{"id":"01KFNR89MGW4Z5NR9K3QH60WF6","cid":"bafkreidiqublbc23kxgbpwoh5mtyzxbw5463sdhqo2ymnb5vndxf7u666y","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14822,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.761Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 30","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":14764,"text":"peaked flukes. As it seemed to me at the time, such a grand embodiment\r\nof adoration of the gods was never beheld, even in Persia, the home of\r\nthe fire worshippers. As Ptolemy Philopater testified of the African\r\nelephant, I then testified of the whale, pronouncing him the most\r\ndevout of all beings. For according to King Juba, the military\r\nelephants of antiquity often hailed the morning with their trunks\r\nuplifted in the profoundest silence.\r\n\r\nThe chance comparison in this chapter, between the whale and the\r\nelephant, so far as some aspects of the tail of the one and the trunk\r\nof the other are concerned, should not tend to place those two opposite\r\norgans on an equality, much less the creatures to which they\r\nrespectively belong. For as the mightiest elephant is but a terrier to\r\nLeviathan, so, compared with Leviathan’s tail, his trunk is but the\r\nstalk of a lily. The most direful blow from the elephant’s trunk were\r\nas the playful tap of a fan, compared with the measureless crush and\r\ncrash of the sperm whale’s ponderous flukes, which in repeated\r\ninstances have one after the other hurled entire boats with all their\r\noars and crews into the air, very much as an Indian juggler tosses his\r\nballs.*\r\n\r\n*Though all comparison in the way of general bulk between the whale and\r\nthe elephant is preposterous, inasmuch as in that particular the\r\nelephant stands in much the same respect to the whale that a dog does\r\nto the elephant; nevertheless, there are not wanting some points of\r\ncurious similitude; among these is the spout. It is well known that the\r\nelephant will often draw up water or dust in his trunk, and then\r\nelevating it, jet it forth in a stream.\r\n\r\nThe more I consider this mighty tail, the more do I deplore my\r\ninability to express it. At times there are gestures in it, which,\r\nthough they would well grace the hand of man, remain wholly\r\ninexplicable. In an extensive herd, so remarkable, occasionally, are\r\nthese mystic gestures, that I have heard hunters who have declared them\r\nakin to Free-Mason signs and symbols; that the whale, indeed, by these\r\nmethods intelligently conversed with the world. Nor are there wanting\r\nother motions of the whale in his general body, full of strangeness,\r\nand unaccountable to his most experienced assailant. Dissect him how I\r\nmay, then, I but go skin deep; I know him not, and never will. But if I\r\nknow not even the tail of this whale, how understand his head? much\r\nmore, how comprehend his face, when face he has none? Thou shalt see my\r\nback parts, my tail, he seems to say, but my face shall not be seen.\r\nBut I cannot completely make out his back parts; and hint what he will\r\nabout his face, I say again he has no face.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 87. The Grand Armada.\r\n\r\nThe long and narrow peninsula of Malacca, extending south-eastward from\r\nthe territories of Birmah, forms the most southerly point of all Asia.\r\nIn a continuous line from that peninsula stretch the long islands of\r\nSumatra, Java, Bally, and Timor; which, with many others, form a vast\r\nmole, or rampart, lengthwise connecting Asia with Australia, and\r\ndividing the long unbroken Indian ocean from the thickly studded\r\noriental archipelagoes. This rampart is pierced by several sally-ports\r\nfor the convenience of ships and whales; conspicuous among which are\r\nthe straits of Sunda and Malacca. By the straits of Sunda, chiefly,\r\nvessels bound to China from the west, emerge into the China seas.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 30"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84AAHSNQ4BFJ0ASPHB53","peer_label":"76","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84AAHSNQ4BFJ0ASPHB53","peer_label":"76","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR81RMVAX2BBMMBW51V97D","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR0H0Q791Y1SMZWEQ09FGV","peer_label":"Moby Dick","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KFNR89NR7SRD13C2W32NHV1M","peer_label":"Chunk 31","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89MKDEJKA09CDJ5NVW8T","peer_label":"Chunk 29","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.178Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.616Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}