{"id":"01KF7FPSDDBAVWQ67GK16HX7NQ","cid":"bafkreigbxtj7pn2egpn7yyrm2ch2zzepqysxut2k6ituad45jotg6zmrja","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":13144,"extracted_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:20.371Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KESYVB66H8YEVTN88DWE9W8D","start_line":13104,"text":"by a ladder to the summit, have a peep down the mouth; and were it not\r\nthat the body is now completely separated from it, with a lantern we\r\nmight descend into the great Kentucky Mammoth Cave of his stomach. But\r\nlet us hold on here by this tooth, and look about us where we are. What\r\na really beautiful and chaste-looking mouth! from floor to ceiling,\r\nlined, or rather papered with a glistening white membrane, glossy as\r\nbridal satins.\r\n\r\nBut come out now, and look at this portentous lower jaw, which seems\r\nlike the long narrow lid of an immense snuff-box, with the hinge at one\r\nend, instead of one side. If you pry it up, so as to get it overhead,\r\nand expose its rows of teeth, it seems a terrific portcullis; and such,\r\nalas! it proves to many a poor wight in the fishery, upon whom these\r\nspikes fall with impaling force. But far more terrible is it to behold,\r\nwhen fathoms down in the sea, you see some sulky whale, floating there\r\nsuspended, with his prodigious jaw, some fifteen feet long, hanging\r\nstraight down at right-angles with his body, for all the world like a\r\nship’s jib-boom. This whale is not dead; he is only dispirited; out of\r\nsorts, perhaps; hypochondriac; and so supine, that the hinges of his\r\njaw have relaxed, leaving him there in that ungainly sort of plight, a\r\nreproach to all his tribe, who must, no doubt, imprecate lock-jaws upon\r\nhim.\r\n\r\nIn most cases this lower jaw—being easily unhinged by a practised\r\nartist—is disengaged and hoisted on deck for the purpose of extracting\r\nthe ivory teeth, and furnishing a supply of that hard white whalebone\r\nwith which the fishermen fashion all sorts of curious articles,\r\nincluding canes, umbrella-stocks, and handles to riding-whips.\r\n\r\nWith a long, weary hoist the jaw is dragged on board, as if it were an\r\nanchor; and when the proper time comes—some few days after the other\r\nwork—Queequeg, Daggoo, and Tashtego, being all accomplished dentists,\r\nare set to drawing teeth. With a keen cutting-spade, Queequeg lances\r\nthe gums; then the jaw is lashed down to ringbolts, and a tackle being\r\nrigged from aloft, they drag out these teeth, as Michigan oxen drag\r\nstumps of old oaks out of wild wood lands. There are generally\r\nforty-two teeth in all; in old whales, much worn down, but undecayed;\r\nnor filled after our artificial fashion. The jaw is afterwards sawn\r\ninto slabs, and piled away like joists for building houses.\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KF7FPMM1VX95NFFSC87JZDMJ","peer_label":"The Sperm Whale’s Head—Contrasted View.","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KF7FPMM1VX95NFFSC87JZDMJ","peer_label":"The Sperm Whale’s Head—Contrasted View.","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"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"},{"peer":"01KF7FPSCGH2Z3XSAD55WM3N8Q","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:20.808Z","ts":"2026-01-18T02:42:30.089Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KF7FCDA7SCSJ6A30TDPDSJQV"}}