{"id":"01KJNXJV6VCMG5S5RNCWX6E284","cid":"bafkreihanfce7wmdncsqb7lj75jdluf5uoc2hyrltuh4d6mp6wj742kaki","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":768071,"char_start":760361,"chunk_index":107,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1928,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"top of his head? Avast, will ye!”\r\n\r\n“Stand clear of the tackle!” cried a voice like the bursting of a\r\nrocket.\r\n\r\nAlmost in the same instant, with a thunder-boom, the enormous mass\r\ndropped into the sea, like Niagara’s Table-Rock into the whirlpool; the\r\nsuddenly relieved hull rolled away from it, to far down her glittering\r\ncopper; and all caught their breath, as half swinging—now over the\r\nsailors’ heads, and now over the water—Daggoo, through a thick mist of\r\nspray, was dimly beheld clinging to the pendulous tackles, while poor,\r\nburied-alive Tashtego was sinking utterly down to the bottom of the\r\nsea! But hardly had the blinding vapor cleared away, when a naked\r\nfigure with a boarding-sword in his hand, was for one swift moment seen\r\nhovering over the bulwarks. The next, a loud splash announced that my\r\nbrave Queequeg had dived to the rescue. One packed rush was made to the\r\nside, and every eye counted every ripple, as moment followed moment,\r\nand no sign of either the sinker or the diver could be seen. Some hands\r\nnow jumped into a boat alongside, and pushed a little off from the\r\nship.\r\n\r\n“Ha! ha!” cried Daggoo, all at once, from his now quiet, swinging perch\r\noverhead; and looking further off from the side, we saw an arm thrust\r\nupright from the blue waves; a sight strange to see, as an arm thrust\r\nforth from the grass over a grave.\r\n\r\n“Both! both!—it is both!”—cried Daggoo again with a joyful shout; and\r\nsoon after, Queequeg was seen boldly striking out with one hand, and\r\nwith the other clutching the long hair of the Indian. Drawn into the\r\nwaiting boat, they were quickly brought to the deck; but Tashtego was\r\nlong in coming to, and Queequeg did not look very brisk.\r\n\r\nNow, how had this noble rescue been accomplished? Why, diving after the\r\nslowly descending head, Queequeg with his keen sword had made side\r\nlunges near its bottom, so as to scuttle a large hole there; then\r\ndropping his sword, had thrust his long arm far inwards and upwards,\r\nand so hauled out poor Tash by the head. He averred, that upon first\r\nthrusting in for him, a leg was presented; but well knowing that that\r\nwas not as it ought to be, and might occasion great trouble;—he had\r\nthrust back the leg, and by a dexterous heave and toss, had wrought a\r\nsomerset upon the Indian; so that with the next trial, he came forth in\r\nthe good old way—head foremost. As for the great head itself, that was\r\ndoing as well as could be expected.\r\n\r\nAnd thus, through the courage and great skill in obstetrics of\r\nQueequeg, the deliverance, or rather, delivery of Tashtego, was\r\nsuccessfully accomplished, in the teeth, too, of the most untoward and\r\napparently hopeless impediments; which is a lesson by no means to be\r\nforgotten. Midwifery should be taught in the same course with fencing\r\nand boxing, riding and rowing.\r\n\r\nI know that this queer adventure of the Gay-Header’s will be sure to\r\nseem incredible to some landsmen, though they themselves may have\r\neither seen or heard of some one’s falling into a cistern ashore; an\r\naccident which not seldom happens, and with much less reason too than\r\nthe Indian’s, considering the exceeding slipperiness of the curb of the\r\nSperm Whale’s well.\r\n\r\nBut, peradventure, it may be sagaciously urged, how is this? We thought\r\nthe tissued, infiltrated head of the Sperm Whale, was the lightest and\r\nmost corky part about him; and yet thou makest it sink in an element of\r\na far greater specific gravity than itself. We have thee there. Not at\r\nall, but I have ye; for at the time poor Tash fell in, the case had\r\nbeen nearly emptied of its lighter contents, leaving little but the\r\ndense tendinous wall of the well—a double welded, hammered substance,\r\nas I have before said, much heavier than the sea water, and a lump of\r\nwhich sinks in it like lead almost. But the tendency to rapid sinking\r\nin this substance was in the present instance materially counteracted\r\nby the other parts of the head remaining undetached from it, so that it\r\nsank very slowly and deliberately indeed, affording Queequeg a fair\r\nchance for performing his agile obstetrics on the run, as you may say.\r\nYes, it was a running delivery, so it was.\r\n\r\nNow, had Tashtego perished in that head, it had been a very precious\r\nperishing; smothered in the very whitest and daintiest of fragrant\r\nspermaceti; coffined, hearsed, and tombed in the secret inner chamber\r\nand sanctum sanctorum of the whale. Only one sweeter end can readily be\r\nrecalled—the delicious death of an Ohio honey-hunter, who seeking honey\r\nin the crotch of a hollow tree, found such exceeding store of it, that\r\nleaning too far over, it sucked him in, so that he died embalmed. How\r\nmany, think ye, have likewise fallen into Plato’s honey head, and\r\nsweetly perished there?\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 79. The Prairie.\r\n\r\nTo scan the lines of his face, or feel the bumps on the head of this\r\nLeviathan; this is a thing which no Physiognomist or Phrenologist has\r\nas yet undertaken. Such an enterprise would seem almost as hopeful as\r\nfor Lavater to have scrutinized the wrinkles on the Rock of Gibraltar,\r\nor for Gall to have mounted a ladder and manipulated the Dome of the\r\nPantheon. Still, in that famous work of his, Lavater not only treats of\r\nthe various faces of men, but also attentively studies the faces of\r\nhorses, birds, serpents, and fish; and dwells in detail upon the\r\nmodifications of expression discernible therein. Nor have Gall and his\r\ndisciple Spurzheim failed to throw out some hints touching the\r\nphrenological characteristics of other beings than man. Therefore,\r\nthough I am but ill qualified for a pioneer, in the application of\r\nthese two semi-sciences to the whale, I will do my endeavor. I try all\r\nthings; I achieve what I can.\r\n\r\nPhysiognomically regarded, the Sperm Whale is an anomalous creature. He\r\nhas no proper nose. And since the nose is the central and most\r\nconspicuous of the features; and since it perhaps most modifies and\r\nfinally controls their combined expression; hence it would seem that\r\nits entire absence, as an external appendage, must very largely affect\r\nthe countenance of the whale. For as in landscape gardening, a spire,\r\ncupola, monument, or tower of some sort, is deemed almost indispensable\r\nto the completion of the scene; so no face can be physiognomically in\r\nkeeping without the elevated open-work belfry of the nose. Dash the\r\nnose from Phidias’s marble Jove, and what a sorry remainder!\r\nNevertheless, Leviathan is of so mighty a magnitude, all his\r\nproportions are so stately, that the same deficiency which in the\r\nsculptured Jove were hideous, in him is no blemish at all. Nay, it is\r\nan added grandeur. A nose to the whale would have been impertinent. As\r\non your physiognomical voyage you sail round his vast head in your\r\njolly-boat, your noble conceptions of him are never insulted by the\r\nreflection that he has a nose to be pulled. A pestilent conceit, which\r\nso often will insist upon obtruding even when beholding the mightiest\r\nroyal beadle on his throne.\r\n\r\nIn some particulars, perhaps the most imposing physiognomical view to\r\nbe had of the Sperm Whale, is that of the full front of his head. This\r\naspect is sublime.\r\n\r\nIn thought, a fine human brow is like the East when troubled with the\r\nmorning. In the repose of the pasture, the curled brow of the bull has\r\na touch of the grand in it. Pushing heavy cannon up mountain defiles,\r\nthe elephant’s brow is majestic. Human or animal, the mystical brow is\r\nas that great golden seal affixed by the German emperors to their\r\ndecrees. It signifies—“God: done this day by my hand.” But in most\r\ncreatures, nay in man himself, very often the brow is but a mere strip\r\nof alpine land lying along the snow line."},"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":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.396Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV94RQAJGYF0Y1PBZWSW","peer_label":"tashtego","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.396Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM33CRBF28XZNGKBWWDJ7","peer_label":"sperm whales 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