{"id":"01KJNXJQVRMSB063VW6RTPD966","cid":"bafkreigo474pzgb5uyna567vbf7wf2pxd4rcmvgswznyaukmunbjcgxtxy","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":214238,"char_start":206438,"chunk_index":29,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1950,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"hand in her side-pocket, “here’s a key that’ll fit, I guess; let’s\r\nsee.” And with that, she turned it in the lock; but, alas! Queequeg’s\r\nsupplemental bolt remained unwithdrawn within.\r\n\r\n“Have to burst it open,” said I, and was running down the entry a\r\nlittle, for a good start, when the landlady caught at me, again vowing\r\nI should not break down her premises; but I tore from her, and with a\r\nsudden bodily rush dashed myself full against the mark.\r\n\r\nWith a prodigious noise the door flew open, and the knob slamming\r\nagainst the wall, sent the plaster to the ceiling; and there, good\r\nheavens! there sat Queequeg, altogether cool and self-collected; right\r\nin the middle of the room; squatting on his hams, and holding Yojo on\r\ntop of his head. He looked neither one way nor the other way, but sat\r\nlike a carved image with scarce a sign of active life.\r\n\r\n“Queequeg,” said I, going up to him, “Queequeg, what’s the matter with\r\nyou?”\r\n\r\n“He hain’t been a sittin’ so all day, has he?” said the landlady.\r\n\r\nBut all we said, not a word could we drag out of him; I almost felt\r\nlike pushing him over, so as to change his position, for it was almost\r\nintolerable, it seemed so painfully and unnaturally constrained;\r\nespecially, as in all probability he had been sitting so for upwards of\r\neight or ten hours, going too without his regular meals.\r\n\r\n“Mrs. Hussey,” said I, “he’s _alive_ at all events; so leave us, if you\r\nplease, and I will see to this strange affair myself.”\r\n\r\nClosing the door upon the landlady, I endeavored to prevail upon\r\nQueequeg to take a chair; but in vain. There he sat; and all he could\r\ndo—for all my polite arts and blandishments—he would not move a peg,\r\nnor say a single word, nor even look at me, nor notice my presence in\r\nthe slightest way.\r\n\r\nI wonder, thought I, if this can possibly be a part of his Ramadan; do\r\nthey fast on their hams that way in his native island. It must be so;\r\nyes, it’s part of his creed, I suppose; well, then, let him rest; he’ll\r\nget up sooner or later, no doubt. It can’t last for ever, thank God,\r\nand his Ramadan only comes once a year; and I don’t believe it’s very\r\npunctual then.\r\n\r\nI went down to supper. After sitting a long time listening to the long\r\nstories of some sailors who had just come from a plum-pudding voyage,\r\nas they called it (that is, a short whaling-voyage in a schooner or\r\nbrig, confined to the north of the line, in the Atlantic Ocean only);\r\nafter listening to these plum-puddingers till nearly eleven o’clock, I\r\nwent up stairs to go to bed, feeling quite sure by this time Queequeg\r\nmust certainly have brought his Ramadan to a termination. But no; there\r\nhe was just where I had left him; he had not stirred an inch. I began\r\nto grow vexed with him; it seemed so downright senseless and insane to\r\nbe sitting there all day and half the night on his hams in a cold room,\r\nholding a piece of wood on his head.\r\n\r\n“For heaven’s sake, Queequeg, get up and shake yourself; get up and\r\nhave some supper. You’ll starve; you’ll kill yourself, Queequeg.” But\r\nnot a word did he reply.\r\n\r\nDespairing of him, therefore, I determined to go to bed and to sleep;\r\nand no doubt, before a great while, he would follow me. But previous to\r\nturning in, I took my heavy bearskin jacket, and threw it over him, as\r\nit promised to be a very cold night; and he had nothing but his\r\nordinary round jacket on. For some time, do all I would, I could not\r\nget into the faintest doze. I had blown out the candle; and the mere\r\nthought of Queequeg—not four feet off—sitting there in that uneasy\r\nposition, stark alone in the cold and dark; this made me really\r\nwretched. Think of it; sleeping all night in the same room with a wide\r\nawake pagan on his hams in this dreary, unaccountable Ramadan!\r\n\r\nBut somehow I dropped off at last, and knew nothing more till break of\r\nday; when, looking over the bedside, there squatted Queequeg, as if he\r\nhad been screwed down to the floor. But as soon as the first glimpse of\r\nsun entered the window, up he got, with stiff and grating joints, but\r\nwith a cheerful look; limped towards me where I lay; pressed his\r\nforehead again against mine; and said his Ramadan was over.\r\n\r\nNow, as I before hinted, I have no objection to any person’s religion,\r\nbe it what it may, so long as that person does not kill or insult any\r\nother person, because that other person don’t believe it also. But when\r\na man’s religion becomes really frantic; when it is a positive torment\r\nto him; and, in fine, makes this earth of ours an uncomfortable inn to\r\nlodge in; then I think it high time to take that individual aside and\r\nargue the point with him.\r\n\r\nAnd just so I now did with Queequeg. “Queequeg,” said I, “get into bed\r\nnow, and lie and listen to me.” I then went on, beginning with the rise\r\nand progress of the primitive religions, and coming down to the various\r\nreligions of the present time, during which time I labored to show\r\nQueequeg that all these Lents, Ramadans, and prolonged ham-squattings\r\nin cold, cheerless rooms were stark nonsense; bad for the health;\r\nuseless for the soul; opposed, in short, to the obvious laws of Hygiene\r\nand common sense. I told him, too, that he being in other things such\r\nan extremely sensible and sagacious savage, it pained me, very badly\r\npained me, to see him now so deplorably foolish about this ridiculous\r\nRamadan of his. Besides, argued I, fasting makes the body cave in;\r\nhence the spirit caves in; and all thoughts born of a fast must\r\nnecessarily be half-starved. This is the reason why most dyspeptic\r\nreligionists cherish such melancholy notions about their hereafters. In\r\none word, Queequeg, said I, rather digressively; hell is an idea first\r\nborn on an undigested apple-dumpling; and since then perpetuated\r\nthrough the hereditary dyspepsias nurtured by Ramadans.\r\n\r\nI then asked Queequeg whether he himself was ever troubled with\r\ndyspepsia; expressing the idea very plainly, so that he could take it\r\nin. He said no; only upon one memorable occasion. It was after a great\r\nfeast given by his father the king, on the gaining of a great battle\r\nwherein fifty of the enemy had been killed by about two o’clock in the\r\nafternoon, and all cooked and eaten that very evening.\r\n\r\n“No more, Queequeg,” said I, shuddering; “that will do;” for I knew the\r\ninferences without his further hinting them. I had seen a sailor who\r\nhad visited that very island, and he told me that it was the custom,\r\nwhen a great battle had been gained there, to barbecue all the slain in\r\nthe yard or garden of the victor; and then, one by one, they were\r\nplaced in great wooden trenchers, and garnished round like a pilau,\r\nwith breadfruit and cocoanuts; and with some parsley in their mouths,\r\nwere sent round with the victor’s compliments to all his friends, just\r\nas though these presents were so many Christmas turkeys.\r\n\r\nAfter all, I do not think that my remarks about religion made much\r\nimpression upon Queequeg. Because, in the first place, he somehow\r\nseemed dull of hearing on that important subject, unless considered\r\nfrom his own point of view; and, in the second place, he did not more\r\nthan one third understand me, couch my ideas simply as I would; and,\r\nfinally, he no doubt thought he knew a good deal more about the true\r\nreligion than I did. He looked at me with a sort of condescending\r\nconcern and compassion, as though he thought it a great pity that such\r\na sensible young man should be so hopelessly lost to evangelical pagan\r\npiety.\r\n\r\nAt last we rose and dressed; and Queequeg, taking a prodigiously hearty\r\nbreakfast of chowders of all sorts, so that the landlady should not\r\nmake much profit by reason of his Ramadan, we sallied out to board the\r\nPequod, sauntering along, and picking our teeth with halibut bones.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 18."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNA6Q7NV244AJQKVXKZ","peer_label":"queequeg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKSZYY4PZZGTPZ89W34AF","peer_label":"narrator","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3Z6GAC3QZ1MZC1PX63","peer_label":"pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2N1YV9S5AWYQGFE9N6G","peer_label":"ramadan queequegs practice","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"religious_practice","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2K8H130012WPW2AS647","peer_label":"yojo","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"idol","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM3HAMK7V7W24CH3PRM1X","peer_label":"sailor island visitor","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2KQ9V5CXFGNBY6G2162","peer_label":"plum-pudding voyage","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"voyage_type","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2H62MKSKR85E964Q124","peer_label":"door to queequegs room","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"object","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM3D3YXYF9PP4SQ1XPMMJ","peer_label":"dyspepsia","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"medical_condition","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2RGA1C0QD3RV43KE6DC","peer_label":"mrs hussey","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM3FXVFNY5RNVJREQCBMG","peer_label":"queequegs native island","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM447RKDRM6C0BWK0XKT8","peer_label":"atlantic ocean","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"body_of_water","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM3MXZ76GCCPJR8TV1HH2","peer_label":"queequegs father the king","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM3CGS7E3TAB6Z57TTDHX","peer_label":"hygiene","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM46S1B6Y0J8J0J4HQ2MK","peer_label":"great feast","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM46XEMBTZC9FHR0YCPGA","peer_label":"cannibalism","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2X1GH6W5BY9S9B2EZ4Z","peer_label":"primitive religions","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM46VS486KK6TBR2XYTVD","peer_label":"bearskin jacket","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"clothing","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM3E68VWEH2FVJ3Q6HJ4E","peer_label":"lents","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"religious_practice","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM44J7K7ACX3X64XNJX3V","peer_label":"chapter 18","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_section","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:02:08.237Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.640Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:02:09.719Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}