302 MOBY DICK; OR 
he’ll sneak off without the poor satisfaction of feeling his tail be- 
tween his legs.” 
“And what will you do with the tail, Stubb?” 
“Do with it? Sell it for an ox whip when we get home; — what 
else?” 
“Now, do you mean what you say, and have been saying all along, 
Stubb ?” 
“Mean or not mean, here we are at the ship.” 
The boats were hailed, to tow the whale on the larboard side, 
where fluke-chains and other necessaries were already prepared for 
securing him. 
“Didn’t I tell you so?” said Flask; “yes, you’ll soon see this 
right whale’s head hoisted up opposite that parmacetti’s.” 
In good time, Flask’s saying proved true. As before, the Pequod 
steeply leaned over towards the sperm whale’s head, now, by the 
counterpoise of both heads, she regained her even keel ; though sorely 
strained, you may well believe. So, when on one side you hoist in 
Locke’s head, you go over that way ; but now, on the other side, hoist in 
Kant’s and you come back again ; but in very poor plight. Thus, some 
minds for ever keep trimming boat. Oh, ye foolish! throw all these 
thunderheads overboard, and then you will float light and right. 
In disposing of the body of a right whale, when brought alongside 
the ship, the same preliminary proceedings commonly take place as 
in the case of a sperm whale; only, in the latter instance, the head 
is cut off whole, but in the former the lips and tongue are separately 
removed and hoisted on deck, with all the well-known black bone 
attached to what is called the crown-piece. But nothing like this, in 
the present case, had been done. The carcasses of both whales 
had dropped astern; and the head-laden ship not a little resembled 
a mule carrying a pair of overburdening panniers. 
Meantime, Fedallah was calmly eyeing the right whale’s head, 
and ever and anon glancing from the deep wrinkles there to the lines 
in his own .hand. And Ahab chanced so to stand, that the Parsee 
occupied his shadow; while, if the Parsee’s shadow was there at all 
it seemed only to blend with, and lengthen Ahab’s. As the crew 
