527 
THE WHITE WHALE 
ISTow small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen 
white surf beat against its steep sides ; then all collapsed, and the great 
shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago. 
ETYMOLOGY 
(supplied by a late consumptive usher to a GRAMMAR SCHOOL.) 
[The pale Usher — threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him 
now. He was ever dusting his old lexicons and grammars, with a queer 
handkerchief, mockingly embellished with all the gay flags of all the known 
nations of the world. He loved to dust his old grammars; it somehow 
mildly reminded him of his mortality.] 
“While you take in hand to school others, and to teach them by what 
name a whale-fish is to be called in our tongue, leaving out, through igno- 
rance, the letter H, which almost alone maketh up the signification of the 
word, you deliver that which is not true.” Hakluyt. 
“Whale. . . . Sw. and Dan. hval . This animal is named from round- 
ness or rolling; for in Dan. hvalt is arched or vaulted.” 
Webster's Dictionary. 
“Whale. ... It is more immediately from the Dut. and Ger. Wallen ; 
a.s. Walw-ian, to roll, to wallow.” Richardsons Dictionary. 
in 
Hebrew. 
K^ro? 
Greek. 
Cetus . 
Latin. 
Whcel . . 
Anglo-Saxon. 
Hvalt . 
Danish. 
Wal . . 
Dutch. 
Hwal . 
Swedish. 
Whale . 
Icelandic. 
Whale . . 
English. 
Baleine 
French. 
Ballena 
Spanish. 
Pekee-nuee-nuee 
Fejee. 
Pehee-nuee-nuee 
Erromangoan. 
