{"id":"01KJNXJR153Z3YV7YKPM2EZT66","cid":"bafkreigj2p4exs6lvs2qipdmjyda3woyqwsd3fvganjzk3bnv4tvahyrbe","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":669325,"char_start":661544,"chunk_index":93,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1946,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"whale? And, by Gor, none on you has de right to dat whale; dat whale\r\nbelong to some one else. I know some o’ you has berry brig mout,\r\nbrigger dan oders; but den de brig mouts sometimes has de small\r\nbellies; so dat de brigness of de mout is not to swaller wid, but to\r\nbit off de blubber for de small fry ob sharks, dat can’t get into de\r\nscrouge to help demselves.”\r\n\r\n“Well done, old Fleece!” cried Stubb, “that’s Christianity; go on.”\r\n\r\n“No use goin’ on; de dam willains will keep a scougin’ and slappin’\r\neach oder, Massa Stubb; dey don’t hear one word; no use a-preachin’ to\r\nsuch dam g’uttons as you call ’em, till dare bellies is full, and dare\r\nbellies is bottomless; and when dey do get ’em full, dey wont hear you\r\nden; for den dey sink in de sea, go fast to sleep on de coral, and\r\ncan’t hear not’ing at all, no more, for eber and eber.”\r\n\r\n“Upon my soul, I am about of the same opinion; so give the benediction,\r\nFleece, and I’ll away to my supper.”\r\n\r\nUpon this, Fleece, holding both hands over the fishy mob, raised his\r\nshrill voice, and cried—\r\n\r\n“Cussed fellow-critters! Kick up de damndest row as ever you can; fill\r\nyour dam’ bellies ’till dey bust—and den die.”\r\n\r\n“Now, cook,” said Stubb, resuming his supper at the capstan; “stand\r\njust where you stood before, there, over against me, and pay particular\r\nattention.”\r\n\r\n“All dention,” said Fleece, again stooping over upon his tongs in the\r\ndesired position.\r\n\r\n“Well,” said Stubb, helping himself freely meanwhile; “I shall now go\r\nback to the subject of this steak. In the first place, how old are you,\r\ncook?”\r\n\r\n“What dat do wid de ’teak,” said the old black, testily.\r\n\r\n“Silence! How old are you, cook?”\r\n\r\n“’Bout ninety, dey say,” he gloomily muttered.\r\n\r\n“And you have lived in this world hard upon one hundred years, cook,\r\nand don’t know yet how to cook a whale-steak?” rapidly bolting another\r\nmouthful at the last word, so that morsel seemed a continuation of the\r\nquestion. “Where were you born, cook?”\r\n\r\n“’Hind de hatchway, in ferry-boat, goin’ ober de Roanoke.”\r\n\r\n“Born in a ferry-boat! That’s queer, too. But I want to know what\r\ncountry you were born in, cook!”\r\n\r\n“Didn’t I say de Roanoke country?” he cried sharply.\r\n\r\n“No, you didn’t, cook; but I’ll tell you what I’m coming to, cook. You\r\nmust go home and be born over again; you don’t know how to cook a\r\nwhale-steak yet.”\r\n\r\n“Bress my soul, if I cook noder one,” he growled, angrily, turning\r\nround to depart.\r\n\r\n“Come back, cook;—here, hand me those tongs;—now take that bit of steak\r\nthere, and tell me if you think that steak cooked as it should be? Take\r\nit, I say”—holding the tongs towards him—“take it, and taste it.”\r\n\r\nFaintly smacking his withered lips over it for a moment, the old negro\r\nmuttered, “Best cooked ’teak I eber taste; joosy, berry joosy.”\r\n\r\n“Cook,” said Stubb, squaring himself once more; “do you belong to the\r\nchurch?”\r\n\r\n“Passed one once in Cape-Down,” said the old man sullenly.\r\n\r\n“And you have once in your life passed a holy church in Cape-Town,\r\nwhere you doubtless overheard a holy parson addressing his hearers as\r\nhis beloved fellow-creatures, have you, cook! And yet you come here,\r\nand tell me such a dreadful lie as you did just now, eh?” said Stubb.\r\n“Where do you expect to go to, cook?”\r\n\r\n“Go to bed berry soon,” he mumbled, half-turning as he spoke.\r\n\r\n“Avast! heave to! I mean when you die, cook. It’s an awful question.\r\nNow what’s your answer?”\r\n\r\n“When dis old brack man dies,” said the negro slowly, changing his\r\nwhole air and demeanor, “he hisself won’t go nowhere; but some bressed\r\nangel will come and fetch him.”\r\n\r\n“Fetch him? How? In a coach and four, as they fetched Elijah? And fetch\r\nhim where?”\r\n\r\n“Up dere,” said Fleece, holding his tongs straight over his head, and\r\nkeeping it there very solemnly.\r\n\r\n“So, then, you expect to go up into our main-top, do you, cook, when\r\nyou are dead? But don’t you know the higher you climb, the colder it\r\ngets? Main-top, eh?”\r\n\r\n“Didn’t say dat t’all,” said Fleece, again in the sulks.\r\n\r\n“You said up there, didn’t you? and now look yourself, and see where\r\nyour tongs are pointing. But, perhaps you expect to get into heaven by\r\ncrawling through the lubber’s hole, cook; but, no, no, cook, you don’t\r\nget there, except you go the regular way, round by the rigging. It’s a\r\nticklish business, but must be done, or else it’s no go. But none of us\r\nare in heaven yet. Drop your tongs, cook, and hear my orders. Do ye\r\nhear? Hold your hat in one hand, and clap t’other a’top of your heart,\r\nwhen I’m giving my orders, cook. What! that your heart, there?—that’s\r\nyour gizzard! Aloft! aloft!—that’s it—now you have it. Hold it there\r\nnow, and pay attention.”\r\n\r\n“All ’dention,” said the old black, with both hands placed as desired,\r\nvainly wriggling his grizzled head, as if to get both ears in front at\r\none and the same time.\r\n\r\n“Well then, cook, you see this whale-steak of yours was so very bad,\r\nthat I have put it out of sight as soon as possible; you see that,\r\ndon’t you? Well, for the future, when you cook another whale-steak for\r\nmy private table here, the capstan, I’ll tell you what to do so as not\r\nto spoil it by overdoing. Hold the steak in one hand, and show a live\r\ncoal to it with the other; that done, dish it; d’ye hear? And now\r\nto-morrow, cook, when we are cutting in the fish, be sure you stand by\r\nto get the tips of his fins; have them put in pickle. As for the ends\r\nof the flukes, have them soused, cook. There, now ye may go.”\r\n\r\nBut Fleece had hardly got three paces off, when he was recalled.\r\n\r\n“Cook, give me cutlets for supper to-morrow night in the mid-watch.\r\nD’ye hear? away you sail, then.—Halloa! stop! make a bow before you\r\ngo.—Avast heaving again! Whale-balls for breakfast—don’t forget.”\r\n\r\n“Wish, by gor! whale eat him, ’stead of him eat whale. I’m bressed if\r\nhe ain’t more of shark dan Massa Shark hisself,” muttered the old man,\r\nlimping away; with which sage ejaculation he went to his hammock.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 65. The Whale as a Dish.\r\n\r\nThat mortal man should feed upon the creature that feeds his lamp, and,\r\nlike Stubb, eat him by his own light, as you may say; this seems so\r\noutlandish a thing that one must needs go a little into the history and\r\nphilosophy of it.\r\n\r\nIt is upon record, that three centuries ago the tongue of the Right\r\nWhale was esteemed a great delicacy in France, and commanded large\r\nprices there. Also, that in Henry VIIIth’s time, a certain cook of the\r\ncourt obtained a handsome reward for inventing an admirable sauce to be\r\neaten with barbacued porpoises, which, you remember, are a species of\r\nwhale. Porpoises, indeed, are to this day considered fine eating. The\r\nmeat is made into balls about the size of billiard balls, and being\r\nwell seasoned and spiced might be taken for turtle-balls or veal balls.\r\nThe old monks of Dunfermline were very fond of them. They had a great\r\nporpoise grant from the crown.\r\n\r\nThe fact is, that among his hunters at least, the whale would by all\r\nhands be considered a noble dish, were there not so much of him; but\r\nwhen you come to sit down before a meat-pie nearly one hundred feet\r\nlong, it takes away your appetite. Only the most unprejudiced of men\r\nlike Stubb, nowadays partake of cooked whales; but the Esquimaux are\r\nnot so fastidious. We all know how they live upon whales, and have rare\r\nold vintages of prime old train oil. Zogranda, one of their most famous\r\ndoctors, recommends strips of blubber for infants, as being exceedingly\r\njuicy and nourishing. And this reminds me that certain Englishmen, who\r\nlong ago were accidentally left in Greenland by a whaling vessel—that\r\nthese men actually lived for several months on the mouldy scraps of\r\nwhales which had been left ashore after trying out the 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