TECHNIQUE 103 



top for a shelf, he goes down rollicking, so far at least as he 

 remains visible from the deck, reversing all other processions, 

 by bringing up the rear with music. But ere stepping into the 

 cabin doorway below, he pauses, ships a new face altogether, 

 and, then, independent, hilarious little Flask enters Ejng 

 Ahab's presence, in the character of Abjectus, or the Slave. 



''It is not the least among the strange things bred by the in- 

 tense artificialness of sea-usages, that while in the open air of 

 the deck some officers will, upon provocation, bear themselves 

 boldly and defyingly enough towards their commander; yet, 

 ten to one, let those very officers the next moment go down to 

 their customary dinner in that same commander's cabin, and 

 straightway their inoffensive, not to say deprecatory and hum- 

 ble air towards him, as he sits at the head of the table; this 

 is marvellous, sometimes most comical. Wherefore this differ- 

 ence? A problem? Perhaps not. To have been Belshazzar, 

 King of Babylon; and to have been Belshazzar, not haughtily 

 but courteously, therein certainly must have been some touch 

 of mundane grandeur. But he who in the rightly regal and in- 

 telligent spirit presides over his own private dinner-table of in- 

 vited guests, that man's unchallenged power and dominion of 

 individual influence for the time; that man's royalty of state 

 transcends Belshazzar's, for Belshazzar was not the greatest. 

 Who has but once dined his friends, has tasted what it is to be 

 Caesar. It is a witchery of social czarship which there is no 

 withstanding. Now, if to this consideration you superadd the 

 ofiicial supremacy of a shipmaster, then, by inference, you will 

 derive the cause of that peculiarity of sea-life just mentioned. 



''Over his ivory-inlaid table, Ahab presided like a mute, 

 maned sea-lion on the white coral beach, surrounded by his war- 

 like but still deferential cubs. In his own proper turn, each 

 officer waited to be served. They were as little children before 

 Ahab; and yet, in Ahab, there seemed not to lurk the smallest 

 social arrogance. 



"With one mind, their intent eyes all fastened upon the old 

 man's knife, as he carved the chief dish before him. I do not 

 suppose that for the world they would have profaned that 



