73 
THE WHITE WHALE 
“And what dost thou want of Captain Ahab ? It’s all right enough ; 
thou art shipped.” 
“Yes, but I should like to see him.” 
“But I don’t think thou wilt be able to at present. I don’t know 
exactly what’s the matter with him ; but he keeps close inside the 
house; a sort of sick, and yet he don’t look so. In fact, he ain’t sick; 
but no, he isn’t well either. Anyhow, young man, he won’t always 
see me, so I don’t suppose he will thee. He’s a queer man, Captain 
Ahab — so some think — but a good one. Oh, thou’lt like him well 
enough; no fear, no fear. He’s a grand, ungodly, god-like man, 
Captain Ahab ; doesn’t speak much ; but, when he does speak, then 
you may well listen. Mark ye, be forewarned; Ahab’s above the 
common ; Ahab’s been in colleges, as well as ’mong the cannibals ; 
been used td deeper wonders than the waves; fixed his fiery lance in 
mightier, stranger foes than whales. His lance! ay, the keenest and 
the surest that out of all our isle ! Oh ! he ain’t Captain Bildad ; no, 
and he ain’t Captain Peleg; lies Ahab , boy, and Ahab of old, thou 
knowest, was a crowned king !” 
“And a very vile one. When that wicked king was slain, the dogs, 
did they not lick his blood ?” 
“Come hither to me — hither, hither,” said Peleg, with a significance 
in his eye that almost startled me. “Look ye, lad; never say that on 
board the Pequod. Never say it anywhere. Captain Ahab did not 
name himself. ’Twas a foolish, ignorant whim of his crazy, widowed 
mother, who died when he was only a twelvemonth old. And yet the 
old squaw Tistig, at Gay Head, said that the name would somehow 
prove prophetic. And, perhaps, other fools like her may tell thee the 
same. I wish to warn thee. It’s a lie. I know Captain Ahab well; 
I’ve sailed with him as mate years ago; I know what he is — a good 
man — not a pious, good man, like Bildad, but a swearing good man — 
something like me — only there’s a good deal more of him. Aye, aye, 
I know that he was never very jolly; and I know that on the passage 
home, he was a little out of his mind for a spell ; but it was the sharp 
shooting pains in his bleeding stump that brought that about, as any 
one might see. I know, too, that ever since he lost his leg last voyage 
by that accursed whale, he’s been a kind of moody — desperate moody, 
