{"id":"01KJNXJV7J44XSH80WGP2YXYCY","cid":"bafkreiadxjirhaa67z2hfhkwpdmll7gh6bjpn2ttozyghvhvrooaufdpxu","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":873633,"char_start":865806,"chunk_index":122,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1957,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"whales, all violently making for one centre. This lucky salvation was\r\ncheaply purchased by the loss of Queequeg’s hat, who, while standing in\r\nthe bows to prick the fugitive whales, had his hat taken clean from his\r\nhead by the air-eddy made by the sudden tossing of a pair of broad\r\nflukes close by.\r\n\r\nRiotous and disordered as the universal commotion now was, it soon\r\nresolved itself into what seemed a systematic movement; for having\r\nclumped together at last in one dense body, they then renewed their\r\nonward flight with augmented fleetness. Further pursuit was useless;\r\nbut the boats still lingered in their wake to pick up what drugged\r\nwhales might be dropped astern, and likewise to secure one which Flask\r\nhad killed and waifed. The waif is a pennoned pole, two or three of\r\nwhich are carried by every boat; and which, when additional game is at\r\nhand, are inserted upright into the floating body of a dead whale, both\r\nto mark its place on the sea, and also as token of prior possession,\r\nshould the boats of any other ship draw near.\r\n\r\nThe result of this lowering was somewhat illustrative of that sagacious\r\nsaying in the Fishery,—the more whales the less fish. Of all the\r\ndrugged whales only one was captured. The rest contrived to escape for\r\nthe time, but only to be taken, as will hereafter be seen, by some\r\nother craft than the Pequod.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 88. Schools and Schoolmasters.\r\n\r\nThe previous chapter gave account of an immense body or herd of Sperm\r\nWhales, and there was also then given the probable cause inducing those\r\nvast aggregations.\r\n\r\nNow, though such great bodies are at times encountered, yet, as must\r\nhave been seen, even at the present day, small detached bands are\r\noccasionally observed, embracing from twenty to fifty individuals each.\r\nSuch bands are known as schools. They generally are of two sorts; those\r\ncomposed almost entirely of females, and those mustering none but young\r\nvigorous males, or bulls, as they are familiarly designated.\r\n\r\nIn cavalier attendance upon the school of females, you invariably see a\r\nmale of full grown magnitude, but not old; who, upon any alarm, evinces\r\nhis gallantry by falling in the rear and covering the flight of his\r\nladies. In truth, this gentleman is a luxurious Ottoman, swimming about\r\nover the watery world, surroundingly accompanied by all the solaces and\r\nendearments of the harem. The contrast between this Ottoman and his\r\nconcubines is striking; because, while he is always of the largest\r\nleviathanic proportions, the ladies, even at full growth, are not more\r\nthan one-third of the bulk of an average-sized male. They are\r\ncomparatively delicate, indeed; I dare say, not to exceed half a dozen\r\nyards round the waist. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied, that upon the\r\nwhole they are hereditarily entitled to _en bon point_.\r\n\r\nIt is very curious to watch this harem and its lord in their indolent\r\nramblings. Like fashionables, they are for ever on the move in\r\nleisurely search of variety. You meet them on the Line in time for the\r\nfull flower of the Equatorial feeding season, having just returned,\r\nperhaps, from spending the summer in the Northern seas, and so cheating\r\nsummer of all unpleasant weariness and warmth. By the time they have\r\nlounged up and down the promenade of the Equator awhile, they start for\r\nthe Oriental waters in anticipation of the cool season there, and so\r\nevade the other excessive temperature of the year.\r\n\r\nWhen serenely advancing on one of these journeys, if any strange\r\nsuspicious sights are seen, my lord whale keeps a wary eye on his\r\ninteresting family. Should any unwarrantably pert young Leviathan\r\ncoming that way, presume to draw confidentially close to one of the\r\nladies, with what prodigious fury the Bashaw assails him, and chases\r\nhim away! High times, indeed, if unprincipled young rakes like him are\r\nto be permitted to invade the sanctity of domestic bliss; though do\r\nwhat the Bashaw will, he cannot keep the most notorious Lothario out of\r\nhis bed; for, alas! all fish bed in common. As ashore, the ladies often\r\ncause the most terrible duels among their rival admirers; just so with\r\nthe whales, who sometimes come to deadly battle, and all for love. They\r\nfence with their long lower jaws, sometimes locking them together, and\r\nso striving for the supremacy like elks that warringly interweave their\r\nantlers. Not a few are captured having the deep scars of these\r\nencounters,—furrowed heads, broken teeth, scolloped fins; and in some\r\ninstances, wrenched and dislocated mouths.\r\n\r\nBut supposing the invader of domestic bliss to betake himself away at\r\nthe first rush of the harem’s lord, then is it very diverting to watch\r\nthat lord. Gently he insinuates his vast bulk among them again and\r\nrevels there awhile, still in tantalizing vicinity to young Lothario,\r\nlike pious Solomon devoutly worshipping among his thousand concubines.\r\nGranting other whales to be in sight, the fishermen will seldom give\r\nchase to one of these Grand Turks; for these Grand Turks are too lavish\r\nof their strength, and hence their unctuousness is small. As for the\r\nsons and the daughters they beget, why, those sons and daughters must\r\ntake care of themselves; at least, with only the maternal help. For\r\nlike certain other omnivorous roving lovers that might be named, my\r\nLord Whale has no taste for the nursery, however much for the bower;\r\nand so, being a great traveller, he leaves his anonymous babies all\r\nover the world; every baby an exotic. In good time, nevertheless, as\r\nthe ardour of youth declines; as years and dumps increase; as\r\nreflection lends her solemn pauses; in short, as a general lassitude\r\novertakes the sated Turk; then a love of ease and virtue supplants the\r\nlove for maidens; our Ottoman enters upon the impotent, repentant,\r\nadmonitory stage of life, forswears, disbands the harem, and grown to\r\nan exemplary, sulky old soul, goes about all alone among the meridians\r\nand parallels saying his prayers, and warning each young Leviathan from\r\nhis amorous errors.\r\n\r\nNow, as the harem of whales is called by the fishermen a school, so is\r\nthe lord and master of that school technically known as the\r\nschoolmaster. It is therefore not in strict character, however\r\nadmirably satirical, that after going to school himself, he should then\r\ngo abroad inculcating not what he learned there, but the folly of it.\r\nHis title, schoolmaster, would very naturally seem derived from the\r\nname bestowed upon the harem itself, but some have surmised that the\r\nman who first thus entitled this sort of Ottoman whale, must have read\r\nthe memoirs of Vidocq, and informed himself what sort of a\r\ncountry-schoolmaster that famous Frenchman was in his younger days, and\r\nwhat was the nature of those occult lessons he inculcated into some of\r\nhis pupils.\r\n\r\nThe same secludedness and isolation to which the schoolmaster whale\r\nbetakes himself in his advancing years, is true of all aged Sperm\r\nWhales. Almost universally, a lone whale—as a solitary Leviathan is\r\ncalled—proves an ancient one. Like venerable moss-bearded Daniel Boone,\r\nhe will have no one near him but Nature herself; and her he takes to\r\nwife in the wilderness of waters, and the best of wives she is, though\r\nshe keeps so many moody secrets.\r\n\r\nThe schools composing none but young and vigorous males, previously\r\nmentioned, offer a strong contrast to the harem schools. For while\r\nthose female whales are characteristically timid, the young males, or\r\nforty-barrel-bulls, as they call them, are by far the most pugnacious\r\nof all Leviathans, and proverbially the most dangerous to encounter;\r\nexcepting those wondrous grey-headed, grizzled whales, sometimes met,\r\nand these will fight you like grim fiends exasperated by a penal gout.\r\n\r\nThe Forty-barrel-bull schools are larger than the harem schools."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.090Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.090Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KJ6WPT018SDDANE6N7Q8E428"}}