{"id":"01KFNR89NH0YHGFMPNRTHFZFB6","cid":"bafkreide4vy2e4exvyw764kqpthdajyqdjzead6fe3j43qwelinlx44ohe","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":13577,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.745Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":13515,"text":"upright from the blue waves; a sight strange to see, as an arm thrust\r\nforth from the grass over a grave.\r\n\r\n“Both! both!—it is both!”—cried Daggoo again with a joyful shout; and\r\nsoon after, Queequeg was seen boldly striking out with one hand, and\r\nwith the other clutching the long hair of the Indian. Drawn into the\r\nwaiting boat, they were quickly brought to the deck; but Tashtego was\r\nlong in coming to, and Queequeg did not look very brisk.\r\n\r\nNow, how had this noble rescue been accomplished? Why, diving after the\r\nslowly descending head, Queequeg with his keen sword had made side\r\nlunges near its bottom, so as to scuttle a large hole there; then\r\ndropping his sword, had thrust his long arm far inwards and upwards,\r\nand so hauled out poor Tash by the head. He averred, that upon first\r\nthrusting in for him, a leg was presented; but well knowing that that\r\nwas not as it ought to be, and might occasion great trouble;—he had\r\nthrust back the leg, and by a dexterous heave and toss, had wrought a\r\nsomerset upon the Indian; so that with the next trial, he came forth in\r\nthe good old way—head foremost. As for the great head itself, that was\r\ndoing as well as could be expected.\r\n\r\nAnd thus, through the courage and great skill in obstetrics of\r\nQueequeg, the deliverance, or rather, delivery of Tashtego, was\r\nsuccessfully accomplished, in the teeth, too, of the most untoward and\r\napparently hopeless impediments; which is a lesson by no means to be\r\nforgotten. Midwifery should be taught in the same course with fencing\r\nand boxing, riding and rowing.\r\n\r\nI know that this queer adventure of the Gay-Header’s will be sure to\r\nseem incredible to some landsmen, though they themselves may have\r\neither seen or heard of some one’s falling into a cistern ashore; an\r\naccident which not seldom happens, and with much less reason too than\r\nthe Indian’s, considering the exceeding slipperiness of the curb of the\r\nSperm Whale’s well.\r\n\r\nBut, peradventure, it may be sagaciously urged, how is this? We thought\r\nthe tissued, infiltrated head of the Sperm Whale, was the lightest and\r\nmost corky part about him; and yet thou makest it sink in an element of\r\na far greater specific gravity than itself. We have thee there. Not at\r\nall, but I have ye; for at the time poor Tash fell in, the case had\r\nbeen nearly emptied of its lighter contents, leaving little but the\r\ndense tendinous wall of the well—a double welded, hammered substance,\r\nas I have before said, much heavier than the sea water, and a lump of\r\nwhich sinks in it like lead almost. But the tendency to rapid sinking\r\nin this substance was in the present instance materially counteracted\r\nby the other parts of the head remaining undetached from it, so that it\r\nsank very slowly and deliberately indeed, affording Queequeg a fair\r\nchance for performing his agile obstetrics on the run, as you may say.\r\nYes, it was a running delivery, so it was.\r\n\r\nNow, had Tashtego perished in that head, it had been a very precious\r\nperishing; smothered in the very whitest and daintiest of fragrant\r\nspermaceti; coffined, hearsed, and tombed in the secret inner chamber\r\nand sanctum sanctorum of the whale. Only one sweeter end can readily be\r\nrecalled—the delicious death of an Ohio honey-hunter, who seeking honey\r\nin the crotch of a hollow tree, found such exceeding store of it, that\r\nleaning too far over, it sucked him in, so that he died embalmed. How\r\nmany, think ye, have likewise fallen into Plato’s honey head, and\r\nsweetly perished there?\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 79. The Prairie.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"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":"01KFNR89NJKT0A5F0B5QXBBYWT","peer_label":"Chunk 6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89MKY1WGG4GN20QAGBB0","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.472Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.723Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}