THE WHITE WHALE m 
human race itself, giving the white man ideal mastership over every 
dusky tribe; and though, besides all this, whiteness has been even made 
significant of gladness, for among the Romans a white stone marked 
a j°yful day ; and though in other mortal sympathies and symbolisings, 
this same hue is made the emblem of many touching, noble things — 
the innocence of brides, the benignity of age; though among the Red 
Men of America the giving of the white belt of wampum was the deep- 
est pledge of honour; though in many climes, whiteness typifies the 
majesty of Justice in the ermine of the Judge, and contributes to the 
daily state of kings and queens drawn by milk-white steeds ; though 
even in the higher mysteries of the most august religions it has been 
made the symbol of the divine spotlessness and power; by the Persian 
fire worshippers, the white forked flame being held the holiest on the 
altar; and in the Greek mythologies, Great Jove himself being made 
incarnate in a snow-white bull ; and though to the noble Iroquois, the 
mid-winter sacrifice of the sacred White Dog was by far the holiest 
festival of their theology, that spotless, faithful creature being held the 
purest envoy they could send to the Great Spirit with the annual tidings 
of their fidelity; and though directly from the Latin word for white, 
all Christian priests derive the name of one part of their sacred vesture, 
the alb or tunic, worn beneath the cassock ; and though among the holy 
pomps of the Romish faith, white is specially employed in the celebra- 
tion of the Passion of our Lord; though in the Vision of St. John, 
white robes are given to the redeemed, and the four-and-twenty elders 
stand clothed in white before the great white throne, and the Holy One 
that sitteth there white like wool ; yet for all these accumulated associ- 
ations, with whatever is sweet, and honourable, and sublime, there yet 
lurks an elusive something in the innermost idea of this hue, which 
strikes more of panic to the soul than that redness which affrights in 
blood. 
This elusive quality it is, which causes the thought of whiteness, 
when divorced from more kindly associations, and coupled with any 
object terrible in itself, to heighten that terror to the furthest bounds. 
Witness the white bear of the poles, and the white shark of the tropics ; 
what but their smooth, flaky whiteness makes them the transcendent 
horrors they are ? That ghastly whiteness it is which imparts such an 
abhorrent mildness, even more loathsome than terrific, to the dumb 
