cv Powerful Persian king defeated by the Greeks at Salamis in 480 B.C.
cw John Froissart (1337-1410?); author of Chronicles of England, France, and Spain (c. 1400).
cx Death, who rides a pale horse in the Bible, Revelation 6:8.
cy Supposedly named after white baptismal robes.
cz In Goethe’s Faust, I and II.
da In Peru; the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro conquered the country in the sixteenth century.
db A howdah is a special seat strapped to an elephant.
dc Author’s note: Since the above was written, the statement is happily borne out by an official circular, issued by Lieutenant Maury, of the National Observatory, Washington, April 16th, 1851. By that circular, it appears that precisely such a chart is in course of completion; and portions of it are presented in the circular. “This chart divides the ocean into districts of five degrees of latitude by five degrees of longitude; perpendicularly through each of which districts are twelve columns for the twelve months; and horizontally through each of which districts are three lines; one to show the number of days that have been spent in each month in every district, and the two others to show the number of days in which whales, sperm or right, have been seen.”
dd The Seychelle Islands are north of Madagascar.
de Helpful ocean winds. The Levanter is in the Mediterranean, the Simoom in Arabian lands.
df Religious head of a Muslim community.
dg In Greek myth, a Titan punished by Zeus for bringing fire to humanity; in some legends he made man from clay and water.
dh King of Persia 529-522 B.C.
di Island in Indonesia.
dj The Maoris, natives of New Zealand often had tattoos.
dk Author’s note: The following are extracts from Chase’s narrative: “Every fact seemed to warrant me in concluding that it was anything but chance which directed his operations; he made two several attacks upon the ship, at a short interval between them, both of which, according to their direction, were calculated to do us the most injury, by being made ahead, and thereby combining the speed of the two objects for the shock; to effect which the exact manœvres which he made were necessary. His aspect was most horrible, and such as indicated resentment and fury. He came directly from the shoal which we had just before entered, and in which we had struck three of his companions, as if fired with revenge for their sufferings.” Again: “At all events, the whole circumstances taken together, all happening before my own eyes, and producing, at the time, impressions in my mind of decided, calculating mischief, on the part of the whale (many of which impressions I cannot now recall), induce me to be satisfied that I am correct in my opinion.”
Here are his reflections some time after quitting the ship, during a black night in an open boat, when almost despairing of reaching any hospitable shore. “The dark ocean and swelling waters were nothing; the fears of being swallowed up by some dreadful tempest, or dashed upon hidden rocks, with all the other ordinary subjects of fearful contemplation, seemed scarcely entitled to a moment’s thought; the dismal looking wreck, and the horrid aspect and revenge of the whale, wholly engrossed my reflections, until day again made its appearance.”
In another place—p. 45,—he speaks of “the mysterious and mortal attack of the animal.”
dl George H. von Langsdorff, author of Voyages and Travels in Various Parts of the World (1813).
dm Between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.
dn Mediterranean coast of North Africa west of Egypt.
do Edible herb that grows in rock clefts; see Shakespeare’s King Lear, act 4, scene 6.
dp Small freshwater fish used as bait.
dq That is, the third to be described in this scene.
dr Mongol conqueror (c. 1336-1405); the reference to his soldiers’ concern probably comes from Christopher Marlowe’s play Tamburlaine the Great (1587).
ds Chief aide to Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost.
dt See the Bible, Genesis 6:2 and 4.
du The Pequod has sailed roughly an arc east, south, and west.
dv Author’s note: The cabin-compass is called the tell-tale, because without going to the compass at the helm, the Captain, while below, can inform himself of the course of the ship.
dw People who shrink and thicken wool cloth by moistening, heating, and pressing.
dx The Cyclades are islands in the Aegean Sea; the Solomon Islands are near New Guinea.
dy Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) and Noah Webster (1758-1843) compiled important dictionaries.
dz Author’s note: The ancient whale-cry upon first sighting a whale from the masthead, still used by whalemen in hunting the famous Gallipagos terrapin.
ea Seaport in Peru, near Lima.
eb Fortified island in Lake Huron.
ec Rulers of Mongolian and Turkish tribes.
ed Native American tribe.
ee King of the Franks and emperor of Holy Roman Empire, he lived from 742 to 814.
ef Opened in 1825; economically important, it connected the Hudson River at Albany with Buffalo.
eg Warlike African tribe.
eh Queen Isabella I of Spain (1451-1504), who established the Spanish Inquisition.
ei The reference is to the Erie Canal, but borrows the grandeur of Venice’s chief waterway.
ej Ceremonies in which judgments were passed by the Spanish Inquisition.
ek Church unit or office of an archbishop.
el Sultan of Egypt and Syria from 1174 to 1193.
em See note on p. 65.
en Priestly caste among Hindus.
eo Mythical creature that is part horse, part griffin, another mythical animal.
ep See note on p. 223.
eq The king is deformed in Shakespeare’s play.
er English utilitarian philosopher, Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) left his skeleton to the University of London, where it was displayed.
es Patagonia is a far southern region of South America that extends from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean.
et Using microscopes of his own design, Anthony van Leuwenhoeck (1632-1723) discovered the first microorganism.
eu Location in East London near the Thames docks.
ev Native American tribe with a warlike reputation.
ew Described in The Iliad (book 18), by Homer.
ex Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), German painter and engraver.
ey Alvaro Mendaña discovered the Solomon Islands in 1567.
ez Constellations in the southern skies: Argo-Navis is a boat, Cetus a whale, Hydras a water snake.
fa Author’s note: That part of the sea known among whalemen as the “Brazil Banks” does not bear that name as the Banks of Newfoundland do, because of there being shallows and soundings there, but because of this remarkable meadow-like appearance, caused by the vast drifts of brit continually floating in those latitudes, where the Right Whale is often chased.
fb In the Bible, Numbers 16, he and others opposed Moses and were destroyed.
fc Legendary sea monster off the coast of Norway.
fd Founder of Anakim, a pre-Islamic Canaanite tribe that was destroyed by Joshua; see the Bible, Joshua 11:21-22.
fe Offered themselves as sacrifices to save the city, besieged by Edward III after the battle at Crécy in 1346.
ff In Byron’s poem Mazeppa, the hero is tied to a wild horse.
fg River between Argentina and Uruguay.
fh Author’s note: It will be seen in some other place of what a very light substance the entire interior of the sperm whale’s enormous head consists. Though apparently the most massive, it is by far the most buoyant part about him. So that with ease he elevates it in the air, and invariably does so when going at his utmost speed. Besides, such is the breadth of the upper part of the front of his head, and such the tapering cut-water formation of the lower part, that by obliquely elevating his head, he thereby may be said to transform himself from a bluff-bowed sluggish galliot [a small boat (galley) using both sail
s and oars] into a sharp-pointed New York pilot-boat.
fi Author’s note: Partly to show the indispensableness of this act, it may here be stated, that, in the old Dutch fishery, a mop was used to dash the running line with water; in many other ships, a wooden piggin, or bailer, is set apart for that purpose. Your hat, however, is the most convenient.
fj Blowhole.
fk In the West called the Grand Canal, the longest in the world; the Hwang-Ho is also called the Yellow River, which the canal connects to the Yangtze River.
fl Author’s note: A little item may as well be related here. The strongest and most reliable hold which the ship has upon the whale when moored alongside, is by the flukes or tail; and as from its greater density that part is relatively heavier than any other (excepting the side-fins), its flexibility even in death, causes it to sink low beneath the surface; so that with the hand you cannot get at it from the boat, in order to put the chain round it. But this difficulty is ingeniously overcome: a small, strong line is prepared with a wooden float at its outer end, and a weight in its middle, while the other end is secured to the ship. By adroit management the wooden float is made to rise on the other side of the mass, so that now having girdled the whale, the chain is readily made to follow suit; and being slipped along the body, is at last locked fast round the smallest part of the tail, at the point of junction with its broad flukes or lobes.
fm Top of a windlass that rotates horizontally.
fn Lookouts posted when a ship is not under way.
fo Author’s note: The whaling-spade used for cutting-in is made of the very best steel; is about the bigness of a man’s spread hand; and in general shape corresponds to the garden implement after which it is named; only its sides are perfectly flat, and its upper end considerably narrower than the lower. This weapon is always kept as sharp as possible; and when being used is occasionally honed, just like a razor. In its socket, a stiff pole, from twenty to thirty feet long, is inserted for a handle.
fp Harvard professor Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) was a geologist and zoologist.
fq Samuel Johnson helped uncover a hoax there.
fr The biblical story begins in Judith 2:4; she beheads him in 13:6-10.
fs Mythical creature thought to harbor unrevealed secrets.
ft The Christian evangelist who “might almost convert a better man” were Ahab better than he is.
fu Jeroboam I becomes known for evil actions; see the Bible, I Kings.
fv A cowardly braggart.
fw The celibate Shakers formed small communities and followed strict religious customs; Neskyeuna was a town near Albany, New York, where they first settled.
fx In the Christian views, he will blow the trumpet on Judgment Day.
fy Author’s note: The monkey-rope is found in all whalers; but it was only in the Pequod that the monkey and his holder were ever tied together. This improvement upon the original usage was introduced by no less a man than Stubb, in order to afford the imperilled harpooneer the strongest possible guarantee for the faithfulness and vigilance of his monkey-rope holder.
fz Yellow or orange-yellow.
ga Lowest deck on a ship.
gb Darbies are handcuffs or fetters.
gc English astronomer Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) built the best telescope of his day.
gd Small boat (galley) using both sails and oars.
ge See note on p. 292.
gf Hakluytus Posthumous, or Purchas His Pilgrims (1625), accounts by English clergyman Samuel Purchas of travel and adventure. ‡Author’s note: This reminds us that the Right Whale really has a sort of whisker, or rather a moustache, consisting of a few scattered white hairs on the upper part of the outer end of the lower jaw. Sometimes these tufts impart a rather brigandish expression to his otherwise solemn countenance.
gg Early eighteenth century.
gh In Holland; long considered the largest one.
gi Egyptian city in the translated poem “The Veiled Statue at Sais,” by J. C. F. von Schiller (1759-1805), which tells of a youth devastated by lifting the veil.
gj Huge wine cask in the German town; on this page it is called a tierce, though that is actually a smaller cask.
gk Author’s note: Quoin is not a Euclidean term. It belongs to the pure nautical mathematics. I know not that it has been defined before. A quoin is a solid which differs from a wedge in having its sharp end formed by the steep inclination of one side, instead of the mutual tapering of both sides.
gl A woman’s long cloak.
gm In Islamic communities, the crier who calls people to worship.
gn Water wears away the rock, which breaks off as the falls retreat.
go Platonic idealism is seen as dangerous because unrealistic.
gp Renowned Greek sculptor of the fifth-century B.C.
gq Phillip Melanchthon (1497-1560), religious reformer and follower of Luther.
gr French linguist and archaeologist Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832) deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics.
gs Eighteenth-century English orientalist and translator. ‡Language of the ancient Chaldeans, or biblical Aramaic.
gt See note on p. 68.
gu They were trained to rescue travelers lost in the snow in the Swiss Alps.
gv The quotations are from the Bible (KJV), Job 41:7 and 26-29.
gw See note on p. 233; in his history of the Persian War the Greek historian Herodotus describes Xerxes’s huge army.
gx In Greek myth, Perseus rescued and married Andromeda; also see note on p. 158.
gy Pertaining to Noah’s Ark.
gz See the Bible, I Samuel 5:1-5.
ha Davy Crockett (1786-1836) and Kit Carson (1809-1868), American adventurers and folk heroes.
hb Usually Shastra; any one of the sacred writings of the Hindus.
hc A principal god of Hinduism first mentioned in the Vedas, the religion’s most ancient scriptures.
hd In Greek legend, he jumped into the sea when attacked and was carried to land by a dolphin.
he John Harris published Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca. Or, A Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels (1705).
hf In 31 B.C. Cleopatra and Antony’s forces were defeated in a naval battle at Actium.
hg City in western Pennsylvania where the Whiskey Rebellion (1794) protested new excise taxes.
hh In Greek myth, the Titans were powerful giants who preceded the Olympian gods.
hi Johann Peter Eckermann (1792-1854); his Conversations with Goethe (1836-1848) was an important biographical source. ‡Michelangelo (1475-1564); the image of God the Father is in the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel.
hj A story told in the essay “Apology for Raimond Sebond” by Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), and elsewhere.
hk That is, in the Inferno of Dante’s The Divine Comedy.
Moby-Dick (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Page 75
