{"id":"01KFNR89P6QPP6SGCG150FR07V","cid":"bafkreigdyz6v2riiypgjhxokfnw2yt5ceeyhfybagks6ct4dz3lckuf6kq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":13462,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.744Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":13406,"text":"head, also, which is at last elevated out of the water, and retained in\r\nthat position by the enormous cutting tackles, whose hempen\r\ncombinations, on one side, make quite a wilderness of ropes in that\r\nquarter.\r\n\r\nThus much being said, attend now, I pray you, to that marvellous and—in\r\nthis particular instance—almost fatal operation whereby the Sperm\r\nWhale’s great Heidelburgh Tun is tapped.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 78. Cistern and Buckets.\r\n\r\nNimble as a cat, Tashtego mounts aloft; and without altering his erect\r\nposture, runs straight out upon the overhanging mainyard-arm, to the\r\npart where it exactly projects over the hoisted Tun. He has carried\r\nwith him a light tackle called a whip, consisting of only two parts,\r\ntravelling through a single-sheaved block. Securing this block, so that\r\nit hangs down from the yard-arm, he swings one end of the rope, till it\r\nis caught and firmly held by a hand on deck. Then, hand-over-hand, down\r\nthe other part, the Indian drops through the air, till dexterously he\r\nlands on the summit of the head. There—still high elevated above the\r\nrest of the company, to whom he vivaciously cries—he seems some Turkish\r\nMuezzin calling the good people to prayers from the top of a tower. A\r\nshort-handled sharp spade being sent up to him, he diligently searches\r\nfor the proper place to begin breaking into the Tun. In this business\r\nhe proceeds very heedfully, like a treasure-hunter in some old house,\r\nsounding the walls to find where the gold is masoned in. By the time\r\nthis cautious search is over, a stout iron-bound bucket, precisely like\r\na well-bucket, has been attached to one end of the whip; while the\r\nother end, being stretched across the deck, is there held by two or\r\nthree alert hands. These last now hoist the bucket within grasp of the\r\nIndian, to whom another person has reached up a very long pole.\r\nInserting this pole into the bucket, Tashtego downward guides the\r\nbucket into the Tun, till it entirely disappears; then giving the word\r\nto the seamen at the whip, up comes the bucket again, all bubbling like\r\na dairy-maid’s pail of new milk. Carefully lowered from its height, the\r\nfull-freighted vessel is caught by an appointed hand, and quickly\r\nemptied into a large tub. Then remounting aloft, it again goes through\r\nthe same round until the deep cistern will yield no more. Towards the\r\nend, Tashtego has to ram his long pole harder and harder, and deeper\r\nand deeper into the Tun, until some twenty feet of the pole have gone\r\ndown.\r\n\r\nNow, the people of the Pequod had been baling some time in this way;\r\nseveral tubs had been filled with the fragrant sperm; when all at once\r\na queer accident happened. Whether it was that Tashtego, that wild\r\nIndian, was so heedless and reckless as to let go for a moment his\r\none-handed hold on the great cabled tackles suspending the head; or\r\nwhether the place where he stood was so treacherous and oozy; or\r\nwhether the Evil One himself would have it to fall out so, without\r\nstating his particular reasons; how it was exactly, there is no telling\r\nnow; but, on a sudden, as the eightieth or ninetieth bucket came\r\nsuckingly up—my God! poor Tashtego—like the twin reciprocating bucket\r\nin a veritable well, dropped head-foremost down into this great Tun of\r\nHeidelburgh, and with a horrible oily gurgling, went clean out of\r\nsight!\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"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":"01KFNR89MKY1WGG4GN20QAGBB0","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89NHPXBEACA5CGYPDG1Q","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.293Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:18.019Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}