484 
MOBY DICK; OR 
“He goes aft. That was sudden, now; but squalls come sudden in 
hot latitudes. I’ve heard of the Isle of Albemarle, one of the Galli- 
pagos, is cut by the Equator right in the middle. Seems to me some 
sort of Equator cuts yon old man, too, right, in his middle. He’s 
always under the Line — fiery hot, I tell ye! He’s looking this way 
— come, oakum; quick. Here we go again. This wooden mallet is 
the cork, and I’m the professor of musical glasses — -tap, tap 1” 
Ahab (to himself ). 
“There’s a sight! There’s a sound! The grey-headed woodpecker 
tapping the hollow tree ! Blind and dumb might well be envied now. 
See! that thing rests on two line-tubs, full of tow-lines. A most 
malicious way, that fellow. Rat-tat! So man’s seconds tick! Oh! 
how immaterial are all materials! What things real are there, but 
imponderable thoughts ? Here now’s the very dreaded symbol of grim 
death, by a mere hap, made the expressive sign of the help and hope 
of most endangered life. A lifebuoy of a coffin. Does it go further? 
Can it be that in some spiritual sense the coffin is, after all, but an 
immortality-preserver ! I’ll think of that. But no. So far gone 
am I in the dark side of earth, that its other side, the theoretic bright 
one, seems but uncertain twilight to me. Will ye never have done, 
Carpenter, with that accursed sound? I go below; let me not see 
that thing here when I return again. How, then, Pip, we’ll talk 
this over; I do such most wondrous philosophies from thee! Some 
unknown conduits from the unknown worlds must empty into thee !” 
CHAPTER CXXVII 
THE PEQUOD MEETS THE RACHEL 
Next day, a large ship, the Rachel , was descried, bearing directly 
down upon the Pequod, all her spars thickly clustering with men. At 
the time the Pequod was making good speed through the water ; but as 
the broad-winged windward stranger shot nigh to her, the boastful 
sails all fell together as blank bladders that are burst, and all life fled 
from the smitten hull. 
