Moby Dick; Or, The Whale
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That mortal man should feed upon the creature that feedshis lamp, and, like Stubb, eat him by his own light, as you may say;this seems so outlandish a thing that one must needs go a littleinto the history and philosophy of it.
It is upon record, that three centuries ago the tongue of the Right Whalewas esteemed a great delicacy in France, and commanded largeprices there. Also, that in Henry VIIIth's time, a certain cook ofthe court obtained a handsome reward for inventing an admirable sauceto be eaten with barbacued porpoises, which, you remember, are a speciesof whale. Porpoises, indeed, are to this day considered fine eating.The meat is made into balls about the size of billiard balls,and being well seasoned and spiced might be taken for turtle-ballsor veal balls. The old monks of Dunfermline were very fond of them.They had a great porpoise grant from the crown.
The fact is, that among his hunters at least, the whale wouldby all hands be considered a noble dish, were there not so muchof him; but when you come to sit down before a meat-pienearly one hundred feet long, it takes away your appetite.Only the most unprejudiced of men like Stubb, nowadays partakeof cooked whales; but the Esquimaux are not so fastidious.We all know how they live upon whales, and have rare old vintagesof prime old train oil. Zogranda, one of their most famous doctors,recommends strips of blubber for infants, as being exceedinglyjuicy and nourishing. And this reminds me that certain Englishmen,who long ago were accidentally left in Greenland by a whaling vessel--that these men actually lived for several months on the mouldyscraps of whales which had been left ashore after tryingout the blubber. Among the Dutch whalemen these scrapsare called "fritters"; which, indeed, they greatly resemble,being brown and crisp, and smelling something like oldAmsterdam housewives' dough-nuts or oly-cooks, when fresh.They have such an eatable look that the most self-denyingstranger can hardly keep his hands off.
But what further depreciates the whale as a civilized dish,is his exceeding richness. He is the great prize ox of the sea,too fat to be delicately good. Look at his hump, which wouldbe as fine eating as the buffalo's (which is esteemeda rare dish), were it not such a solid pyramid of fat.But the spermaceti itself, how bland and creamy that is;like the transparent, half jellied, white meat of a cocoanutin the third month of its growth, yet far too rich to supplya substitute for butter. Nevertheless, many whalemenhave a method of absorbing it into some other substance,and then partaking of it. In the long try watches of the nightit is a common thing for the seamen to dip their ship-biscuitinto the huge oil-pots and let them fry there awhile.Many a good supper have I thus made.
In the case of a small Sperm Whale the brains are accounted a fine dish.The casket of the skull is broken into with an axe, and the two plump,whitish lobes being withdrawn (precisely resembling two large puddings),they are then mixed with flour, and cooked into a most delectable mess,in flavor somewhat resembling calves' head, which is quite a dishamong some epicures; and every one knows that some young bucks amongthe epicures, by continually dining upon calves' brains, by and by get tohave a little brains of their own, so as to be able to tell a calf's headfrom their own heads; which, indeed, requires uncommon discrimination.And that is the reason why a young buck with an intelligent looking calf'shead before him, is somehow one of the saddest sights you can see.The head looks a sort of reproachfully at him, with an "Ettu Brute!" expression.
It is not, perhaps, entirely because the whale is so excessivelyunctuous that landsmen seem to regard the eating of himwith abhorrence; that appears to result, in some way,from the consideration before mentioned: i.e. that a manshould eat a newly murdered thing of the sea, and eat ittoo by its own light. But no doubt the first man that evermurdered an ox was regarded as a murderer; perhaps he was hung;and if he had been put on his trial by oxen, he certainly wouldhave been; and he certainly deserved it if any murderer does.Go to the meat-market of a Saturday night and see the crowdsof live bipeds staring up at the long rows of dead quadrupeds.Does not that sight take a tooth out of the cannibal's jaw?Cannibals? who is not a cannibal? I tell you it will be moretolerable for the Fejee that salted down a lean missionaryin his cellar against a coming famine; it will be more tolerablefor that provident Fejee, I say, in the day of judgment,than for thee, civilized and enlightened gourmand, who nailestgeese to the ground and feastest on their bloated liversin thy pate-de-foie-gras.
But Stubb, he eats the whale by its own light, does he? and that isadding insult to injury, is it? Look at your knife-handle, there,my civilized and enlightened gourmand, dining off that roast beef,what is that handle made of?--what but the bones of the brotherof the very ox you are eating? And what do you pick your teeth with,after devouring that fat goose? With a feather of the same fowl.And with what quill did the Secretary of the Society for theSuppression of Cruelty to Ganders formally indite his circulars?It is only within the last month or two that that society passeda resolution to patronize nothing but steel pens.