THE WHITE WHALE 277 
It is not, perhaps, entirely because the whale is so excessively unc- 
tuous that landsmen seem to regard the eating of him with abhorrence ; 
that appears to result, in some way, from the consideration before men- 
tioned, i. e., that a man should eat a newly murdered thing of the sea, 
and eat it too by its own light. But no doubt the first man that ever 
murdered an ox was regarded as a murderer; perhaps he was hung; 
and if he had been put on his trial by oxen, he certainly would have 
been; and he certainly deserved it if any murderer does. Go to the 
meat-market of a Saturday night and see the crowds of live bipeds star- 
ing up at the long rows of dead quadrupeds. Does not the sight take 
a tooth out of the cannibals jaw? Cannibals? who is not a cannibal? 
But Stubb, he eats the whale by its own light, does he ? and that is 
adding insult to injury, is it? Look at your knife-handle, there, my 
civilised and enlightened gourmand dining off that roast beef, what is 
that handle made of? — what but the bones of the brother of the very 
ox you are eating? And what do you pick your teeth with, after de- 
vouring that fat goose ? With a feather of the same fowl. And with 
what quill did the Secretary of the Society for the Suppression of 
Cruelty to Ganders formally indite his circulars ? It is only within the 
last month or two that society passed a resolution to patronise 
nothing but steel pens. 
CHAPTEB LXV 
THE SHARK MASSACRE 
When in the Southern Fishery, a captured Sperm Whale, after long 
and weary toil, is brought alongside late at night, it is not, as a general 
thing at least, customary to proceed at once to the business of cutting 
him in. For that business is an exceedingly laborious one; is not 
very soon completed; and requires all hands to set about it. There- 
fore, the common usage is to take in all sail; lash the helm a’lee; 
and then send every one below to his hammock till daylight, with the 
reservation that, until that time, anchor-watches shall be kept ; that is, 
two and two for an hour, each couple, the crew in rotation shall paount 
tlie deck to see that all goes well, 
