Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

  CHAPTER 19

  The Prophet

  "Shipmates, have ye shipped in that ship?"

  Queequeg and I had just left the Pequod, and were sauntering awayfrom the water, for the moment each occupied with his own thoughts,when the above words were put to us by a stranger, who, pausing before us,levelled his massive forefinger at the vessel in question.He was but shabbily apparelled in faded jacket and patched trowsers;a rag of a black handkerchief investing his neck. A confluentsmallpox had in all directions flowed over his face, and left itlike the complicated ribbed bed of a torrent, when the rushingwaters have been dried up.

  "Have ye shipped in her?" he repeated.

  "You mean the ship Pequod, I suppose," said I, trying to gaina little more time for an uninterrupted look at him.

  "Aye, the Pequod--that ship there," he said, drawing back his wholearm and then rapidly shoving it straight out from him-, with the fixedbayonet of his pointed finger darted full at the object.

  "Yes," said I, "we have just signed the articles."

  "Anything down there about your souls?"

  "About what?"

  "Oh, perhaps you hav'n't got any," he said quickly."No matter though, I know many chaps that hav'n't got any,--good luck to 'em; and they are all the better off for it.A soul's a sort of a fifth wheel to a wagon."

  "What are you jabbering about, shipmate?" said I.

  "He's got enough, though, to make up for all deficienciesof that sort in other chaps," abruptly said the stranger,placing a nervous emphasis upon the word he.

  "Queequeg," said I, "let's go; this fellow has broken loosefrom somewhere; he's talking about something and somebodywe don't know."

  "Stop!" cried the stranger. "Ye said true--ye hav'n't seenOld Thunder yet, have ye?"

  "Who's Old Thunder?" said I, again riveted with the insane earnestnessof his manner.

  "Captain Ahab."

  "What! the captain of our ship, the Pequod?"

  "Aye, among some of us old sailor chaps, he goes by that name.Ye hav'n't seen him yet, have ye?"

  "No, we hav'n't. He's sick they say, but is getting better,and will be all right again before long."

  "All right again before long!" laughed the stranger, with a solemnlyderisive sort of laugh. "Look ye; when Captain Ahab is all right,then this left arm of mine will be all right; not before."

  "What do you know about him?"

  "What did they tell you about him? Say that!"

  "They didn't tell much of anything about him; only I've heard that he'sa good whale-hunter, and a good captain to his crew."

  "That's true, that's true--yes, both true enough.But you must jump when he gives an order. Step and growl;growl and go--that's the word with Captain Ahab. But nothingabout that thing that happened to him off Cape Horn, long ago,when he lay like dead for three days and nights; nothing aboutthat deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar in Santa?--heard nothing about that, eh? Nothing about the silver calabashhe spat into? And nothing about his losing his leg last voyage,according to the prophecy. Didn't ye hear a word about themmatters and something more, eh? No, I don't think ye did;how could ye? Who knows it? Not all Nantucket, I guess.But hows'ever, mayhap, ye've heard tell about the leg,and how he lost it; aye, ye have heard of that, I dare say.Oh, yes, that every one knows a'most--I mean they know he'sonly one leg; and that a parmacetti took the other off."

  "My friend," said I, "what all this gibberish of yoursis about, I don't know, and I don't much care; for it seemsto me that you must be a little damaged in the head.But if you are speaking of Captain Ahab, of that ship there,the Pequod, then let me tell you, that I know all about the lossof his leg."

  "All about it, eh--sure you do? all?

  "Pretty sure."

  With finger pointed and eye levelled at the Pequod, the beggar-likestranger stood a moment, as if in a troubled reverie; then startinga little, turned and said:--"Ye've shipped, have ye? Names down onthe papers? Well, well, what's signed, is signed; and what's to be,will be; and then again, perhaps it won't be, after all. Any how,it's all fixed and arranged a'ready; and some sailors or other must gowith him, I suppose; as well these as any other men, God pity 'em!Morning to ye, shipmates, morning; the ineffable heavens bless ye;I'm sorry I stopped ye."

  "Look here, friend," said I, "if you have anything important to tell us,out with it; but if you are only trying to bamboozle us, you are mistakenin your game; that's all I have to say."

  "And it's said very well, and I like to hear a chap talk upthat way; you are just the man for him--the likes of ye.Morning to ye, shipmates, morning! Oh! when ye get there,tell 'em I've concluded not to make one of 'em."

  "Ah, my dear fellow, you can't fool us that way--you can't fool us.It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he hada great secret in him."

  "Morning to ye, shipmates, morning."

  "Morning it is," said I. "Come along, Queequeg, let's leave thiscrazy man. But stop, tell me your name, will you?"

  "Elijah."

  Elijah! thought I, and we walked away, both commenting,after each other's fashion, upon this ragged old sailor;and agreed that he was nothing but a humbug, trying to be a bugbear.But we had not gone perhaps above a hundred yards, when chancingto turn a corner, and looking back as I did so, who should be seenbut Elijah following us, though at a distance. Somehow, the sightof him struck me so, that I said nothing to Queequeg of hisbeing behind, but passed on with my comrade, anxious to seewhether the stranger would turn the same corner that we did.He did; and then it seemed to me that he was dogging us,but with what intent I could not for the life of me imagine.This circumstance, coupled with his ambiguous, half-hinting,half-revealing, shrouded sort of talk, now begat in me allkinds of vague wonderments and half-apprehensions, and allconnected with the Pequod; and Captain Ahab; and the leghe had lost; and the Cape Horn fit; and the silver calabash;and what Captain Peleg had said of him, when I left the shipthe day previous; and the prediction of the squaw Tistig;and the voyage we had bound ourselves to sail; and a hundredother shadowy things.

  I was resolved to satisfy myself whether this ragged Elijah wasreally dogging us or not, and with that intent crossed the waywith Queequeg, and on that side of it retraced our steps.But Elijah passed on, without seeming to notice us.This relieved me; and once more, and finally as it seemed to me,I pronounced him in my heart, a humbug.