{"id":"01KG8AP9KK36QTRKCF2STXZV2F","cid":"bafkreighh5l3lqeuo5n7gpazmnyzhl6vqxaxqcwgvbabuiechjxygyybtq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6243,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.765Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":6203,"text":"of state transcends Belshazzar’s, for Belshazzar was not the greatest.\r\nWho has but once dined his friends, has tasted what it is to be Cæsar.\r\nIt is a witchery of social czarship which there is no withstanding.\r\nNow, if to this consideration you superadd the official supremacy of a\r\nship-master, then, by inference, you will derive the cause of that\r\npeculiarity of sea-life just mentioned.\r\n\r\nOver his ivory-inlaid table, Ahab presided like a mute, maned sea-lion\r\non the white coral beach, surrounded by his warlike but still\r\ndeferential cubs. In his own proper turn, each officer waited to be\r\nserved. They were as little children before Ahab; and yet, in Ahab,\r\nthere seemed not to lurk the smallest social arrogance. With one mind,\r\ntheir intent eyes all fastened upon the old man’s knife, as he carved\r\nthe chief dish before him. I do not suppose that for the world they\r\nwould have profaned that moment with the slightest observation, even\r\nupon so neutral a topic as the weather. No! And when reaching out his\r\nknife and fork, between which the slice of beef was locked, Ahab\r\nthereby motioned Starbuck’s plate towards him, the mate received his\r\nmeat as though receiving alms; and cut it tenderly; and a little\r\nstarted if, perchance, the knife grazed against the plate; and chewed\r\nit noiselessly; and swallowed it, not without circumspection. For, like\r\nthe Coronation banquet at Frankfort, where the German Emperor\r\nprofoundly dines with the seven Imperial Electors, so these cabin meals\r\nwere somehow solemn meals, eaten in awful silence; and yet at table old\r\nAhab forbade not conversation; only he himself was dumb. What a relief\r\nit was to choking Stubb, when a rat made a sudden racket in the hold\r\nbelow. And poor little Flask, he was the youngest son, and little boy\r\nof this weary family party. His were the shinbones of the saline beef;\r\nhis would have been the drumsticks. For Flask to have presumed to help\r\nhimself, this must have seemed to him tantamount to larceny in the\r\nfirst degree. Had he helped himself at that table, doubtless, never\r\nmore would he have been able to hold his head up in this honest world;\r\nnevertheless, strange to say, Ahab never forbade him. And had Flask\r\nhelped himself, the chances were Ahab had never so much as noticed it.\r\nLeast of all, did Flask presume to help himself to butter. Whether he\r\nthought the owners of the ship denied it to him, on account of its\r\nclotting his clear, sunny complexion; or whether he deemed that, on so\r\nlong a voyage in such marketless waters, butter was at a premium, and\r\ntherefore was not for him, a subaltern; however it was, Flask, alas!\r\nwas a butterless man!\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AM6RTE2N4DDR1GB3H9CEW","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP9KE9D86JDTGVRKZ53QR","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AP358KJB5AA7SVCXYGZG6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:37.907Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:43.896Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}