{"id":"01KJNXJQTDDSD1MSPY8BQ93KZ6","cid":"bafkreie65xrxqdpo23ojtnds5y7v35iyhffyiripzciw7zuhtaup5cihs4","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":72247,"char_start":64521,"chunk_index":9,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1932,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"a peddling, you see, and I don’t see what on airth keeps him so late,\r\nunless, may be, he can’t sell his head.”\r\n\r\n“Can’t sell his head?—What sort of a bamboozingly story is this you are\r\ntelling me?” getting into a towering rage. “Do you pretend to say,\r\nlandlord, that this harpooneer is actually engaged this blessed\r\nSaturday night, or rather Sunday morning, in peddling his head around\r\nthis town?”\r\n\r\n“That’s precisely it,” said the landlord, “and I told him he couldn’t\r\nsell it here, the market’s overstocked.”\r\n\r\n“With what?” shouted I.\r\n\r\n“With heads to be sure; ain’t there too many heads in the world?”\r\n\r\n“I tell you what it is, landlord,” said I quite calmly, “you’d better\r\nstop spinning that yarn to me—I’m not green.”\r\n\r\n“May be not,” taking out a stick and whittling a toothpick, “but I\r\nrayther guess you’ll be done _brown_ if that ere harpooneer hears you a\r\nslanderin’ his head.”\r\n\r\n“I’ll break it for him,” said I, now flying into a passion again at\r\nthis unaccountable farrago of the landlord’s.\r\n\r\n“It’s broke a’ready,” said he.\r\n\r\n“Broke,” said I—“_broke_, do you mean?”\r\n\r\n“Sartain, and that’s the very reason he can’t sell it, I guess.”\r\n\r\n“Landlord,” said I, going up to him as cool as Mt. Hecla in a\r\nsnow-storm—“landlord, stop whittling. You and I must understand one\r\nanother, and that too without delay. I come to your house and want a\r\nbed; you tell me you can only give me half a one; that the other half\r\nbelongs to a certain harpooneer. And about this harpooneer, whom I have\r\nnot yet seen, you persist in telling me the most mystifying and\r\nexasperating stories tending to beget in me an uncomfortable feeling\r\ntowards the man whom you design for my bedfellow—a sort of connexion,\r\nlandlord, which is an intimate and confidential one in the highest\r\ndegree. I now demand of you to speak out and tell me who and what this\r\nharpooneer is, and whether I shall be in all respects safe to spend the\r\nnight with him. And in the first place, you will be so good as to unsay\r\nthat story about selling his head, which if true I take to be good\r\nevidence that this harpooneer is stark mad, and I’ve no idea of\r\nsleeping with a madman; and you, sir, _you_ I mean, landlord, _you_,\r\nsir, by trying to induce me to do so knowingly, would thereby render\r\nyourself liable to a criminal prosecution.”\r\n\r\n“Wall,” said the landlord, fetching a long breath, “that’s a purty long\r\nsarmon for a chap that rips a little now and then. But be easy, be\r\neasy, this here harpooneer I have been tellin’ you of has just arrived\r\nfrom the south seas, where he bought up a lot of ’balmed New Zealand\r\nheads (great curios, you know), and he’s sold all on ’em but one, and\r\nthat one he’s trying to sell to-night, cause to-morrow’s Sunday, and it\r\nwould not do to be sellin’ human heads about the streets when folks is\r\ngoin’ to churches. He wanted to, last Sunday, but I stopped him just as\r\nhe was goin’ out of the door with four heads strung on a string, for\r\nall the airth like a string of inions.”\r\n\r\nThis account cleared up the otherwise unaccountable mystery, and showed\r\nthat the landlord, after all, had had no idea of fooling me—but at the\r\nsame time what could I think of a harpooneer who stayed out of a\r\nSaturday night clean into the holy Sabbath, engaged in such a cannibal\r\nbusiness as selling the heads of dead idolators?\r\n\r\n“Depend upon it, landlord, that harpooneer is a dangerous man.”\r\n\r\n“He pays reg’lar,” was the rejoinder. “But come, it’s getting dreadful\r\nlate, you had better be turning flukes—it’s a nice bed; Sal and me\r\nslept in that ere bed the night we were spliced. There’s plenty of room\r\nfor two to kick about in that bed; it’s an almighty big bed that. Why,\r\nafore we give it up, Sal used to put our Sam and little Johnny in the\r\nfoot of it. But I got a dreaming and sprawling about one night, and\r\nsomehow, Sam got pitched on the floor, and came near breaking his arm.\r\nArter that, Sal said it wouldn’t do. Come along here, I’ll give ye a\r\nglim in a jiffy;” and so saying he lighted a candle and held it towards\r\nme, offering to lead the way. But I stood irresolute; when looking at a\r\nclock in the corner, he exclaimed “I vum it’s Sunday—you won’t see that\r\nharpooneer to-night; he’s come to anchor somewhere—come along then;\r\n_do_ come; _won’t_ ye come?”\r\n\r\nI considered the matter a moment, and then up stairs we went, and I was\r\nushered into a small room, cold as a clam, and furnished, sure enough,\r\nwith a prodigious bed, almost big enough indeed for any four\r\nharpooneers to sleep abreast.\r\n\r\n“There,” said the landlord, placing the candle on a crazy old sea chest\r\nthat did double duty as a wash-stand and centre table; “there, make\r\nyourself comfortable now, and good night to ye.” I turned round from\r\neyeing the bed, but he had disappeared.\r\n\r\nFolding back the counterpane, I stooped over the bed. Though none of\r\nthe most elegant, it yet stood the scrutiny tolerably well. I then\r\nglanced round the room; and besides the bedstead and centre table,\r\ncould see no other furniture belonging to the place, but a rude shelf,\r\nthe four walls, and a papered fireboard representing a man striking a\r\nwhale. Of things not properly belonging to the room, there was a\r\nhammock lashed up, and thrown upon the floor in one corner; also a\r\nlarge seaman’s bag, containing the harpooneer’s wardrobe, no doubt in\r\nlieu of a land trunk. Likewise, there was a parcel of outlandish bone\r\nfish hooks on the shelf over the fire-place, and a tall harpoon\r\nstanding at the head of the bed.\r\n\r\nBut what is this on the chest? I took it up, and held it close to the\r\nlight, and felt it, and smelt it, and tried every way possible to\r\narrive at some satisfactory conclusion concerning it. I can compare it\r\nto nothing but a large door mat, ornamented at the edges with little\r\ntinkling tags something like the stained porcupine quills round an\r\nIndian moccasin. There was a hole or slit in the middle of this mat, as\r\nyou see the same in South American ponchos. But could it be possible\r\nthat any sober harpooneer would get into a door mat, and parade the\r\nstreets of any Christian town in that sort of guise? I put it on, to\r\ntry it, and it weighed me down like a hamper, being uncommonly shaggy\r\nand thick, and I thought a little damp, as though this mysterious\r\nharpooneer had been wearing it of a rainy day. I went up in it to a bit\r\nof glass stuck against the wall, and I never saw such a sight in my\r\nlife. I tore myself out of it in such a hurry that I gave myself a kink\r\nin the neck.\r\n\r\nI sat down on the side of the bed, and commenced thinking about this\r\nhead-peddling harpooneer, and his door mat. After thinking some time on\r\nthe bed-side, I got up and took off my monkey jacket, and then stood in\r\nthe middle of the room thinking. I then took off my coat, and thought a\r\nlittle more in my shirt sleeves. But beginning to feel very cold now,\r\nhalf undressed as I was, and remembering what the landlord said about\r\nthe harpooneer’s not coming home at all that night, it being so very\r\nlate, I made no more ado, but jumped out of my pantaloons and boots,\r\nand then blowing out the light tumbled into bed, and commended myself\r\nto the care of heaven.\r\n\r\nWhether that mattress was stuffed with corn-cobs or broken crockery,\r\nthere is no telling, but I rolled about a good deal, and could not\r\nsleep for a long time. At last I slid off into a light doze, and had\r\npretty nearly made a good offing towards the land of Nod, when I heard\r\na heavy footfall in the passage, and saw a glimmer of light come into\r\nthe room from under the door.\r\n\r\nLord save me, thinks I, that must be the harpooneer, the infernal\r\nhead-peddler. But I lay perfectly still, and resolved not to say a word\r\ntill spoken to."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKT041HQBEV40829SSVCD","peer_label":"landlord","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKT4783GKX3J434KVHWQY","peer_label":"new zealand heads","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"artifact_collection","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKT2TP8636SG490H2XGYT","peer_label":"harpooneer","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKSZYY4PZZGTPZ89W34AF","peer_label":"narrator","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKSZKXR53HT559B4N2NG8","peer_label":"shared bed","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"furniture","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKTMW4N632YDGH6430F5J","peer_label":"south seas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"geographical_region","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKTQZKS3ZGEHYR035AFJE","peer_label":"sea chest","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"furniture","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKT478AMYK8RVS3MER6SJ","peer_label":"inn","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"establishment","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKTSJ7G1E27J5ZYBGTAB9","peer_label":"hammock","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"furniture","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKTS8BHR2K09QC34Z9Y2F","peer_label":"papered fireboard","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"decorative_object","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKTS81H9N1BJ55J2ZTZTX","peer_label":"sal","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKTSZ6GMG9D3Q1XTW6W1C","peer_label":"seamans bag","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"luggage","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV8JNR12QQ40V0VMJA6S","peer_label":"bone fish hooks","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"tool_collection","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKVC63DPBGN7F8YFQKV6C","peer_label":"harpoon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon_tool","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKVDGBZ1BJ0DT8Q5J24B5","peer_label":"harpooneers garment door mat","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"clothing_item","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:53.876Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.597Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:01:54.800Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}