{"id":"01KJNXJV6P6HV6Y3YY9WJW7HGG","cid":"bafkreico5bjqoctdaavt6fwkkutkzitkhhwaud6v6mqnusag4u26vi7t4e","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":718786,"char_start":710876,"chunk_index":100,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1978,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"whale’s back. You have seen Italian organ-boys holding a dancing-ape by\r\na long cord. Just so, from the ship’s steep side, did I hold Queequeg\r\ndown there in the sea, by what is technically called in the fishery a\r\nmonkey-rope, attached to a strong strip of canvas belted round his\r\nwaist.\r\n\r\nIt was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we\r\nproceed further, it must be said that the monkey-rope was fast at both\r\nends; fast to Queequeg’s broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow\r\nleather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time,\r\nwere wedded; and should poor Queequeg sink to rise no more, then both\r\nusage and honor demanded, that instead of cutting the cord, it should\r\ndrag me down in his wake. So, then, an elongated Siamese ligature\r\nunited us. Queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother; nor could I\r\nany way get rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond\r\nentailed.\r\n\r\nSo strongly and metaphysically did I conceive of my situation then,\r\nthat while earnestly watching his motions, I seemed distinctly to\r\nperceive that my own individuality was now merged in a joint stock\r\ncompany of two; that my free will had received a mortal wound; and that\r\nanother’s mistake or misfortune might plunge innocent me into unmerited\r\ndisaster and death. Therefore, I saw that here was a sort of\r\ninterregnum in Providence; for its even-handed equity never could have\r\nso gross an injustice. And yet still further pondering—while I jerked\r\nhim now and then from between the whale and ship, which would threaten\r\nto jam him—still further pondering, I say, I saw that this situation of\r\nmine was the precise situation of every mortal that breathes; only, in\r\nmost cases, he, one way or other, has this Siamese connexion with a\r\nplurality of other mortals. If your banker breaks, you snap; if your\r\napothecary by mistake sends you poison in your pills, you die. True,\r\nyou may say that, by exceeding caution, you may possibly escape these\r\nand the multitudinous other evil chances of life. But handle Queequeg’s\r\nmonkey-rope heedfully as I would, sometimes he jerked it so, that I\r\ncame very near sliding overboard. Nor could I possibly forget that, do\r\nwhat I would, I only had the management of one end of it.*\r\n\r\n*The monkey-rope is found in all whalers; but it was only in the Pequod\r\nthat the monkey and his holder were ever tied together. This\r\nimprovement upon the original usage was introduced by no less a man\r\nthan Stubb, in order to afford the imperilled harpooneer the strongest\r\npossible guarantee for the faithfulness and vigilance of his\r\nmonkey-rope holder.\r\n\r\nI have hinted that I would often jerk poor Queequeg from between the\r\nwhale and the ship—where he would occasionally fall, from the incessant\r\nrolling and swaying of both. But this was not the only jamming jeopardy\r\nhe was exposed to. Unappalled by the massacre made upon them during the\r\nnight, the sharks now freshly and more keenly allured by the before\r\npent blood which began to flow from the carcass—the rabid creatures\r\nswarmed round it like bees in a beehive.\r\n\r\nAnd right in among those sharks was Queequeg; who often pushed them\r\naside with his floundering feet. A thing altogether incredible were it\r\nnot that attracted by such prey as a dead whale, the otherwise\r\nmiscellaneously carnivorous shark will seldom touch a man.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, it may well be believed that since they have such a\r\nravenous finger in the pie, it is deemed but wise to look sharp to\r\nthem. Accordingly, besides the monkey-rope, with which I now and then\r\njerked the poor fellow from too close a vicinity to the maw of what\r\nseemed a peculiarly ferocious shark—he was provided with still another\r\nprotection. Suspended over the side in one of the stages, Tashtego and\r\nDaggoo continually flourished over his head a couple of keen\r\nwhale-spades, wherewith they slaughtered as many sharks as they could\r\nreach. This procedure of theirs, to be sure, was very disinterested and\r\nbenevolent of them. They meant Queequeg’s best happiness, I admit; but\r\nin their hasty zeal to befriend him, and from the circumstance that\r\nboth he and the sharks were at times half hidden by the blood-muddled\r\nwater, those indiscreet spades of theirs would come nearer amputating a\r\nleg than a tail. But poor Queequeg, I suppose, straining and gasping\r\nthere with that great iron hook—poor Queequeg, I suppose, only prayed\r\nto his Yojo, and gave up his life into the hands of his gods.\r\n\r\nWell, well, my dear comrade and twin-brother, thought I, as I drew in\r\nand then slacked off the rope to every swell of the sea—what matters\r\nit, after all? Are you not the precious image of each and all of us men\r\nin this whaling world? That unsounded ocean you gasp in, is Life; those\r\nsharks, your foes; those spades, your friends; and what between sharks\r\nand spades you are in a sad pickle and peril, poor lad.\r\n\r\nBut courage! there is good cheer in store for you, Queequeg. For now,\r\nas with blue lips and blood-shot eyes the exhausted savage at last\r\nclimbs up the chains and stands all dripping and involuntarily\r\ntrembling over the side; the steward advances, and with a benevolent,\r\nconsolatory glance hands him—what? Some hot Cognac? No! hands him, ye\r\ngods! hands him a cup of tepid ginger and water!\r\n\r\n“Ginger? Do I smell ginger?” suspiciously asked Stubb, coming near.\r\n“Yes, this must be ginger,” peering into the as yet untasted cup. Then\r\nstanding as if incredulous for a while, he calmly walked towards the\r\nastonished steward slowly saying, “Ginger? ginger? and will you have\r\nthe goodness to tell me, Mr. Dough-Boy, where lies the virtue of\r\nginger? Ginger! is ginger the sort of fuel you use, Dough-boy, to\r\nkindle a fire in this shivering cannibal? Ginger!—what the devil is\r\nginger? Sea-coal? firewood?—lucifer matches?—tinder?—gunpowder?—what\r\nthe devil is ginger, I say, that you offer this cup to our poor\r\nQueequeg here.”\r\n\r\n“There is some sneaking Temperance Society movement about this\r\nbusiness,” he suddenly added, now approaching Starbuck, who had just\r\ncome from forward. “Will you look at that kannakin, sir: smell of it,\r\nif you please.” Then watching the mate’s countenance, he added, “The\r\nsteward, Mr. Starbuck, had the face to offer that calomel and jalap to\r\nQueequeg, there, this instant off the whale. Is the steward an\r\napothecary, sir? and may I ask whether this is the sort of bitters by\r\nwhich he blows back the life into a half-drowned man?”\r\n\r\n“I trust not,” said Starbuck, “it is poor stuff enough.”\r\n\r\n“Aye, aye, steward,” cried Stubb, “we’ll teach you to drug a\r\nharpooneer; none of your apothecary’s medicine here; you want to poison\r\nus, do ye? You have got out insurances on our lives and want to murder\r\nus all, and pocket the proceeds, do ye?”\r\n\r\n“It was not me,” cried Dough-Boy, “it was Aunt Charity that brought the\r\nginger on board; and bade me never give the harpooneers any spirits,\r\nbut only this ginger-jub—so she called it.”\r\n\r\n“Ginger-jub! you gingerly rascal! take that! and run along with ye to\r\nthe lockers, and get something better. I hope I do no wrong, Mr.\r\nStarbuck. It is the captain’s orders—grog for the harpooneer on a\r\nwhale.”\r\n\r\n“Enough,” replied Starbuck, “only don’t hit him again, but—”\r\n\r\n“Oh, I never hurt when I hit, except when I hit a whale or something of\r\nthat sort; and this fellow’s a weazel. What were you about saying,\r\nsir?”\r\n\r\n“Only this: go down with him, and get what thou wantest thyself.”\r\n\r\nWhen Stubb reappeared, he came with a dark flask in one hand, and a\r\nsort of tea-caddy in the other. The first contained strong spirits, and\r\nwas handed to Queequeg; the second was Aunt Charity’s gift, and that\r\nwas freely given to the waves.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 73. Stubb and Flask kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk\r\nover Him.\r\n\r\nIt must be borne in mind that all this time we have a Sperm Whale’s\r\nprodigious head hanging to the Pequod’s side."},"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":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3Z6GAC3QZ1MZC1PX63","peer_label":"pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV94RQAJGYF0Y1PBZWSW","peer_label":"tashtego","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNA6Q7NV244AJQKVXKZ","peer_label":"queequeg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV7VCG1M1V2KKXZJD4A9","peer_label":"stubb","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV8861P977B7BE45JR4K","peer_label":"daggoo","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM53NKWEJ4GR0WPQG0VAH","peer_label":"yojo","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"deity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM3Y01SQ5YR3EQNR1GG38","peer_label":"dough-boy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2MWSD9JK6ZKV9HEMKJR","peer_label":"right whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_species","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKYGCZNXREK07X11VQXHV","peer_label":"sperm whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_species","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMYNZNY4YDJGT6RE1KHG8","peer_label":"chapter 73","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_section","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKVYKWFDKYWNFAY5N9KE5","peer_label":"starbuck","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMAXS9ERJMQ7Z29F1TRDC","peer_label":"whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNM8HQFVTQAHT6A3032S6","peer_label":"flask","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXN8PYBJF3B35BCJ79KGX4","peer_label":"aunt charity","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFGZQ3A0GS27PF72JPWY","peer_label":"ginger-jub","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"beverage","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNCSYN8F5W2XDVKY42VZ1","peer_label":"monkey-rope","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_equipment","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFN09RCYVQRKRKP9VMN5","peer_label":"sharks","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"animal","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFG096W3MH1YR71N12KQ","peer_label":"whale-spades","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_equipment","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:43.846Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.062Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:05:26.973Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}