132 
MOBY DICK; OR 
CHAPTER XXXIII 
THE CABIN-TABLE 
It is noon; and Dough-Boy, the steward, thrusting his pale loaf-of- 
bread face from the cabin-scuttle, announces dinner to his lord and 
master; who, sitting in the lee quarter-boat, has just been taking an 
observation of the sun ; and is now mutely reckoning the latitude on the 
smooth, medallion-shaped tablet, reserved for that daily purpose on the 
upper part of his ivory leg. From his complete inattention to the tid- 
ings, you would think that moody Ahab had not heard his menial. 
But presently, catching hold of the mizzen shrouds, he swings him- 
self to the deck, and in an even, unexhilarated voice, saying, “Dinner, 
Mr. Starbuck,” disappears into the cabin. 
When the last echo of his sultan’s step has died away, and Starbuck, 
the first Emir, has every reason to suppose that he is seated, then Star- 
buck rouses from his quietude, takes a few turns along the planks, and, 
after a grave peep into the binnacle, says, with some touch of pleasant- 
ness, “Dinner, Mr. Stubb,” and descends the scuttle. The second 
Emir lounges about the rigging awhile, and then slightly shaking the 
main brace, to see whether it be all right with that important rope, he 
likewise takes up the old burden, and with a rapid “Dinner, Mr. Flask,” 
follows after his predecessors. 
But the third Emir, now seeing himself all alone on the quarter-deck 
seems to feel relieved from some curious restraint ; for, tipping all sorts 
of knowing winks in all sorts of directions, and kicking off his shoes, 
he strikes into a sharp but noiseless squall of a hornpipe right over the 
Grand Turk’s head ; and then, by a dexterous sleight, pitching his cap 
up into the mizzen-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, in- 
dependent, hilarious little Flask enters King Ahab’s presence, in the 
character of Abjectus, or the Slave. 
It is not the least among the strange things bred by the intense 
artificialness of sea-usages, that while in the open air of the deck some 
