{"id":"01KJNXJQY7APCDREM7M7DZPXCP","cid":"bafkreif7odoxxh6rzfg5rp7dcd5znwgciog276nx57rpeuqcusxbn4lgim","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":428155,"char_start":420205,"chunk_index":59,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1988,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"and yet so mystical and well nigh ineffable was it, that I almost\r\ndespair of putting it in a comprehensible form. It was the whiteness of\r\nthe whale that above all things appalled me. But how can I hope to\r\nexplain myself here; and yet, in some dim, random way, explain myself I\r\nmust, else all these chapters might be naught.\r\n\r\nThough in many natural objects, whiteness refiningly enhances beauty,\r\nas if imparting some special virtue of its own, as in marbles,\r\njaponicas, and pearls; and though various nations have in some way\r\nrecognised a certain royal preeminence in this hue; even the barbaric,\r\ngrand old kings of Pegu placing the title “Lord of the White Elephants”\r\nabove all their other magniloquent ascriptions of dominion; and the\r\nmodern kings of Siam unfurling the same snow-white quadruped in the\r\nroyal standard; and the Hanoverian flag bearing the one figure of a\r\nsnow-white charger; and the great Austrian Empire, Cæsarian, heir to\r\noverlording Rome, having for the imperial colour the same imperial hue;\r\nand though this pre-eminence in it applies to the human race itself,\r\ngiving the white man ideal mastership over every dusky tribe; and\r\nthough, besides, all this, whiteness has been even made significant of\r\ngladness, for among the Romans a white stone marked a joyful day; and\r\nthough in other mortal sympathies and symbolizings, this same hue is\r\nmade the emblem of many touching, noble things—the innocence of brides,\r\nthe benignity of age; though among the Red Men of America the giving of\r\nthe white belt of wampum was the deepest pledge of honor; though in\r\nmany climes, whiteness typifies the majesty of Justice in the ermine of\r\nthe Judge, and contributes to the daily state of kings and queens drawn\r\nby milk-white steeds; though even in the higher mysteries of the most\r\naugust religions it has been made the symbol of the divine spotlessness\r\nand power; by the Persian fire worshippers, the white forked flame\r\nbeing held the holiest on the altar; and in the Greek mythologies,\r\nGreat Jove himself being made incarnate in a snow-white bull; and\r\nthough to the noble Iroquois, the midwinter sacrifice of the sacred\r\nWhite Dog was by far the holiest festival of their theology, that\r\nspotless, faithful creature being held the purest envoy they could send\r\nto the Great Spirit with the annual tidings of their own fidelity; and\r\nthough directly from the Latin word for white, all Christian priests\r\nderive the name of one part of their sacred vesture, the alb or tunic,\r\nworn beneath the cassock; and though among the holy pomps of the Romish\r\nfaith, white is specially employed in the celebration of the Passion of\r\nour Lord; though in the Vision of St. John, white robes are given to\r\nthe redeemed, and the four-and-twenty elders stand clothed in white\r\nbefore the great white throne, and the Holy One that sitteth there\r\nwhite like wool; yet for all these accumulated associations, with\r\nwhatever is sweet, and honorable, and sublime, there yet lurks an\r\nelusive something in the innermost idea of this hue, which strikes more\r\nof panic to the soul than that redness which affrights in blood.\r\n\r\nThis elusive quality it is, which causes the thought of whiteness, when\r\ndivorced from more kindly associations, and coupled with any object\r\nterrible in itself, to heighten that terror to the furthest bounds.\r\nWitness the white bear of the poles, and the white shark of the\r\ntropics; what but their smooth, flaky whiteness makes them the\r\ntranscendent horrors they are? That ghastly whiteness it is which\r\nimparts such an abhorrent mildness, even more loathsome than terrific,\r\nto the dumb gloating of their aspect. So that not the fierce-fanged\r\ntiger in his heraldic coat can so stagger courage as the white-shrouded\r\nbear or shark.*\r\n\r\n*With reference to the Polar bear, it may possibly be urged by him who\r\nwould fain go still deeper into this matter, that it is not the\r\nwhiteness, separately regarded, which heightens the intolerable\r\nhideousness of that brute; for, analysed, that heightened hideousness,\r\nit might be said, only rises from the circumstance, that the\r\nirresponsible ferociousness of the creature stands invested in the\r\nfleece of celestial innocence and love; and hence, by bringing together\r\ntwo such opposite emotions in our minds, the Polar bear frightens us\r\nwith so unnatural a contrast. But even assuming all this to be true;\r\nyet, were it not for the whiteness, you would not have that intensified\r\nterror.\r\n\r\nAs for the white shark, the white gliding ghostliness of repose in that\r\ncreature, when beheld in his ordinary moods, strangely tallies with the\r\nsame quality in the Polar quadruped. This peculiarity is most vividly\r\nhit by the French in the name they bestow upon that fish. The Romish\r\nmass for the dead begins with “Requiem eternam” (eternal rest), whence\r\n_Requiem_ denominating the mass itself, and any other funeral music.\r\nNow, in allusion to the white, silent stillness of death in this shark,\r\nand the mild deadliness of his habits, the French call him _Requin_.\r\n\r\nBethink thee of the albatross, whence come those clouds of spiritual\r\nwonderment and pale dread, in which that white phantom sails in all\r\nimaginations? Not Coleridge first threw that spell; but God’s great,\r\nunflattering laureate, Nature.*\r\n\r\n*I remember the first albatross I ever saw. It was during a prolonged\r\ngale, in waters hard upon the Antarctic seas. From my forenoon watch\r\nbelow, I ascended to the overclouded deck; and there, dashed upon the\r\nmain hatches, I saw a regal, feathery thing of unspotted whiteness, and\r\nwith a hooked, Roman bill sublime. At intervals, it arched forth its\r\nvast archangel wings, as if to embrace some holy ark. Wondrous\r\nflutterings and throbbings shook it. Though bodily unharmed, it uttered\r\ncries, as some king’s ghost in supernatural distress. Through its\r\ninexpressible, strange eyes, methought I peeped to secrets which took\r\nhold of God. As Abraham before the angels, I bowed myself; the white\r\nthing was so white, its wings so wide, and in those for ever exiled\r\nwaters, I had lost the miserable warping memories of traditions and of\r\ntowns. Long I gazed at that prodigy of plumage. I cannot tell, can only\r\nhint, the things that darted through me then. But at last I awoke; and\r\nturning, asked a sailor what bird was this. A goney, he replied. Goney!\r\nnever had heard that name before; is it conceivable that this glorious\r\nthing is utterly unknown to men ashore! never! But some time after, I\r\nlearned that goney was some seaman’s name for albatross. So that by no\r\npossibility could Coleridge’s wild Rhyme have had aught to do with\r\nthose mystical impressions which were mine, when I saw that bird upon\r\nour deck. For neither had I then read the Rhyme, nor knew the bird to\r\nbe an albatross. Yet, in saying this, I do but indirectly burnish a\r\nlittle brighter the noble merit of the poem and the poet.\r\n\r\nI assert, then, that in the wondrous bodily whiteness of the bird\r\nchiefly lurks the secret of the spell; a truth the more evinced in\r\nthis, that by a solecism of terms there are birds called grey\r\nalbatrosses; and these I have frequently seen, but never with such\r\nemotions as when I beheld the Antarctic fowl.\r\n\r\nBut how had the mystic thing been caught? Whisper it not, and I will\r\ntell; with a treacherous hook and line, as the fowl floated on the sea.\r\nAt last the Captain made a postman of it; tying a lettered, leathern\r\ntally round its neck, with the ship’s time and place; and then letting\r\nit escape. But I doubt not, that leathern tally, meant for man, was\r\ntaken off in Heaven, when the white fowl flew to join the wing-folding,\r\nthe invoking, and adoring cherubim!\r\n\r\nMost famous in our Western annals and Indian traditions is that of the\r\nWhite Steed of the Prairies; a magnificent milk-white charger,\r\nlarge-eyed, small-headed, bluff-chested, and with the dignity of a\r\nthousand monarchs in his lofty, overscorning carriage."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.719Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.719Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KJ6WPT018SDDANE6N7Q8E428"}}