THE WHITE WHALE 
423 
able terrors of the whale, which, having been before all time, must 
need exist after all human ages are over. 
But not alone has this Leviathan left his pre-adamite traces in the 
stereotype plates of nature, and in limestone and marl bequeathed his 
ancient bust ; but upon Egyptian tables, whose antiquity seems to claim 
for them an almost fossiliferous character, we find the unmistakable 
print of his fin. In an apartment of the great temple of Denderah, 
some fifty years ago, there was discovered upon the granite ceiling 
a sculptured and painted planisphere, abounding in centaurs, griffins, 
and dolphins, similar to the grotesque figures on the celestial globe 
of the moderns. Gliding among them, old Leviathan swam as of yore ; 
was there swimming in that planisphere, centuries before Solomon 
was cradled. 
Nor must there be omitted another strange attestation of the antiq- 
uity of the whale, in his own osseous post-diluvian reality, as set down 
by the venerable John Leo, the old Barbary traveller. 
“Not far from the Sea-side, they have a Temple, the Bafters and 
Beams of which are made of Whale-Bones; for Whales of a mon- 
strous size are oftentimes cast up dead upon that shore. The Common 
People imagine, that by a secret Power bestowed by God upon the 
temple, no Whale can pass it without immediate death. But the 
truth of the Matter is, that on either side of the Temple, there are 
Bocks that shoot two Miles into the Sea, and wound the Whales when 
they light upon ’em. They keep a Whale’s Bib of an incredible 
length for a Miracle, which lying upon the Ground with its convex 
part uppermost, makes an Arch, the Head of which cannot be reached 
by a Man upon a Camel’s Back. This Bib is said to have layn there 
a hundred Years before I saw it. Their Historians affirm, that a 
Prophet who prophesy’d of Mahomet, came from this Temple, and 
some do not stand to assert, that the Prophet Jonas was cast forth 
by the Whale at the Base of the Temple.” 
In this Afric Temple of the Whale I leave you, reader, and if you be 
a Nantucketer, and a Whaleman, you will silently worship there. 
