-
Главная
-
- Книги
-
- Авторы
-
- Герман Мелвилл
-
- Моби Дик
-
- Стр. 120/297
Для того чтобы воспользоваться озвучкой предложений, необходимо
Войти или зарегистрироваться
Озвучка предложений доступна при наличии PRO-доступа
Купить PRO-доступ
But
what
is
a
Gam
?
You
might
wear
out
your
index-finger
running
up
and
down
the
columns
of
dictionaries
,
and
never
find
the
word
,
Dr.
Johnson
never
attained
to
that
erudition
;
Noah
Webster
's
ark
does
not
hold
it
.
Nevertheless
,
this
same
expressive
word
has
now
for
many
years
been
in
constant
use
among
some
fifteen
thousand
true
born
Yankees
.
Certainly
,
it
needs
a
definition
,
and
should
be
incorporated
into
the
Lexicon
.
With
that
view
,
let
me
learnedly
define
it
.
GAM
.
NOUN
--
A
social
meeting
of
two
(
or
more
)
Whaleships
,
generally
on
a
cruising-ground
;
when
,
after
exchanging
hails
,
they
exchange
visits
hy
boats
'
crews
,
the
two
captains
remaining
,
for
the
time
,
on
board
of
one
ship
,
and
the
two
chief
mates
on
the
other
.
There
is
another
little
item
about
Gamming
which
must
not
be
forgotten
here
.
All
professions
have
their
own
little
peculiarities
of
detail
;
so
has
the
whale
fishery
.
In
a
pirate
,
man-of-war
,
or
slave
ship
,
when
the
captain
is
rowed
anywhere
in
his
boat
,
he
always
sits
in
the
stern
sheets
on
a
comfortable
,
sometimes
cushioned
seat
there
,
and
often
steers
himself
with
a
pretty
little
milliner
's
tiller
decorated
with
gay
cords
and
ribbons
.
But
the
whale-boat
has
no
seat
astern
,
no
sofa
of
that
sort
whatever
,
and
no
tiller
at
all
.
High
times
indeed
,
if
whaling
captains
were
wheeled
about
the
water
on
castors
like
gouty
old
aldermen
in
patent
chairs
.
And
as
for
a
tiller
,
the
whale-boat
never
admits
of
any
such
effeminacy
;
and
therefore
as
in
gamming
a
complete
boat
's
crew
must
leave
the
ship
,
and
hence
as
the
boat
steerer
or
harpooneer
is
of
the
number
,
that
subordinate
is
the
steersman
upon
the
occasion
,
and
the
captain
,
having
no
place
to
sit
in
,
is
pulled
off
to
his
visit
all
standing
like
a
pine
tree
.
And
often
you
will
notice
that
being
conscious
of
the
eyes
of
the
whole
visible
world
resting
on
him
from
the
sides
of
the
two
ships
,
this
standing
captain
is
all
alive
to
the
importance
of
sustaining
his
dignity
by
maintaining
his
legs
.
Nor
is
this
any
very
easy
matter
;
for
in
his
rear
is
the
immense
projecting
steering
oar
hitting
him
now
and
then
in
the
small
of
his
back
,
the
after-oar
reciprocating
by
rapping
his
knees
in
front
.
He
is
thus
completely
wedged
before
and
behind
,
and
can
only
expand
himself
sideways
by
settling
down
on
his
stretched
legs
;
but
a
sudden
,
violent
pitch
of
the
boat
will
often
go
far
to
topple
him
,
because
length
of
foundation
is
nothing
without
corresponding
breadth
.
Merely
make
a
spread
angle
of
two
poles
,
and
you
can
not
stand
them
up
.
Then
,
again
,
it
would
never
do
in
plain
sight
of
the
world
's
riveted
eyes
,
it
would
never
do
,
I
say
,
for
this
straddling
captain
to
be
seen
steadying
himself
the
slightest
particle
by
catching
hold
of
anything
with
his
hands
;
indeed
,
as
token
of
his
entire
,
buoyant
self-command
,
he
generally
carries
his
hands
in
his
trowsers
'
pockets
;
but
perhaps
being
generally
very
large
,
heavy
hands
,
he
carries
them
there
for
ballast
Nevertheless
there
have
occurred
instances
,
well
authenticated
ones
too
,
where
the
captain
has
been
known
for
an
uncommonly
critical
moment
or
two
,
in
a
sudden
squall
say
--
to
seize
hold
of
the
nearest
oarsman
's
hair
,
and
hold
on
there
like
grim
death
.
(
As
told
at
the
Golden
Inn
)
The
Cape
of
Good
Hope
,
and
all
the
watery
region
round
about
there
,
is
much
like
some
noted
four
corners
of
a
great
highway
,
where
you
meet
more
travellers
than
in
any
other
part
.
It
was
not
very
long
after
speaking
the
Goney
that
another
homeward-bound
whaleman
,
the
Town-Ho
,
was
encountered
.
She
was
manned
almost
wholly
by
Polynesians
.
In
the
short
gam
that
ensued
she
gave
us
strong
news
of
Moby
Dick
.
To
some
the
general
interest
in
the
White
Whale
was
now
wildly
heightened
by
a
circumstance
of
the
Town-Ho
's
story
,
which
seemed
obscurely
to
involve
with
the
whale
a
certain
wondrous
,
inverted
visitation
of
one
of
those
so
called
judgments
of
God
which
at
times
are
said
to
overtake
some
men
.
This
latter
circumstance
,
with
its
own
particular
accompaniments
,
forming
what
may
be
called
the
secret
part
of
the
tragedy
about
to
be
narrated
,
never
reached
the
ears
of
Captain
Ahab
or
his
mates
.
For
that
secret
part
of
the
story
was
unknown
to
the
captain
of
the
Town-Ho
himself
.
It
was
the
private
property
of
three
confederate
white
seamen
of
that
ship
,
one
of
whom
,
it
seems
,
communicated
it
to
Tashtego
with
Romish
injunctions
of
secrecy
,
but
the
following
night
Tashtego
rambled
in
his
sleep
,
and
revealed
so
much
of
it
in
that
way
,
that
when
he
was
wakened
he
could
not
well
withhold
the
rest
.
Nevertheless
,
so
potent
an
influence
did
this
thing
have
on
those
seamen
in
the
Pequod
who
came
to
the
full
knowledge
of
it
,
and
by
such
a
strange
delicacy
,
to
call
it
so
,
were
they
governed
in
this
matter
,
that
they
kept
the
secret
among
themselves
so
that
it
never
transpired
abaft
the
Pequod
's
main-mast
.
Interweaving
in
its
proper
place
this
darker
thread
with
the
story
as
publicly
narrated
on
the
ship
,
the
whole
of
this
strange
affair
I
now
proceed
to
put
on
lasting
record
.
For
my
humor
's
sake
,
I
shall
preserve
the
style
in
which
I
once
narrated
it
at
Lima
,
to
a
lounging
circle
of
my
Spanish
friends
,
one
saint
's
eve
,
smoking
upon
the
thick-gilt
tiled
piazza
of
the
Golden
Inn
.
Of
those
fine
cavaliers
,
the
young
Dons
,
Pedro
and
Sebastian
,
were
on
the
closer
terms
with
me
;
and
hence
the
interluding
questions
they
occasionally
put
,
and
which
are
duly
answered
at
the
time
.
