146 
MOBY DICK; OR 
“It’s a white whale, I say,” resumed Ahab, as he threw down the 
top-maul ; “a white whale. Skin your eyes for him, men ; look sharp 
for white water ; if ye see but a bubble, sing out.” 
All this while Tashtego, Daggoo, and Queequeg had looked on with 
even more intense interest and surprise than the rest, and at the men- 
tion of the wrinkled brow and crooked jaw, they had started as if each 
was separately touched by some specific recollection. 
“Captain Ahab,” said Tashtego, “that white whale must he the 
same that some call Moby Dick.” 
“Moby Dick?” shouted Ahab. “Do ye know the white whale then, 
Tash ?” 
“Does he fan-tail a little curious, sir, before he goes down ?” said the 
Gay-Header deliberately. 
“And has he a curious spout, too,” said Daggoo, “very bushy, even 
for a parmacetty, and mighty quick, Captain Ahab ?” 
“And he have one, two, tree — oh ! good many iron in him hide, too, 
Captain,” cried Queequeg disjointedly, “all twisketee be-twisk, 
like him — him — ” faltering hard for a word, and screwing his 
hand round and round as though uncorking a bottle — “like him — 
him ” 
“Corkscrew!” cried Ahab; “ay, Queequeg, the harpoons lie all 
twisted and wrenched in him ; ay, Daggoo, his spout is a big one, like a 
whole shock of wheat, and white as a pile of our Nantucket wool after 
the great annual sheep-shearing; aye, Tashtego, and he fan-tails like 
a split jib in a squall. Death and devils! men, it is Moby Dick ye 
have seen — Moby Dick — Moby Dick!” 
“Captain Ahab,” said Starbuck, who with Stuhb and Flask, had 
thus far been eyeing his superior with increasing surprise, hut at last 
seemed struck with a thought which somewhat explained all the won- 
der. “Captain Ahab, I have heard of Moby Dick — hut it was not 
Moby Dick that took off thy leg?” 
“Who told thee that ?” cried Ahab ; then pausing. “Ay, Starbuck ; ay, 
my hearties all round; it was Moby Dick that dismasted me; Moby 
Dick that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now. Aye, aye,” 
he shouted with a terrific, loud, animal sob, like that of a heart- 
stricken moose ; “aye, aye ! it was that accursed white whale that razed 
me ; made a poor pegging lubber of me for ever and a day !” Then 
