV6ABHQCA","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"book","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KF7FPKDT5SHSH1ZQV6ABHQCA","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"book","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KESYJX0Z6XE0HWTS5N3SDG0B","peer_label":"The Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:17.273Z","ts":"2026-01-18T02:42:17.273Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KF7FCDA7SCSJ6A30TDPDSJQV"}}