{"id":"01KFNR89NQSHHBVW0ZB8Y74CT6","cid":"bafkreiffinbf2d26rm45g6nkqhgeaxdotw33wovg33krmmyprekypzyuuu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14365,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.758Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 21","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":14307,"text":"necessary, hints the Bishop, that we consider Jonah as tombed in the\r\nwhale’s belly, but as temporarily lodged in some part of his mouth. And\r\nthis seems reasonable enough in the good Bishop. For truly, the Right\r\nWhale’s mouth would accommodate a couple of whist-tables, and\r\ncomfortably seat all the players. Possibly, too, Jonah might have\r\nensconced himself in a hollow tooth; but, on second thoughts, the Right\r\nWhale is toothless.\r\n\r\nAnother reason which Sag-Harbor (he went by that name) urged for his\r\nwant of faith in this matter of the prophet, was something obscurely in\r\nreference to his incarcerated body and the whale’s gastric juices. But\r\nthis objection likewise falls to the ground, because a German exegetist\r\nsupposes that Jonah must have taken refuge in the floating body of a\r\n_dead_ whale—even as the French soldiers in the Russian campaign turned\r\ntheir dead horses into tents, and crawled into them. Besides, it has\r\nbeen divined by other continental commentators, that when Jonah was\r\nthrown overboard from the Joppa ship, he straightway effected his\r\nescape to another vessel near by, some vessel with a whale for a\r\nfigure-head; and, I would add, possibly called “The Whale,” as some\r\ncraft are nowadays christened the “Shark,” the “Gull,” the “Eagle.” Nor\r\nhave there been wanting learned exegetists who have opined that the\r\nwhale mentioned in the book of Jonah merely meant a life-preserver—an\r\ninflated bag of wind—which the endangered prophet swam to, and so was\r\nsaved from a watery doom. Poor Sag-Harbor, therefore, seems worsted all\r\nround. But he had still another reason for his want of faith. It was\r\nthis, if I remember right: Jonah was swallowed by the whale in the\r\nMediterranean Sea, and after three days he was vomited up somewhere\r\nwithin three days’ journey of Nineveh, a city on the Tigris, very much\r\nmore than three days’ journey across from the nearest point of the\r\nMediterranean coast. How is that?\r\n\r\nBut was there no other way for the whale to land the prophet within\r\nthat short distance of Nineveh? Yes. He might have carried him round by\r\nthe way of the Cape of Good Hope. But not to speak of the passage\r\nthrough the whole length of the Mediterranean, and another passage up\r\nthe Persian Gulf and Red Sea, such a supposition would involve the\r\ncomplete circumnavigation of all Africa in three days, not to speak of\r\nthe Tigris waters, near the site of Nineveh, being too shallow for any\r\nwhale to swim in. Besides, this idea of Jonah’s weathering the Cape of\r\nGood Hope at so early a day would wrest the honor of the discovery of\r\nthat great headland from Bartholomew Diaz, its reputed discoverer, and\r\nso make modern history a liar.\r\n\r\nBut all these foolish arguments of old Sag-Harbor only evinced his\r\nfoolish pride of reason—a thing still more reprehensible in him, seeing\r\nthat he had but little learning except what he had picked up from the\r\nsun and the sea. I say it only shows his foolish, impious pride, and\r\nabominable, devilish rebellion against the reverend clergy. For by a\r\nPortuguese Catholic priest, this very idea of Jonah’s going to Nineveh\r\nvia the Cape of Good Hope was advanced as a signal magnification of the\r\ngeneral miracle. And so it was. Besides, to this day, the highly\r\nenlightened Turks devoutly believe in the historical story of Jonah.\r\nAnd some three centuries ago, an English traveller in old Harris’s\r\nVoyages, speaks of a Turkish Mosque built in honor of Jonah, in which\r\nMosque was a miraculous lamp that burnt without any oil.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 84. Pitchpoling.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 21"},"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":"01KFNR89MRNWC3ZK3G499QFGN7","peer_label":"Chunk 22","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89SGVBEEA4N498H5WKYS","peer_label":"Chunk 20","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.401Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.701Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}