{"id":"01KJNXJV787SEC6Y7RDPR33KFX","cid":"bafkreigvut6wrxrguzwcimxoimxcxv4o5fhw7uuox6hhnpn4qe72vyquyq","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":852537,"char_start":844656,"chunk_index":119,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1971,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"herds, sometimes embracing so great a multitude, that it would almost\r\nseem as if numerous nations of them had sworn solemn league and\r\ncovenant for mutual assistance and protection. To this aggregation of\r\nthe Sperm Whale into such immense caravans, may be imputed the\r\ncircumstance that even in the best cruising grounds, you may now\r\nsometimes sail for weeks and months together, without being greeted by\r\na single spout; and then be suddenly saluted by what sometimes seems\r\nthousands on thousands.\r\n\r\nBroad on both bows, at the distance of some two or three miles, and\r\nforming a great semicircle, embracing one half of the level horizon, a\r\ncontinuous chain of whale-jets were up-playing and sparkling in the\r\nnoon-day air. Unlike the straight perpendicular twin-jets of the Right\r\nWhale, which, dividing at top, fall over in two branches, like the\r\ncleft drooping boughs of a willow, the single forward-slanting spout of\r\nthe Sperm Whale presents a thick curled bush of white mist, continually\r\nrising and falling away to leeward.\r\n\r\nSeen from the Pequod’s deck, then, as she would rise on a high hill of\r\nthe sea, this host of vapory spouts, individually curling up into the\r\nair, and beheld through a blending atmosphere of bluish haze, showed\r\nlike the thousand cheerful chimneys of some dense metropolis, descried\r\nof a balmy autumnal morning, by some horseman on a height.\r\n\r\nAs marching armies approaching an unfriendly defile in the mountains,\r\naccelerate their march, all eagerness to place that perilous passage in\r\ntheir rear, and once more expand in comparative security upon the\r\nplain; even so did this vast fleet of whales now seem hurrying forward\r\nthrough the straits; gradually contracting the wings of their\r\nsemicircle, and swimming on, in one solid, but still crescentic centre.\r\n\r\nCrowding all sail the Pequod pressed after them; the harpooneers\r\nhandling their weapons, and loudly cheering from the heads of their yet\r\nsuspended boats. If the wind only held, little doubt had they, that\r\nchased through these Straits of Sunda, the vast host would only deploy\r\ninto the Oriental seas to witness the capture of not a few of their\r\nnumber. And who could tell whether, in that congregated caravan, Moby\r\nDick himself might not temporarily be swimming, like the worshipped\r\nwhite-elephant in the coronation procession of the Siamese! So with\r\nstun-sail piled on stun-sail, we sailed along, driving these leviathans\r\nbefore us; when, of a sudden, the voice of Tashtego was heard, loudly\r\ndirecting attention to something in our wake.\r\n\r\nCorresponding to the crescent in our van, we beheld another in our\r\nrear. It seemed formed of detached white vapors, rising and falling\r\nsomething like the spouts of the whales; only they did not so\r\ncompletely come and go; for they constantly hovered, without finally\r\ndisappearing. Levelling his glass at this sight, Ahab quickly revolved\r\nin his pivot-hole, crying, “Aloft there, and rig whips and buckets to\r\nwet the sails;—Malays, sir, and after us!”\r\n\r\nAs if too long lurking behind the headlands, till the Pequod should\r\nfairly have entered the straits, these rascally Asiatics were now in\r\nhot pursuit, to make up for their over-cautious delay. But when the\r\nswift Pequod, with a fresh leading wind, was herself in hot chase; how\r\nvery kind of these tawny philanthropists to assist in speeding her on\r\nto her own chosen pursuit,—mere riding-whips and rowels to her, that\r\nthey were. As with glass under arm, Ahab to-and-fro paced the deck; in\r\nhis forward turn beholding the monsters he chased, and in the after one\r\nthe bloodthirsty pirates chasing _him_; some such fancy as the above\r\nseemed his. And when he glanced upon the green walls of the watery\r\ndefile in which the ship was then sailing, and bethought him that\r\nthrough that gate lay the route to his vengeance, and beheld, how that\r\nthrough that same gate he was now both chasing and being chased to his\r\ndeadly end; and not only that, but a herd of remorseless wild pirates\r\nand inhuman atheistical devils were infernally cheering him on with\r\ntheir curses;—when all these conceits had passed through his brain,\r\nAhab’s brow was left gaunt and ribbed, like the black sand beach after\r\nsome stormy tide has been gnawing it, without being able to drag the\r\nfirm thing from its place.\r\n\r\nBut thoughts like these troubled very few of the reckless crew; and\r\nwhen, after steadily dropping and dropping the pirates astern, the\r\nPequod at last shot by the vivid green Cockatoo Point on the Sumatra\r\nside, emerging at last upon the broad waters beyond; then, the\r\nharpooneers seemed more to grieve that the swift whales had been\r\ngaining upon the ship, than to rejoice that the ship had so\r\nvictoriously gained upon the Malays. But still driving on in the wake\r\nof the whales, at length they seemed abating their speed; gradually the\r\nship neared them; and the wind now dying away, word was passed to\r\nspring to the boats. But no sooner did the herd, by some presumed\r\nwonderful instinct of the Sperm Whale, become notified of the three\r\nkeels that were after them,—though as yet a mile in their rear,—than\r\nthey rallied again, and forming in close ranks and battalions, so that\r\ntheir spouts all looked like flashing lines of stacked bayonets, moved\r\non with redoubled velocity.\r\n\r\nStripped to our shirts and drawers, we sprang to the white-ash, and\r\nafter several hours’ pulling were almost disposed to renounce the\r\nchase, when a general pausing commotion among the whales gave animating\r\ntoken that they were now at last under the influence of that strange\r\nperplexity of inert irresolution, which, when the fishermen perceive it\r\nin the whale, they say he is gallied. The compact martial columns in\r\nwhich they had been hitherto rapidly and steadily swimming, were now\r\nbroken up in one measureless rout; and like King Porus’ elephants in\r\nthe Indian battle with Alexander, they seemed going mad with\r\nconsternation. In all directions expanding in vast irregular circles,\r\nand aimlessly swimming hither and thither, by their short thick\r\nspoutings, they plainly betrayed their distraction of panic. This was\r\nstill more strangely evinced by those of their number, who, completely\r\nparalysed as it were, helplessly floated like water-logged dismantled\r\nships on the sea. Had these Leviathans been but a flock of simple\r\nsheep, pursued over the pasture by three fierce wolves, they could not\r\npossibly have evinced such excessive dismay. But this occasional\r\ntimidity is characteristic of almost all herding creatures. Though\r\nbanding together in tens of thousands, the lion-maned buffaloes of the\r\nWest have fled before a solitary horseman. Witness, too, all human\r\nbeings, how when herded together in the sheepfold of a theatre’s pit,\r\nthey will, at the slightest alarm of fire, rush helter-skelter for the\r\noutlets, crowding, trampling, jamming, and remorselessly dashing each\r\nother to death. Best, therefore, withhold any amazement at the\r\nstrangely gallied whales before us, for there is no folly of the beasts\r\nof the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.\r\n\r\nThough many of the whales, as has been said, were in violent motion,\r\nyet it is to be observed that as a whole the herd neither advanced nor\r\nretreated, but collectively remained in one place. As is customary in\r\nthose cases, the boats at once separated, each making for some one lone\r\nwhale on the outskirts of the shoal. In about three minutes’ time,\r\nQueequeg’s harpoon was flung; the stricken fish darted blinding spray\r\nin our faces, and then running away with us like light, steered\r\nstraight for the heart of the herd. Though such a movement on the part\r\nof the whale struck under such circumstances, is in no wise\r\nunprecedented; and indeed is almost always more or less anticipated;\r\nyet does it present one of the more perilous vicissitudes of the\r\nfishery."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKYGCZNXREK07X11VQXHV","peer_label":"sperm whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_species","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3Z6GAC3QZ1MZC1PX63","peer_label":"pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM2MWSD9JK6ZKV9HEMKJR","peer_label":"right whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_species","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3DZQ5YTC2NQ9Q7VBWR","peer_label":"ahab","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV94RQAJGYF0Y1PBZWSW","peer_label":"tashtego","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM529XJRPQXV0DC58V32N","peer_label":"moby dick","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNA6Q7NV244AJQKVXKZ","peer_label":"queequeg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXH2GMRN3K01DR56AKFQ","peer_label":"harpoon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNDPRC0WNZXVZB6BY6H28","peer_label":"harpooneers","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"crew_group","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXP2VZE7PKQAFPY3QWNKNT","peer_label":"sumatra","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"island","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNDKSJ4ZH3CVB7G7ZKMR9","peer_label":"straits of sunda","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"waterway","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ25PYXSEVRR1BTYGGTA6","peer_label":"thick_curled_bush_of_mist","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ23PEH5Y3GB6SS94XTRM","peer_label":"straight_perpendicular_twin_jets","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFHE4RMWR4KE0CWW8KB6","peer_label":"gallied","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_behavior_state","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ37MT7QYKRGBMFH28031","peer_label":"alexander the great","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"historical_figure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFP79SNDQF1PPRABCFW0","peer_label":"oriental seas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"geographic_region","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFN5FEP6K0NASEWKWXAY","peer_label":"malays","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group_of_people","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXPYZGRT68YM9X5N6TR6HR","peer_label":"king porus","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"historical_figure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ0XR2D6X74XZKQWC2928","peer_label":"cockatoo point","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"geographic_feature","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:08.564Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.080Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:08:09.854Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}