{"id":"01KJNXJQV2KGNXC3TKSDNWZ7R5","cid":"bafkreiehc5v4emzhuw6256gvdvg75ifak55uiqpii3dr7rddtmrcdjjsi4","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":157828,"char_start":149935,"chunk_index":21,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1974,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"wharf. As we were going along the people stared; not at Queequeg so\r\nmuch—for they were used to seeing cannibals like him in their\r\nstreets,—but at seeing him and me upon such confidential terms. But we\r\nheeded them not, going along wheeling the barrow by turns, and Queequeg\r\nnow and then stopping to adjust the sheath on his harpoon barbs. I\r\nasked him why he carried such a troublesome thing with him ashore, and\r\nwhether all whaling ships did not find their own harpoons. To this, in\r\nsubstance, he replied, that though what I hinted was true enough, yet\r\nhe had a particular affection for his own harpoon, because it was of\r\nassured stuff, well tried in many a mortal combat, and deeply intimate\r\nwith the hearts of whales. In short, like many inland reapers and\r\nmowers, who go into the farmers’ meadows armed with their own\r\nscythes—though in no wise obliged to furnish them—even so, Queequeg,\r\nfor his own private reasons, preferred his own harpoon.\r\n\r\nShifting the barrow from my hand to his, he told me a funny story about\r\nthe first wheelbarrow he had ever seen. It was in Sag Harbor. The\r\nowners of his ship, it seems, had lent him one, in which to carry his\r\nheavy chest to his boarding house. Not to seem ignorant about the\r\nthing—though in truth he was entirely so, concerning the precise way in\r\nwhich to manage the barrow—Queequeg puts his chest upon it; lashes it\r\nfast; and then shoulders the barrow and marches up the wharf. “Why,”\r\nsaid I, “Queequeg, you might have known better than that, one would\r\nthink. Didn’t the people laugh?”\r\n\r\nUpon this, he told me another story. The people of his island of\r\nRokovoko, it seems, at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water\r\nof young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl; and\r\nthis punchbowl always forms the great central ornament on the braided\r\nmat where the feast is held. Now a certain grand merchant ship once\r\ntouched at Rokovoko, and its commander—from all accounts, a very\r\nstately punctilious gentleman, at least for a sea captain—this\r\ncommander was invited to the wedding feast of Queequeg’s sister, a\r\npretty young princess just turned of ten. Well; when all the wedding\r\nguests were assembled at the bride’s bamboo cottage, this Captain\r\nmarches in, and being assigned the post of honor, placed himself over\r\nagainst the punchbowl, and between the High Priest and his majesty the\r\nKing, Queequeg’s father. Grace being said,—for those people have their\r\ngrace as well as we—though Queequeg told me that unlike us, who at such\r\ntimes look downwards to our platters, they, on the contrary, copying\r\nthe ducks, glance upwards to the great Giver of all feasts—Grace, I\r\nsay, being said, the High Priest opens the banquet by the immemorial\r\nceremony of the island; that is, dipping his consecrated and\r\nconsecrating fingers into the bowl before the blessed beverage\r\ncirculates. Seeing himself placed next the Priest, and noting the\r\nceremony, and thinking himself—being Captain of a ship—as having plain\r\nprecedence over a mere island King, especially in the King’s own\r\nhouse—the Captain coolly proceeds to wash his hands in the\r\npunchbowl;—taking it I suppose for a huge finger-glass. “Now,” said\r\nQueequeg, “what you tink now?—Didn’t our people laugh?”\r\n\r\nAt last, passage paid, and luggage safe, we stood on board the\r\nschooner. Hoisting sail, it glided down the Acushnet river. On one\r\nside, New Bedford rose in terraces of streets, their ice-covered trees\r\nall glittering in the clear, cold air. Huge hills and mountains of\r\ncasks on casks were piled upon her wharves, and side by side the\r\nworld-wandering whale ships lay silent and safely moored at last; while\r\nfrom others came a sound of carpenters and coopers, with blended noises\r\nof fires and forges to melt the pitch, all betokening that new cruises\r\nwere on the start; that one most perilous and long voyage ended, only\r\nbegins a second; and a second ended, only begins a third, and so on,\r\nfor ever and for aye. Such is the endlessness, yea, the intolerableness\r\nof all earthly effort.\r\n\r\nGaining the more open water, the bracing breeze waxed fresh; the little\r\nMoss tossed the quick foam from her bows, as a young colt his\r\nsnortings. How I snuffed that Tartar air!—how I spurned that turnpike\r\nearth!—that common highway all over dented with the marks of slavish\r\nheels and hoofs; and turned me to admire the magnanimity of the sea\r\nwhich will permit no records.\r\n\r\nAt the same foam-fountain, Queequeg seemed to drink and reel with me.\r\nHis dusky nostrils swelled apart; he showed his filed and pointed\r\nteeth. On, on we flew; and our offing gained, the Moss did homage to\r\nthe blast; ducked and dived her bows as a slave before the Sultan.\r\nSideways leaning, we sideways darted; every ropeyarn tingling like a\r\nwire; the two tall masts buckling like Indian canes in land tornadoes.\r\nSo full of this reeling scene were we, as we stood by the plunging\r\nbowsprit, that for some time we did not notice the jeering glances of\r\nthe passengers, a lubber-like assembly, who marvelled that two fellow\r\nbeings should be so companionable; as though a white man were anything\r\nmore dignified than a whitewashed negro. But there were some boobies\r\nand bumpkins there, who, by their intense greenness, must have come\r\nfrom the heart and centre of all verdure. Queequeg caught one of these\r\nyoung saplings mimicking him behind his back. I thought the bumpkin’s\r\nhour of doom was come. Dropping his harpoon, the brawny savage caught\r\nhim in his arms, and by an almost miraculous dexterity and strength,\r\nsent him high up bodily into the air; then slightly tapping his stern\r\nin mid-somerset, the fellow landed with bursting lungs upon his feet,\r\nwhile Queequeg, turning his back upon him, lighted his tomahawk pipe\r\nand passed it to me for a puff.\r\n\r\n“Capting! Capting!” yelled the bumpkin, running towards that officer;\r\n“Capting, Capting, here’s the devil.”\r\n\r\n“Hallo, _you_ sir,” cried the Captain, a gaunt rib of the sea, stalking\r\nup to Queequeg, “what in thunder do you mean by that? Don’t you know\r\nyou might have killed that chap?”\r\n\r\n“What him say?” said Queequeg, as he mildly turned to me.\r\n\r\n“He say,” said I, “that you came near kill-e that man there,” pointing\r\nto the still shivering greenhorn.\r\n\r\n“Kill-e,” cried Queequeg, twisting his tattooed face into an unearthly\r\nexpression of disdain, “ah! him bevy small-e fish-e; Queequeg no kill-e\r\nso small-e fish-e; Queequeg kill-e big whale!”\r\n\r\n“Look you,” roared the Captain, “I’ll kill-e _you_, you cannibal, if\r\nyou try any more of your tricks aboard here; so mind your eye.”\r\n\r\nBut it so happened just then, that it was high time for the Captain to\r\nmind his own eye. The prodigious strain upon the main-sail had parted\r\nthe weather-sheet, and the tremendous boom was now flying from side to\r\nside, completely sweeping the entire after part of the deck. The poor\r\nfellow whom Queequeg had handled so roughly, was swept overboard; all\r\nhands were in a panic; and to attempt snatching at the boom to stay it,\r\nseemed madness. It flew from right to left, and back again, almost in\r\none ticking of a watch, and every instant seemed on the point of\r\nsnapping into splinters. Nothing was done, and nothing seemed capable\r\nof being done; those on deck rushed towards the bows, and stood eyeing\r\nthe boom as if it were the lower jaw of an exasperated whale. In the\r\nmidst of this consternation, Queequeg dropped deftly to his knees, and\r\ncrawling under the path of the boom, whipped hold of a rope, secured\r\none end to the bulwarks, and then flinging the other like a lasso,\r\ncaught it round the boom as it swept over his head, and at the next\r\njerk, the spar was that way trapped, and all was safe. The schooner was\r\nrun into the wind, and while the hands were clearing away the stern\r\nboat, Queequeg, stripped to the waist, darted from the side with a long\r\nliving arc of a leap."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKSZYY4PZZGTPZ89W34AF","peer_label":"narrator","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNA6Q7NV244AJQKVXKZ","peer_label":"queequeg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKZ5EM505K7D13HFXVKH7","peer_label":"new bedford","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"city","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM0PREARAKMKHVKRFFKP3","peer_label":"queequegs harpoon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKZYAV0YWA03F1ZPJWJ8N","peer_label":"rokovoko","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"island","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM0RNKQYXX3GX95YY3KW8","peer_label":"merchant ship commander","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM0TE7X8SPP1YTKMJKCJC","peer_label":"calabash punchbowl","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"cultural_object","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM1JZ4GYQMSBVWESH4MT7","peer_label":"captain of the moss","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2CXWNP4BK105900BV62","peer_label":"high priest of rokovoko","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2DB7W23RQJ0K65BG9MR","peer_label":"king of rokovoko","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2DCTTBHVC2PQ11Y0R4C","peer_label":"acushnet river","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"waterway","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2D66VFN2KG8DQ7D3E9X","peer_label":"moss","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"schooner","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM29NVSCVAC6PVX3S79EZ","peer_label":"bumpkin","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM327DWSN71XGM2XQ35AP","peer_label":"bulwarks","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship_part","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM3023YB5FE7ZNS5JVN5C","peer_label":"main-sail","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship_part","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2ZM1F0S54WQJCCCPQP4","peer_label":"boom","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship_part","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2DH7NRSV1QBXA0MKYZB","peer_label":"sag harbor","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM3GEFPXW9B14AYSA4DB8","peer_label":"barrow","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"tool","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM31W3W1J47J763QY1FQ5","peer_label":"weather-sheet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship_part","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM3C4QK2VREWKA3RMSJ5B","peer_label":"queequegs sister","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.714Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.618Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:02:03.802Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}