THE WHITE WHALE 
399 
“There now’s the old Mogul,” soliloquised Stubb by the try-works, 
“he’s been twigging it; and there goes Starbuck from the same, and 
both with faces which I should say might be somewhere within nine 
fathoms long. And all from looking at a piece of gold, which did I 
have it now on Negro Hill or in Corlaer’s Hook, I’d not look at it very 
long ere spending it. Humph! in my poor, insignificant opinion, I 
regard this as queer. I have seen doubloons before now in my voyag- 
ings ; your doubloons of old Spain, your doubloons of Peru, your doub- 
loons of Chili, your doubloons of Bolivia, your doubloons of Popayan ; 
with plenty of gold moidores and pistoles, and joes, and half joes, and 
quarter joes. What then should there be in this doubloon of the Equa- 
tor that is so killing wonderful? By Golconda! let me read it once. 
Hallo ! here’s signs and wonders truly ! That, now, is what old Bow- 
ditch in his Epitome calls the zodiac, and what my almanac below calls 
ditto. I’ll get the almanac, and as I have heard devils can be raised 
with Daboll’s arithmetic, I’ll try my hand at raising a meaning out of 
these queer curvicues here with the Massachusetts calendar. Here’s 
the hook. Let’s see now. Signs and wonders; and the sun, he’s 
always among ’em. Hem, hem, hem; here they are — here they go — 
all alive: — Aries, or the Bam; Taurus, or the Bull — and Jimimi! 
here’s Gemini himself, or the Twins. Well; the sun he wheels among 
’em. Aye, here on the coin he’s just crossing the threshold between 
two of twelve sitting-rooms all* in a ring. Book! you lie there; the 
fact is, you books must know your places. You’ll do to give us the bare 
words and facts, hut we come in to supply the thoughts. That’s my 
small experience, so far as the Massachusetts calendar, and Bowditch’s 
navigator, and Daboll’s arithmetic go. Signs and wonders, eh ? Pity 
if there is nothing wonderful in signs, and significant in wonders! 
There’s a clue somewhere; wait a bit; hist — hark! By Jove, I have 
it! Look you, Doubloon, your zodiac here is the life of man in one 
round chapter; and now I’ll read it off, straight out of the book. 
Come, Almanac! To begin: there’s Aries, or the Bam — lecherous 
dog, he begets us; then, Taurus, or the Bull — he bumps us the first 
thing; then Gemini, or the Twins — that is, Virtue and Vice; we try 
to reach Virtue, when lo ! comes Cancer the Crab, and drags us back ; 
and here, going from Virtue, Leo, a roaring Lion, lies in the path — 
