{"id":"01KJNXJQVCWM38MJVWA9JD539Q","cid":"bafkreigrmbvkmyk4xa33hc3f57gbke6232lshb6gdd7rkckibjtbocmody","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":200402,"char_start":192460,"chunk_index":27,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1986,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"\r\n_Lay_, indeed, thought I, and such a lay! the seven hundred and\r\nseventy-seventh! Well, old Bildad, you are determined that I, for one,\r\nshall not _lay_ up many _lays_ here below, where moth and rust do\r\ncorrupt. It was an exceedingly _long lay_ that, indeed; and though from\r\nthe magnitude of the figure it might at first deceive a landsman, yet\r\nthe slightest consideration will show that though seven hundred and\r\nseventy-seven is a pretty large number, yet, when you come to make a\r\n_teenth_ of it, you will then see, I say, that the seven hundred and\r\nseventy-seventh part of a farthing is a good deal less than seven\r\nhundred and seventy-seven gold doubloons; and so I thought at the time.\r\n\r\n“Why, blast your eyes, Bildad,” cried Peleg, “thou dost not want to\r\nswindle this young man! he must have more than that.”\r\n\r\n“Seven hundred and seventy-seventh,” again said Bildad, without lifting\r\nhis eyes; and then went on mumbling—“for where your treasure is, there\r\nwill your heart be also.”\r\n\r\n“I am going to put him down for the three hundredth,” said Peleg, “do\r\nye hear that, Bildad! The three hundredth lay, I say.”\r\n\r\nBildad laid down his book, and turning solemnly towards him said,\r\n“Captain Peleg, thou hast a generous heart; but thou must consider the\r\nduty thou owest to the other owners of this ship—widows and orphans,\r\nmany of them—and that if we too abundantly reward the labors of this\r\nyoung man, we may be taking the bread from those widows and those\r\norphans. The seven hundred and seventy-seventh lay, Captain Peleg.”\r\n\r\n“Thou Bildad!” roared Peleg, starting up and clattering about the\r\ncabin. “Blast ye, Captain Bildad, if I had followed thy advice in these\r\nmatters, I would afore now had a conscience to lug about that would be\r\nheavy enough to founder the largest ship that ever sailed round Cape\r\nHorn.”\r\n\r\n“Captain Peleg,” said Bildad steadily, “thy conscience may be drawing\r\nten inches of water, or ten fathoms, I can’t tell; but as thou art\r\nstill an impenitent man, Captain Peleg, I greatly fear lest thy\r\nconscience be but a leaky one; and will in the end sink thee foundering\r\ndown to the fiery pit, Captain Peleg.”\r\n\r\n“Fiery pit! fiery pit! ye insult me, man; past all natural bearing, ye\r\ninsult me. It’s an all-fired outrage to tell any human creature that\r\nhe’s bound to hell. Flukes and flames! Bildad, say that again to me,\r\nand start my soul-bolts, but I’ll—I’ll—yes, I’ll swallow a live goat\r\nwith all his hair and horns on. Out of the cabin, ye canting,\r\ndrab-coloured son of a wooden gun—a straight wake with ye!”\r\n\r\nAs he thundered out this he made a rush at Bildad, but with a\r\nmarvellous oblique, sliding celerity, Bildad for that time eluded him.\r\n\r\nAlarmed at this terrible outburst between the two principal and\r\nresponsible owners of the ship, and feeling half a mind to give up all\r\nidea of sailing in a vessel so questionably owned and temporarily\r\ncommanded, I stepped aside from the door to give egress to Bildad, who,\r\nI made no doubt, was all eagerness to vanish from before the awakened\r\nwrath of Peleg. But to my astonishment, he sat down again on the\r\ntransom very quietly, and seemed to have not the slightest intention of\r\nwithdrawing. He seemed quite used to impenitent Peleg and his ways. As\r\nfor Peleg, after letting off his rage as he had, there seemed no more\r\nleft in him, and he, too, sat down like a lamb, though he twitched a\r\nlittle as if still nervously agitated. “Whew!” he whistled at last—“the\r\nsquall’s gone off to leeward, I think. Bildad, thou used to be good at\r\nsharpening a lance, mend that pen, will ye. My jack-knife here needs\r\nthe grindstone. That’s he; thank ye, Bildad. Now then, my young man,\r\nIshmael’s thy name, didn’t ye say? Well then, down ye go here, Ishmael,\r\nfor the three hundredth lay.”\r\n\r\n“Captain Peleg,” said I, “I have a friend with me who wants to ship\r\ntoo—shall I bring him down to-morrow?”\r\n\r\n“To be sure,” said Peleg. “Fetch him along, and we’ll look at him.”\r\n\r\n“What lay does he want?” groaned Bildad, glancing up from the book in\r\nwhich he had again been burying himself.\r\n\r\n“Oh! never thee mind about that, Bildad,” said Peleg. “Has he ever\r\nwhaled it any?” turning to me.\r\n\r\n“Killed more whales than I can count, Captain Peleg.”\r\n\r\n“Well, bring him along then.”\r\n\r\nAnd, after signing the papers, off I went; nothing doubting but that I\r\nhad done a good morning’s work, and that the Pequod was the identical\r\nship that Yojo had provided to carry Queequeg and me round the Cape.\r\n\r\nBut I had not proceeded far, when I began to bethink me that the\r\nCaptain with whom I was to sail yet remained unseen by me; though,\r\nindeed, in many cases, a whale-ship will be completely fitted out, and\r\nreceive all her crew on board, ere the captain makes himself visible by\r\narriving to take command; for sometimes these voyages are so prolonged,\r\nand the shore intervals at home so exceedingly brief, that if the\r\ncaptain have a family, or any absorbing concernment of that sort, he\r\ndoes not trouble himself much about his ship in port, but leaves her to\r\nthe owners till all is ready for sea. However, it is always as well to\r\nhave a look at him before irrevocably committing yourself into his\r\nhands. Turning back I accosted Captain Peleg, inquiring where Captain\r\nAhab was to be found.\r\n\r\n“And what dost thou want of Captain Ahab? It’s all right enough; thou\r\nart shipped.”\r\n\r\n“Yes, but I should like to see him.”\r\n\r\n“But I don’t think thou wilt be able to at present. I don’t know\r\nexactly what’s the matter with him; but he keeps close inside the\r\nhouse; a sort of sick, and yet he don’t look so. In fact, he ain’t\r\nsick; but no, he isn’t well either. Any how, young man, he won’t always\r\nsee me, so I don’t suppose he will thee. He’s a queer man, Captain\r\nAhab—so some think—but a good one. Oh, thou’lt like him well enough; no\r\nfear, no fear. He’s a grand, ungodly, god-like man, Captain Ahab;\r\ndoesn’t speak much; but, when he does speak, then you may well listen.\r\nMark ye, be forewarned; Ahab’s above the common; Ahab’s been in\r\ncolleges, as well as ’mong the cannibals; been used to deeper wonders\r\nthan the waves; fixed his fiery lance in mightier, stranger foes than\r\nwhales. His lance! aye, the keenest and the surest that out of all our\r\nisle! Oh! he ain’t Captain Bildad; no, and he ain’t Captain Peleg;\r\n_he’s Ahab_, boy; and Ahab of old, thou knowest, was a crowned king!”\r\n\r\n“And a very vile one. When that wicked king was slain, the dogs, did\r\nthey not lick his blood?”\r\n\r\n“Come hither to me—hither, hither,” said Peleg, with a significance in\r\nhis eye that almost startled me. “Look ye, lad; never say that on board\r\nthe Pequod. Never say it anywhere. Captain Ahab did not name himself.\r\n’Twas a foolish, ignorant whim of his crazy, widowed mother, who died\r\nwhen he was only a twelvemonth old. And yet the old squaw Tistig, at\r\nGayhead, said that the name would somehow prove prophetic. And,\r\nperhaps, other fools like her may tell thee the same. I wish to warn\r\nthee. It’s a lie. I know Captain Ahab well; I’ve sailed with him as\r\nmate years ago; I know what he is—a good man—not a pious, good man,\r\nlike Bildad, but a swearing good man—something like me—only there’s a\r\ngood deal more of him. Aye, aye, I know that he was never very jolly;\r\nand I know that on the passage home, he was a little out of his mind\r\nfor a spell; but it was the sharp shooting pains in his bleeding stump\r\nthat brought that about, as any one might see. I know, too, that ever\r\nsince he lost his leg last voyage by that accursed whale, he’s been a\r\nkind of moody—desperate moody, and savage sometimes; but that will all\r\npass off. And once for all, let me tell thee and assure thee, young\r\nman, it’s better to sail with a moody good captain than a laughing bad\r\none. So good-bye to thee—and wrong not Captain Ahab, because he happens\r\nto have a wicked name. Besides, my boy, he has a wife—not three voyages\r\nwedded—a sweet, resigned girl."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXM0KAVM1XQ5P2RXRFTSHJ","peer_label":"bildad","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNCK8G0E519GPWTEATV","peer_label":"ishmael","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM0K89EKJARB6VQBC23Q5","peer_label":"peleg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3Z6GAC3QZ1MZC1PX63","peer_label":"pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNA6Q7NV244AJQKVXKZ","peer_label":"queequeg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKYQT8NKB1JV9WAZTZ7F3","peer_label":"cape horn","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"geographical_feature","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKZBGV5QSFPD19S2BQF68","peer_label":"captain ahab","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM9CKZ50MMA0YMXJETSPP","peer_label":"accursed whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"animal","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM9JB1DTHMSPTK65YSW76","peer_label":"ahabs wife","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXND102KGY434D76BWVXKA","peer_label":"ship owners pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFFYDRKTDYT395DFQTCG","peer_label":"yojo","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"spiritual_entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNC9GCEE50FXCN1J8S7NS","peer_label":"fiery pit","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"religious_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNGJNCCQFR9YBBGZYY06B","peer_label":"ahabs mother","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXND12BNTD8Q581YVH07AR","peer_label":"whales","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"animal","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNGJGM3DXM5286CEYGX34","peer_label":"tistig","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNHA1YW7HWK7EYAFB74VH","peer_label":"lance ahabs","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNBBTH01FBV237CMM9AQJ","peer_label":"lay share of profits","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXP79K82TQW9TRZ06H09JH","peer_label":"gayhead","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:07:33.455Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.628Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:07:47.977Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}