335 
THE WHITE WHALE 
snake, but only a Perseus, a St. George, a Coffin, have the heart in them 
to march boldly up to a whale. 
Let not the modem paintings of this scene mislead us; for though 
the creature encountered by that valiant whaleman of old is vaguely 
represented of a griffin-like shape, and though the battle is depicted 
on land and the saint on horseback, yet considering the great ignorance 
of those times, when the true form of the whale was unknown to artists ; 
and considering that as in Perseus’ case, St. George’s whale might 
have crawled up out of the sea on the beach ; and considering that the 
animal ridden by St. George might have been only a large seal, or 
sea-horse; bearing all this in mind, it will not appear altogether in- 
compatible with the sacred legend and the ancientest drafts of the 
scene, to hold this so-called dragon no other than the great Leviathan 
himself. In fact, placed before the strict and piercing truth, this 
whole story will fare like that fish, flesh, and fowl idol of the Philis- 
tines, Dagon by name ; who being planted before the ark of Israel, his 
horse’s head and both the palms of his hands fell off from him, and only 
the stump or fishy part of him remained. Thus, then, one of our own 
noble stamp, even a whaleman, is the tutelary guardian of England; 
and by good rights, we harpooneers of Nantucket should be enrolled in 
the most noble order of St. George. And therefore, let not the knights 
of that honourable company (none of whom, I venture to say, have ever 
had to do with a whale like their great patron), let them never eye a 
Nantucketer with disdain, since even in our woollen frocks and tarred 
trousers we are much better entitled to St. George’s decoration than 
they. 
Whether to admit Hercules among us or not, concerning this I long 
remained dubious : for though according to the Greek mythologies, that 
antique Crockett and Kit Carson — that brawny doer of rejoicing good 
deeds, was swallowed down and thrown up by a whale; still, whether 
that strictly makes a whaleman of him, that might be mooted. It 
nowhere appears that he ever actually harpooned his fish, unless, indeed, 
from the inside. Nevertheless, he may be deemed a sort of involuntary 
whaleman ; at any rate the whale caught him, if he did not the whale. 
I claim him for one of our clan. 
But, by the best contradictory authorities, this Grecian story of Her- 
