{"id":"01KJNXJV6VW6KHCQD1ZX4RZVZW","cid":"bafkreiagqczz42vndv6gacchzi55ym7gjcaxidcb7ico5xeyskffnvour4","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":761137,"char_start":753169,"chunk_index":106,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1992,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"mystically carved in front, so the whale’s vast plaited forehead forms\r\ninnumerable strange devices for the emblematical adornment of his\r\nwondrous tun. Moreover, as that of Heidelburgh was always replenished\r\nwith the most excellent of the wines of the Rhenish valleys, so the tun\r\nof the whale contains by far the most precious of all his oily\r\nvintages; namely, the highly-prized spermaceti, in its absolutely pure,\r\nlimpid, and odoriferous state. Nor is this precious substance found\r\nunalloyed in any other part of the creature. Though in life it remains\r\nperfectly fluid, yet, upon exposure to the air, after death, it soon\r\nbegins to concrete; sending forth beautiful crystalline shoots, as when\r\nthe first thin delicate ice is just forming in water. A large whale’s\r\ncase generally yields about five hundred gallons of sperm, though from\r\nunavoidable circumstances, considerable of it is spilled, leaks, and\r\ndribbles away, or is otherwise irrevocably lost in the ticklish\r\nbusiness of securing what you can.\r\n\r\nI know not with what fine and costly material the Heidelburgh Tun was\r\ncoated within, but in superlative richness that coating could not\r\npossibly have compared with the silken pearl-coloured membrane, like\r\nthe lining of a fine pelisse, forming the inner surface of the Sperm\r\nWhale’s case.\r\n\r\nIt will have been seen that the Heidelburgh Tun of the Sperm Whale\r\nembraces the entire length of the entire top of the head; and since—as\r\nhas been elsewhere set forth—the head embraces one third of the whole\r\nlength of the creature, then setting that length down at eighty feet\r\nfor a good sized whale, you have more than twenty-six feet for the\r\ndepth of the tun, when it is lengthwise hoisted up and down against a\r\nship’s side.\r\n\r\nAs in decapitating the whale, the operator’s instrument is brought\r\nclose to the spot where an entrance is subsequently forced into the\r\nspermaceti magazine; he has, therefore, to be uncommonly heedful, lest\r\na careless, untimely stroke should invade the sanctuary and wastingly\r\nlet out its invaluable contents. It is this decapitated end of the\r\nhead, also, which is at last elevated out of the water, and retained in\r\nthat position by the enormous cutting tackles, whose hempen\r\ncombinations, on one side, make quite a wilderness of ropes in that\r\nquarter.\r\n\r\nThus much being said, attend now, I pray you, to that marvellous and—in\r\nthis particular instance—almost fatal operation whereby the Sperm\r\nWhale’s great Heidelburgh Tun is tapped.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 78. Cistern and Buckets.\r\n\r\nNimble as a cat, Tashtego mounts aloft; and without altering his erect\r\nposture, runs straight out upon the overhanging mainyard-arm, to the\r\npart where it exactly projects over the hoisted Tun. He has carried\r\nwith him a light tackle called a whip, consisting of only two parts,\r\ntravelling through a single-sheaved block. Securing this block, so that\r\nit hangs down from the yard-arm, he swings one end of the rope, till it\r\nis caught and firmly held by a hand on deck. Then, hand-over-hand, down\r\nthe other part, the Indian drops through the air, till dexterously he\r\nlands on the summit of the head. There—still high elevated above the\r\nrest of the company, to whom he vivaciously cries—he seems some Turkish\r\nMuezzin calling the good people to prayers from the top of a tower. A\r\nshort-handled sharp spade being sent up to him, he diligently searches\r\nfor the proper place to begin breaking into the Tun. In this business\r\nhe proceeds very heedfully, like a treasure-hunter in some old house,\r\nsounding the walls to find where the gold is masoned in. By the time\r\nthis cautious search is over, a stout iron-bound bucket, precisely like\r\na well-bucket, has been attached to one end of the whip; while the\r\nother end, being stretched across the deck, is there held by two or\r\nthree alert hands. These last now hoist the bucket within grasp of the\r\nIndian, to whom another person has reached up a very long pole.\r\nInserting this pole into the bucket, Tashtego downward guides the\r\nbucket into the Tun, till it entirely disappears; then giving the word\r\nto the seamen at the whip, up comes the bucket again, all bubbling like\r\na dairy-maid’s pail of new milk. Carefully lowered from its height, the\r\nfull-freighted vessel is caught by an appointed hand, and quickly\r\nemptied into a large tub. Then remounting aloft, it again goes through\r\nthe same round until the deep cistern will yield no more. Towards the\r\nend, Tashtego has to ram his long pole harder and harder, and deeper\r\nand deeper into the Tun, until some twenty feet of the pole have gone\r\ndown.\r\n\r\nNow, the people of the Pequod had been baling some time in this way;\r\nseveral tubs had been filled with the fragrant sperm; when all at once\r\na queer accident happened. Whether it was that Tashtego, that wild\r\nIndian, was so heedless and reckless as to let go for a moment his\r\none-handed hold on the great cabled tackles suspending the head; or\r\nwhether the place where he stood was so treacherous and oozy; or\r\nwhether the Evil One himself would have it to fall out so, without\r\nstating his particular reasons; how it was exactly, there is no telling\r\nnow; but, on a sudden, as the eightieth or ninetieth bucket came\r\nsuckingly up—my God! poor Tashtego—like the twin reciprocating bucket\r\nin a veritable well, dropped head-foremost down into this great Tun of\r\nHeidelburgh, and with a horrible oily gurgling, went clean out of\r\nsight!\r\n\r\n“Man overboard!” cried Daggoo, who amid the general consternation first\r\ncame to his senses. “Swing the bucket this way!” and putting one foot\r\ninto it, so as the better to secure his slippery hand-hold on the whip\r\nitself, the hoisters ran him high up to the top of the head, almost\r\nbefore Tashtego could have reached its interior bottom. Meantime, there\r\nwas a terrible tumult. Looking over the side, they saw the before\r\nlifeless head throbbing and heaving just below the surface of the sea,\r\nas if that moment seized with some momentous idea; whereas it was only\r\nthe poor Indian unconsciously revealing by those struggles the perilous\r\ndepth to which he had sunk.\r\n\r\nAt this instant, while Daggoo, on the summit of the head, was clearing\r\nthe whip—which had somehow got foul of the great cutting tackles—a\r\nsharp cracking noise was heard; and to the unspeakable horror of all,\r\none of the two enormous hooks suspending the head tore out, and with a\r\nvast vibration the enormous mass sideways swung, till the drunk ship\r\nreeled and shook as if smitten by an iceberg. The one remaining hook,\r\nupon which the entire strain now depended, seemed every instant to be\r\non the point of giving way; an event still more likely from the violent\r\nmotions of the head.\r\n\r\n“Come down, come down!” yelled the seamen to Daggoo, but with one hand\r\nholding on to the heavy tackles, so that if the head should drop, he\r\nwould still remain suspended; the negro having cleared the foul line,\r\nrammed down the bucket into the now collapsed well, meaning that the\r\nburied harpooneer should grasp it, and so be hoisted out.\r\n\r\n“In heaven’s name, man,” cried Stubb, “are you ramming home a cartridge\r\nthere?—Avast! How will that help him; jamming that iron-bound bucket on\r\ntop 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."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXM6ZXASDTQ75SG7GMR61W","peer_label":"cutting tackles","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"equipment","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV94RQAJGYF0Y1PBZWSW","peer_label":"tashtego","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV8861P977B7BE45JR4K","peer_label":"daggoo","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3Z6GAC3QZ1MZC1PX63","peer_label":"pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV7VCG1M1V2KKXZJD4A9","peer_label":"stubb","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM9TB505JEN4GTMHYHKJJ","peer_label":"sperm whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"creature","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMA6D43E0DFD30KPQMKM9","peer_label":"chapter 78 cistern and buckets","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_section","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMBAJR2F6ZB0VMK046Y2N","peer_label":"whip tackle","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"equipment","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMB986EVTF3TAZME3CP5Z","peer_label":"spermaceti magazine","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"location","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMB1958CSWER7MJA0QJ8W","peer_label":"heidelburgh tun historical","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"historical_artifact","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMCWHFNFD3T4PB9ZN2BPH","peer_label":"wines of the rhenish valleys","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"product","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMCX8XKPW1ZXC0BM4AXK9","peer_label":"tashtegos fall into the tun","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"event","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMB8Z1MBN7FK7X2PAJ6FX","peer_label":"short-handled sharp spade","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"tool","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMA90Z62DD05GVQQJM52Y","peer_label":"mainyard-arm","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship_part","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMCZCPA4G9EHV2S0VXYXF","peer_label":"whale head dropping into sea","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"event","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMCWFEJN3NQ1VXSWCDPMH","peer_label":"sperm whales case","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"biological_structure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMCZKBB4F5KKY81P3FDFB","peer_label":"spermaceti","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"substance","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMBAZ5D3RKT5B5NTRRCDX","peer_label":"long pole","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"tool","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMCX8936KZ4ZH37G0694H","peer_label":"naked figure with boarding-sword","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMBAQYJPW9C7RBQA9QKA4","peer_label":"iron-bound bucket","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"tool","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:04:38.672Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.067Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:05:19.844Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}