|
Table of Contents
Chapter 10
A BOSOM
FRIEND
Returning to the Spouter-Inn from the Chapel, I found Queequeg
there quite alone; he having left the Chapel before the benediction some time.
He was sitting on a bench before the fire, with his feet on the stove hearth,
and in one hand was holding close up to his face that little negro idol of
his; peering hard into its face, and with a jack-knife gently whittling away
at its nose, meanwhile humming to himself in his heathenish way. But being now
interrupted, he put up the image; and pretty ..
2 soon, going to the
table, took up a large book there, and placing it on his lap began counting
the pages with deliberate regularity; at every fiftieth page --as I fancied
--stopping a moment, looking vacantly around him, and giving utterance to a
long-drawn gurgling whistle of astonishment. He would then begin again at the
next fifty; seeming to commence at number one each time, as though he could
not count more than fifty, and it was only by such a large number of fifties
being found together, that his astonishment at the multitude of pages was
excited. With much interest I sat watching him. Savage though he was, and
hideously marred about the face --at least to my taste -- his countenance yet
had a something in it which was by no means disagreeable. You cannot hide the
soul. Through all his unearthly tattooings, I thought I saw the traces of a
simple honest heart; and in his large, deep eyes, fiery black and bold, there
seemed tokens of a spirit that would dare a thousand devils. And besides all
this, there was a certain lofty bearing about the Pagan, which even his
uncouthness could not altogether maim. He looked like a man who had never
cringed and never had had a creditor. Whether it was, too, that his head being
shaved, his forehead was drawn out in freer and brighter relief, and looked
more expansive than it otherwise would, this I will not venture to decide; but
certain it was his head was phrenologically an excellent one. It may seem
ridiculous, but it reminded me of General Washington's head, as seen in the
popular busts of him. It had the same long regularly graded retreating slope
from above the brows, which were likewise very projecting, like two long
promontories thickly wooded on top. Queequeg was George Washington
cannibalistically developed. Whilst I was thus closely scanning him,
half-pretending meanwhile to be looking out at the storm from the casement, he
never heeded my presence, never troubled himself with so much as a single
glance; but appeared wholly occupied with counting the pages of the marvellous
book. Considering how sociably we had been sleeping together the night
previous, and especially considering the affectionate arm I had found thrown
over me upon waking in the morning, I thought this indifference of his ..
3 very strange. But
savages are strange beings; at times you do not know exactly how to take them.
At first they are overawing; their calm self-collectedness of simplicity seems
a Socratic wisdom. I had noticed also that Queequeg never consorted at all, or
but very little, with the other seamen in the inn. He made no advances
whatever; appeared to have no desire to enlarge the circle of his
acquaintances. All this struck me as mighty singular; yet, upon second
thoughts, there was something almost sublime in it. Here was a man some twenty
thousand miles from home, by the way of Cape Horn, that is --which was the
only way he could get there --thrown among people as strange to him as though
he were in the planet Jupiter; and yet he seemed entirely at his ease;
preserving the utmost serenity; content with his own companionship; always
equal to himself. Surely this was a touch of fine philosophy; though no doubt
he had never heard there was such a thing as that. But, perhaps, to be true
philosophers, we mortals should not be conscious of so living or so striving.
So soon as I hear that such or such a man gives himself out for a philosopher,
I conclude that, like the dyspeptic old woman, he must have broken his
digester. As I sat there in that now lonely room; the fire burning low, in
that mild stage when, after its first intensity has warmed the air, it then
only glows to be looked at; the evening shades and phantoms gathering round
the casements, and peering in upon us silent, solitary twain; the storm
booming without in solemn swells; I began to be sensible of strange feelings.
I felt a melting in me. No more my splintered heart and maddened hand were
turned against the wolfish world. This soothing savage had redeemed it. There
he sat, his very indifference speaking a nature in which there lurked no
civilized hypocrisies and bland deceits. Wild he was; a very sight of sights
to see; yet I began to feel myself mysteriously drawn towards him. And those
same things that would have repelled most others, they were the very magnets
that thus drew me. I'll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian
kindness has proved but hollow courtesy. I drew my bench near him, and made
some friendly signs and hints, doing my best to talk with him meanwhile. At
first he little noticed these advances; but presently, upon my referring to
his last ..
4 night's hospitalities,
he made out to ask me whether we were again to be bedfellows. I told him yes;
whereat I thought he looked pleased, perhaps a little complimented. We then
turned over the book together, and I endeavored to explain to him the purpose
of the printing, and the meaning of the few pictures that were in it. Thus I
soon engaged his interest; and from that we went to jabbering the best we
could about the various outer sights to be seen in this famous town. Soon I
proposed a social smoke; and, producing his pouch and tomahawk, he quietly
offered me a puff. And then we sat exchanging puffs from that wild pipe of
his, and keeping it regularly passing between us. If there yet lurked any ice
of indifference towards me in the Pagan's breast, this pleasant, genial smoke
we had, soon thawed it out, and left us cronies. He seemed to take to me quite
as naturally and unbiddenly as I to him; and when our smoke was over, he
pressed his forehead against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that
henceforth we were married; meaning, in his country's phrase, that we were
bosom friends; he would gladly die for me, if need should be. In a countryman,
this sudden flame of friendship would have seemed far too premature, a thing
to be much distrusted; but in this simple savage those old rules would not
apply. After supper, and another social chat and smoke, we went to our room
together. He made me a present of his embalmed head; took out his enormous
tobacco wallet, and groping under the tobacco, drew out some thirty dollars in
silver; then spreading them on the table, and mechanically dividing them into
two equal portions, pushed one of them towards me, and said it was mine. I was
going to remonstrate; but he silenced me by pouring them into my trowsers'
pockets. I let them stay. He then went about his evening prayers, took out his
idol, and removed the paper fireboard. By certain signs and symptoms, I
thought he seemed anxious for me to join him; but well knowing what was to
follow, I deliberated a moment whether, in case he invited me, I would comply
or otherwise. I was a good Christian; born and bred in the bosom of the
infallible Presbyterian Church. How then could I unite with ..
5 this wild idolator in
worshipping his piece of wood? But what is worship? thought I. Do you suppose
now, Ishmael, that the magnanimous God of heaven and earth --pagans and all
included --can possibly be jealous of an insignificant bit of black wood?
Impossible! But what is worship? --to do the will of God -- that is worship.
And what is the will of God? --to do to my fellow man what I would have my
fellow man to do to me -- that is the will of God. Now, Queequeg is my fellow
man. And what do I wish that this Queequeg would do to me? Why, unite with me
in my particular Presbyterian form of worship. consequently, i must then unite
with him in his; ergo, I must turn idolator. So I kindled the shavings; helped
prop up the innocent little idol; offered him burnt biscuit with Queequeg;
salamed before him twice or thrice; kissed his nose; and that done, we
undressed and went to bed, at peace with our own consciences and all the
world. But we did not go to sleep without some little chat. How it is I know
not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between
friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to
each other; and some old couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly
morning. Thus, then, in our hearts' honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg --a cosy,
loving pair. ..
|
