204 MOBY DICK; OR 
fell to rearing and plunging in the boat’s stern like a crazed colt 
from the prairie. 
“Look at that chap, now,” philosophically drawled Stubb, who, 
with his unlighted short pipe, mechanically retained between his 
teeth, at a short distance, followed after — “He’s got fits, that Flask 
has. Fits ? yes, give him fits — that’s the very word — pitch fits into 
’em. Merrily, merrily, heart’s alive. Pudding for supper, you 
know; — merry’s the word. Pull, babes — pull, sucklings — pull, all. 
But what the devil are you hurrying about ? Softly, softly, and 
steadily, my men. Only pull, and keep pulling; nothing more. Crack 
all your backbones, and bite your knives in two — that’s all. Take 
it easy — why don’t ye take it easy, I say, and burst all your livers 
and lungs !” 
But what it was that inscrutable Ahab said to that tiger-yellow 
crew of his — 'these were words best omitted here; for you live under 
the blessed light of the evangelical land. Only the infidel sharks 
in the audacious- seas may give ear to such words, when, with tornado 
brow, and eyes of red murder, and foam-glued lips, Ahab leaped 
after his prey. 
Meanwhile, all the boats tore on. The repeated specific allusions 
of Flask to “that whale,” as he called the fictitious monster which 
he declared to be incessantly tantalising his boat’s bow with his tail — 
these allusions of his were at times so vivid and lifelife, that they 
would cause some one or two of his men to snatch a fearful look over 
the shoulder. But this was against all rule; for the oarsmen must 
put out their eyes, and ram a skewer through their necks; usage pro- 
nouncing that they must have no organs but ears, and no limbs but 
arms, in these critical moments. 
It was a sight full of quick wonder and awe ! The vast swells of 
the omnipotent sea ; the surging, hollow roar they made, as they rolled 
along the eight gunwales, like gigantic bowls in a boundless bowling- 
green; the brief suspended agony of the boat, as it would tip for an 
instant on the knife-like edge of the sharper waves, that almost 
seemed threatening to cut it in two; the sudden profound dip into 
the watery glens and hollows; the keen spurrings and goadings to 
gain the top of the opposite hill; the headlong, sled-like slide down 
its other side; — all these, with the cries of the headsmen and har- 
