{"id":"01KJNXJQVRJASZD090GV8NQZKC","cid":"bafkreia44wdctn347qe7btnxp6enufxwo2do5jmdyjon3fd6fzfskwu4qi","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":242917,"char_start":235118,"chunk_index":33,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1950,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"are going to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and would prefer not to be\r\ndetained.”\r\n\r\n“Ye be, be ye? Coming back afore breakfast?”\r\n\r\n“He’s cracked, Queequeg,” said I, “come on.”\r\n\r\n“Holloa!” cried stationary Elijah, hailing us when we had removed a few\r\npaces.\r\n\r\n“Never mind him,” said I, “Queequeg, come on.”\r\n\r\nBut he stole up to us again, and suddenly clapping his hand on my\r\nshoulder, said—“Did ye see anything looking like men going towards that\r\nship a while ago?”\r\n\r\nStruck by this plain matter-of-fact question, I answered, saying, “Yes,\r\nI thought I did see four or five men; but it was too dim to be sure.”\r\n\r\n“Very dim, very dim,” said Elijah. “Morning to ye.”\r\n\r\nOnce more we quitted him; but once more he came softly after us; and\r\ntouching my shoulder again, said, “See if you can find ’em now, will\r\nye?\r\n\r\n“Find who?”\r\n\r\n“Morning to ye! morning to ye!” he rejoined, again moving off. “Oh! I\r\nwas going to warn ye against—but never mind, never mind—it’s all one,\r\nall in the family too;—sharp frost this morning, ain’t it? Good-bye to\r\nye. Shan’t see ye again very soon, I guess; unless it’s before the\r\nGrand Jury.” And with these cracked words he finally departed, leaving\r\nme, for the moment, in no small wonderment at his frantic impudence.\r\n\r\nAt last, stepping on board the Pequod, we found everything in profound\r\nquiet, not a soul moving. The cabin entrance was locked within; the\r\nhatches were all on, and lumbered with coils of rigging. Going forward\r\nto the forecastle, we found the slide of the scuttle open. Seeing a\r\nlight, we went down, and found only an old rigger there, wrapped in a\r\ntattered pea-jacket. He was thrown at whole length upon two chests, his\r\nface downwards and inclosed in his folded arms. The profoundest slumber\r\nslept upon him.\r\n\r\n“Those sailors we saw, Queequeg, where can they have gone to?” said I,\r\nlooking dubiously at the sleeper. But it seemed that, when on the\r\nwharf, Queequeg had not at all noticed what I now alluded to; hence I\r\nwould have thought myself to have been optically deceived in that\r\nmatter, were it not for Elijah’s otherwise inexplicable question. But I\r\nbeat the thing down; and again marking the sleeper, jocularly hinted to\r\nQueequeg that perhaps we had best sit up with the body; telling him to\r\nestablish himself accordingly. He put his hand upon the sleeper’s rear,\r\nas though feeling if it was soft enough; and then, without more ado,\r\nsat quietly down there.\r\n\r\n“Gracious! Queequeg, don’t sit there,” said I.\r\n\r\n“Oh! perry dood seat,” said Queequeg, “my country way; won’t hurt him\r\nface.”\r\n\r\n“Face!” said I, “call that his face? very benevolent countenance then;\r\nbut how hard he breathes, he’s heaving himself; get off, Queequeg, you\r\nare heavy, it’s grinding the face of the poor. Get off, Queequeg! Look,\r\nhe’ll twitch you off soon. I wonder he don’t wake.”\r\n\r\nQueequeg removed himself to just beyond the head of the sleeper, and\r\nlighted his tomahawk pipe. I sat at the feet. We kept the pipe passing\r\nover the sleeper, from one to the other. Meanwhile, upon questioning\r\nhim in his broken fashion, Queequeg gave me to understand that, in his\r\nland, owing to the absence of settees and sofas of all sorts, the king,\r\nchiefs, and great people generally, were in the custom of fattening\r\nsome of the lower orders for ottomans; and to furnish a house\r\ncomfortably in that respect, you had only to buy up eight or ten lazy\r\nfellows, and lay them round in the piers and alcoves. Besides, it was\r\nvery convenient on an excursion; much better than those garden-chairs\r\nwhich are convertible into walking-sticks; upon occasion, a chief\r\ncalling his attendant, and desiring him to make a settee of himself\r\nunder a spreading tree, perhaps in some damp marshy place.\r\n\r\nWhile narrating these things, every time Queequeg received the tomahawk\r\nfrom me, he flourished the hatchet-side of it over the sleeper’s head.\r\n\r\n“What’s that for, Queequeg?”\r\n\r\n“Perry easy, kill-e; oh! perry easy!”\r\n\r\nHe was going on with some wild reminiscences about his tomahawk-pipe,\r\nwhich, it seemed, had in its two uses both brained his foes and soothed\r\nhis soul, when we were directly attracted to the sleeping rigger. The\r\nstrong vapor now completely filling the contracted hole, it began to\r\ntell upon him. He breathed with a sort of muffledness; then seemed\r\ntroubled in the nose; then revolved over once or twice; then sat up and\r\nrubbed his eyes.\r\n\r\n“Holloa!” he breathed at last, “who be ye smokers?”\r\n\r\n“Shipped men,” answered I, “when does she sail?”\r\n\r\n“Aye, aye, ye are going in her, be ye? She sails to-day. The Captain\r\ncame aboard last night.”\r\n\r\n“What Captain?—Ahab?”\r\n\r\n“Who but him indeed?”\r\n\r\nI was going to ask him some further questions concerning Ahab, when we\r\nheard a noise on deck.\r\n\r\n“Holloa! Starbuck’s astir,” said the rigger. “He’s a lively chief mate,\r\nthat; good man, and a pious; but all alive now, I must turn to.” And so\r\nsaying he went on deck, and we followed.\r\n\r\nIt was now clear sunrise. Soon the crew came on board in twos and\r\nthrees; the riggers bestirred themselves; the mates were actively\r\nengaged; and several of the shore people were busy in bringing various\r\nlast things on board. Meanwhile Captain Ahab remained invisibly\r\nenshrined within his cabin.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 22. Merry Christmas.\r\n\r\nAt length, towards noon, upon the final dismissal of the ship’s\r\nriggers, and after the Pequod had been hauled out from the wharf, and\r\nafter the ever-thoughtful Charity had come off in a whale-boat, with\r\nher last gift—a night-cap for Stubb, the second mate, her\r\nbrother-in-law, and a spare Bible for the steward—after all this, the\r\ntwo Captains, Peleg and Bildad, issued from the cabin, and turning to\r\nthe chief mate, Peleg said:\r\n\r\n“Now, Mr. Starbuck, are you sure everything is right? Captain Ahab is\r\nall ready—just spoke to him—nothing more to be got from shore, eh?\r\nWell, call all hands, then. Muster ’em aft here—blast ’em!”\r\n\r\n“No need of profane words, however great the hurry, Peleg,” said\r\nBildad, “but away with thee, friend Starbuck, and do our bidding.”\r\n\r\nHow now! Here upon the very point of starting for the voyage, Captain\r\nPeleg and Captain Bildad were going it with a high hand on the\r\nquarter-deck, just as if they were to be joint-commanders at sea, as\r\nwell as to all appearances in port. And, as for Captain Ahab, no sign\r\nof him was yet to be seen; only, they said he was in the cabin. But\r\nthen, the idea was, that his presence was by no means necessary in\r\ngetting the ship under weigh, and steering her well out to sea. Indeed,\r\nas that was not at all his proper business, but the pilot’s; and as he\r\nwas not yet completely recovered—so they said—therefore, Captain Ahab\r\nstayed below. And all this seemed natural enough; especially as in the\r\nmerchant service many captains never show themselves on deck for a\r\nconsiderable time after heaving up the anchor, but remain over the\r\ncabin table, having a farewell merry-making with their shore friends,\r\nbefore they quit the ship for good with the pilot.\r\n\r\nBut there was not much chance to think over the matter, for Captain\r\nPeleg was now all alive. He seemed to do most of the talking and\r\ncommanding, and not Bildad.\r\n\r\n“Aft here, ye sons of bachelors,” he cried, as the sailors lingered at\r\nthe main-mast. “Mr. Starbuck, drive ’em aft.”\r\n\r\n“Strike the tent there!”—was the next order. As I hinted before, this\r\nwhalebone marquee was never pitched except in port; and on board the\r\nPequod, for thirty years, the order to strike the tent was well known\r\nto be the next thing to heaving up the anchor.\r\n\r\n“Man the capstan! Blood and thunder!—jump!”—was the next command, and\r\nthe crew sprang for the handspikes.\r\n\r\nNow in getting under weigh, the station generally occupied by the pilot\r\nis the forward part of the ship."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNCK8G0E519GPWTEATV","peer_label":"ishmael","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3Z6GAC3QZ1MZC1PX63","peer_label":"pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNA6Q7NV244AJQKVXKZ","peer_label":"queequeg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3DZQ5YTC2NQ9Q7VBWR","peer_label":"ahab","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKVYKWFDKYWNFAY5N9KE5","peer_label":"starbuck","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV7VCG1M1V2KKXZJD4A9","peer_label":"stubb","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKZTEDRAVQY55ZXTCS226","peer_label":"pacific ocean","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ocean","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKZS3F241A0K454CA5ZZ8","peer_label":"elijah","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKZYNKP3CA2TCF02MMXA4","peer_label":"chapter 22 merry christmas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_chapter","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKZX39Q11E4K1TB7SG43X","peer_label":"old rigger","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM0KAVM1XQ5P2RXRFTSHJ","peer_label":"bildad","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM0HT84MNTTNJZCE3R3F6","peer_label":"night-cap","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"clothing_item","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM0K89EKJARB6VQBC23Q5","peer_label":"peleg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKZX1HHBGD29XBVPNDVVJ","peer_label":"tomahawk pipe","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon_tool","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKZWNWH9124159G96R4Q9","peer_label":"indian ocean","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ocean","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM0P0D6RMGQW1RSW5D0FF","peer_label":"steward","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person_role","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM0JB8X434MFAF01T0KJY","peer_label":"bible","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"book","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM1K1FTRVMW4MFRF4K1BM","peer_label":"charity","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2CEP1NHJFPH7DNMWCYY","peer_label":"whalebone marquee","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"structure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:01.037Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.640Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:02:02.010Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}