Moby Dick

[Old Thunder]

It was in Sag Harbor.

 

[Old Thunder]

The owners of his ship, it seems, had lent him one, in which to carry his heavy chest to his boarding-house.

 

[Old Thunder]

Not to seem ignorant about the thing - though in truth he was certainly so, concerning the precise way in which to manage the barrow - Queequeg puts his chest upon it; lashes it fast; and then shoulders the barrow and marches up the wharf.

 

[Old Thunder]

"Why," said I, "Queequeg, you might have known better than that, one would think. Didn't the people laugh?"

 

[Old Thunder]

Upon this, he told me another story.

 

[Old Thunder]

The people of his island of Rokovoko, it seems, at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water of young coconuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl; and this punchbowl always forms the great central ornament on the braided mat where the feast is held.

 

[Old Thunder]

Now a certain grand merchant-ship once touched at Rokovoko, and its commander - from all accounts, a very stately punctilious gentleman, at least for a sea captain - this commander was invited to the wedding feast of Queequeg's sister, a pretty young princess just turned of ten.

 

[Old Thunder]

Well; when all the wedding guests were assembled at the bride's bamboo cottage, this Captain marches in, and being assigned the post of honour, places himself over against the punchbowl, and between the High Priest and his majesty the King, Queequeg's father.

 

[Old Thunder]

Grace being said, - for these people have their grace as well as we - though Queequeg told me that unlike us, who at such times look downwards to our platters, they, on the contrary, copying the ducks, glance upwards to the great Giver of all feasts - Grace, I say, being said, the High Priest opens the banquet by the immemorial ceremony of the island: that is, dipping his consecrated and consecrating fingers into the bowl before the blessed beverage circulates.

 

[Old Thunder]

Seeing himself placed next the Priest, and noting the ceremony, and thinking himself - being Captain of a ship - as having plain precedence over a mere island King, especially in the King's own house - the Captain coolly proceeds to wash his hands in the punchbowl; - taking it I suppose for a huge finger-glass.