{"id":"01KJNXJQYHVVNHDTPCJ5PB2TC1","cid":"bafkreia6myirjb5kr6rcqciaiibqhq4oh23kw23jo3w6tywoi44uzf4j6u","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":491955,"char_start":483977,"chunk_index":68,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1995,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"to that; free will still free to ply her shuttle between given threads;\r\nand chance, though restrained in its play within the right lines of\r\nnecessity, and sideways in its motions directed by free will, though\r\nthus prescribed to by both, chance by turns rules either, and has the\r\nlast featuring blow at events.\r\n\r\nThus we were weaving and weaving away when I started at a sound so\r\nstrange, long drawn, and musically wild and unearthly, that the ball of\r\nfree will dropped from my hand, and I stood gazing up at the clouds\r\nwhence that voice dropped like a wing. High aloft in the cross-trees\r\nwas that mad Gay-Header, Tashtego. His body was reaching eagerly\r\nforward, his hand stretched out like a wand, and at brief sudden\r\nintervals he continued his cries. To be sure the same sound was that\r\nvery moment perhaps being heard all over the seas, from hundreds of\r\nwhalemen’s look-outs perched as high in the air; but from few of those\r\nlungs could that accustomed old cry have derived such a marvellous\r\ncadence as from Tashtego the Indian’s.\r\n\r\nAs he stood hovering over you half suspended in air, so wildly and\r\neagerly peering towards the horizon, you would have thought him some\r\nprophet or seer beholding the shadows of Fate, and by those wild cries\r\nannouncing their coming.\r\n\r\n“There she blows! there! there! there! she blows! she blows!”\r\n\r\n“Where-away?”\r\n\r\n“On the lee-beam, about two miles off! a school of them!”\r\n\r\nInstantly all was commotion.\r\n\r\nThe Sperm Whale blows as a clock ticks, with the same undeviating and\r\nreliable uniformity. And thereby whalemen distinguish this fish from\r\nother tribes of his genus.\r\n\r\n“There go flukes!” was now the cry from Tashtego; and the whales\r\ndisappeared.\r\n\r\n“Quick, steward!” cried Ahab. “Time! time!”\r\n\r\nDough-Boy hurried below, glanced at the watch, and reported the exact\r\nminute to Ahab.\r\n\r\nThe ship was now kept away from the wind, and she went gently rolling\r\nbefore it. Tashtego reporting that the whales had gone down heading to\r\nleeward, we confidently looked to see them again directly in advance of\r\nour bows. For that singular craft at times evinced by the Sperm Whale\r\nwhen, sounding with his head in one direction, he nevertheless, while\r\nconcealed beneath the surface, mills round, and swiftly swims off in\r\nthe opposite quarter—this deceitfulness of his could not now be in\r\naction; for there was no reason to suppose that the fish seen by\r\nTashtego had been in any way alarmed, or indeed knew at all of our\r\nvicinity. One of the men selected for shipkeepers—that is, those not\r\nappointed to the boats, by this time relieved the Indian at the\r\nmain-mast head. The sailors at the fore and mizzen had come down; the\r\nline tubs were fixed in their places; the cranes were thrust out; the\r\nmainyard was backed, and the three boats swung over the sea like three\r\nsamphire baskets over high cliffs. Outside of the bulwarks their eager\r\ncrews with one hand clung to the rail, while one foot was expectantly\r\npoised on the gunwale. So look the long line of man-of-war’s men about\r\nto throw themselves on board an enemy’s ship.\r\n\r\nBut at this critical instant a sudden exclamation was heard that took\r\nevery eye from the whale. With a start all glared at dark Ahab, who was\r\nsurrounded by five dusky phantoms that seemed fresh formed out of air.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 48. The First Lowering.\r\n\r\nThe phantoms, for so they then seemed, were flitting on the other side\r\nof the deck, and, with a noiseless celerity, were casting loose the\r\ntackles and bands of the boat which swung there. This boat had always\r\nbeen deemed one of the spare boats, though technically called the\r\ncaptain’s, on account of its hanging from the starboard quarter. The\r\nfigure that now stood by its bows was tall and swart, with one white\r\ntooth evilly protruding from its steel-like lips. A rumpled Chinese\r\njacket of black cotton funereally invested him, with wide black\r\ntrowsers of the same dark stuff. But strangely crowning this ebonness\r\nwas a glistening white plaited turban, the living hair braided and\r\ncoiled round and round upon his head. Less swart in aspect, the\r\ncompanions of this figure were of that vivid, tiger-yellow complexion\r\npeculiar to some of the aboriginal natives of the Manillas;—a race\r\nnotorious for a certain diabolism of subtilty, and by some honest white\r\nmariners supposed to be the paid spies and secret confidential agents\r\non the water of the devil, their lord, whose counting-room they suppose\r\nto be elsewhere.\r\n\r\nWhile yet the wondering ship’s company were gazing upon these\r\nstrangers, Ahab cried out to the white-turbaned old man at their head,\r\n“All ready there, Fedallah?”\r\n\r\n“Ready,” was the half-hissed reply.\r\n\r\n“Lower away then; d’ye hear?” shouting across the deck. “Lower away\r\nthere, I say.”\r\n\r\nSuch was the thunder of his voice, that spite of their amazement the\r\nmen sprang over the rail; the sheaves whirled round in the blocks; with\r\na wallow, the three boats dropped into the sea; while, with a\r\ndexterous, off-handed daring, unknown in any other vocation, the\r\nsailors, goat-like, leaped down the rolling ship’s side into the tossed\r\nboats below.\r\n\r\nHardly had they pulled out from under the ship’s lee, when a fourth\r\nkeel, coming from the windward side, pulled round under the stern, and\r\nshowed the five strangers rowing Ahab, who, standing erect in the\r\nstern, loudly hailed Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask, to spread themselves\r\nwidely, so as to cover a large expanse of water. But with all their\r\neyes again riveted upon the swart Fedallah and his crew, the inmates of\r\nthe other boats obeyed not the command.\r\n\r\n“Captain Ahab?—” said Starbuck.\r\n\r\n“Spread yourselves,” cried Ahab; “give way, all four boats. Thou,\r\nFlask, pull out more to leeward!”\r\n\r\n“Aye, aye, sir,” cheerily cried little King-Post, sweeping round his\r\ngreat steering oar. “Lay back!” addressing his crew.\r\n“There!—there!—there again! There she blows right ahead, boys!—lay\r\nback!”\r\n\r\n“Never heed yonder yellow boys, Archy.”\r\n\r\n“Oh, I don’t mind ’em, sir,” said Archy; “I knew it all before now.\r\nDidn’t I hear ’em in the hold? And didn’t I tell Cabaco here of it?\r\nWhat say ye, Cabaco? They are stowaways, Mr. Flask.”\r\n\r\n“Pull, pull, my fine hearts-alive; pull, my children; pull, my little\r\nones,” drawlingly and soothingly sighed Stubb to his crew, some of whom\r\nstill showed signs of uneasiness. “Why don’t you break your backbones,\r\nmy boys? What is it you stare at? Those chaps in yonder boat? Tut! They\r\nare only five more hands come to help us—never mind from where—the more\r\nthe merrier. Pull, then, do pull; never mind the brimstone—devils are\r\ngood fellows enough. So, so; there you are now; that’s the stroke for a\r\nthousand pounds; that’s the stroke to sweep the stakes! Hurrah for the\r\ngold cup of sperm oil, my heroes! Three cheers, men—all hearts alive!\r\nEasy, easy; don’t be in a hurry—don’t be in a hurry. Why don’t you snap\r\nyour oars, you rascals? Bite something, you dogs! So, so, so,\r\nthen:—softly, softly! That’s it—that’s it! long and strong. Give way\r\nthere, give way! The devil fetch ye, ye ragamuffin rapscallions; ye are\r\nall asleep. Stop snoring, ye sleepers, and pull. Pull, will ye? pull,\r\ncan’t ye? pull, won’t ye? Why in the name of gudgeons and ginger-cakes\r\ndon’t ye pull?—pull and break something! pull, and start your eyes out!\r\nHere!” whipping out the sharp knife from his girdle; “every mother’s\r\nson of ye draw his knife, and pull with the blade between his teeth.\r\nThat’s it—that’s it. Now ye do something; that looks like it, my\r\nsteel-bits. Start her—start her, my silver-spoons! Start her,\r\nmarling-spikes!”\r\n\r\nStubb’s exordium to his crew is given here at large, because he had\r\nrather a peculiar way of talking to them in general, and especially in\r\ninculcating the religion of rowing. But you must not suppose from this\r\nspecimen of his sermonizings that he ever flew into downright passions\r\nwith his congregation. Not at all; and therein consisted his chief\r\npeculiarity."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKV94RQAJGYF0Y1PBZWSW","peer_label":"tashtego","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:09:02.102Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM3Y01SQ5YR3EQNR1GG38","peer_label":"dough-boy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:09:02.102Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6YXXQ70AAEZD8S8H95C","peer_label":"sperm 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