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- Герман Мелвилл
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- Моби Дик
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- Стр. 204/297
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Dropping
his
spade
,
he
thrust
both
hands
in
,
and
drew
out
handfuls
of
something
that
looked
like
ripe
Windsor
soap
,
or
rich
mottled
old
cheese
;
very
unctuous
and
savory
withal
.
You
might
easily
dent
it
with
your
thumb
;
it
is
of
a
hue
between
yellow
and
ash
color
.
And
this
,
good
friends
,
is
ambergris
,
worth
a
gold
guinea
an
ounce
to
any
druggist
.
Some
six
handfulls
were
obtained
;
but
more
was
unavoidably
lost
in
the
sea
,
and
still
more
,
perhaps
,
might
have
been
secured
were
it
not
for
impatient
Ahab
's
loud
command
to
Stubb
to
desist
,
and
come
on
board
,
else
the
ship
would
bid
them
good-bye
.
Now
this
ambergris
is
a
very
curious
substance
,
and
so
important
as
an
article
of
commerce
,
that
in
1791
a
certain
Nantucket-born
Captain
Coffin
was
examined
at
the
bar
of
the
English
House
of
Commons
on
that
subject
.
For
at
that
time
,
and
indeed
until
a
comparatively
late
day
,
the
precise
origin
of
ambergris
remained
,
like
amber
itself
,
a
problem
to
the
learned
.
Though
the
word
ambergris
is
but
the
French
compound
for
grey
amber
,
yet
the
two
substances
are
quite
distinct
.
For
amber
,
though
at
times
found
on
the
sea-coast
,
is
also
dug
up
in
some
far
inland
soils
,
whereas
ambergris
is
never
found
except
upon
the
sea
.
Besides
,
amber
is
a
hard
,
transparent
,
brittle
,
odorless
substance
,
used
for
mouth-pieces
to
pipes
,
for
beads
and
ornaments
;
but
ambergris
is
soft
,
waxy
,
and
so
highly
fragrant
and
spicy
,
that
it
is
largely
used
in
perfumery
,
in
pastiles
,
precious
candles
,
hair-powders
,
and
pomatum
.
The
Turks
use
it
in
cooking
,
and
also
carry
it
to
Mecca
,
for
the
same
purpose
that
frankincense
is
carried
to
St.
Peter
's
in
Rome
.
Some
wine
merchants
drop
a
few
grains
into
claret
,
to
flavor
it
.
Who
would
think
,
then
,
that
such
fine
ladies
and
gentlemen
should
regale
themselves
with
an
essence
found
in
the
inglorious
bowels
of
a
sick
whale
!
Yet
so
it
is
.
By
some
,
ambergris
is
supposed
to
be
the
cause
,
and
by
others
the
effect
,
of
the
dyspepsia
in
the
whale
.
How
to
cure
such
a
dyspepsia
it
were
hard
to
say
,
unless
by
administering
three
or
four
boat
loads
of
Brandreth
's
pills
,
and
then
running
out
of
harm
's
way
,
as
laborers
do
in
blasting
rocks
.
I
have
forgotten
to
say
that
there
were
found
in
this
ambergris
,
certain
hard
,
round
,
bony
plates
,
which
at
first
Stubb
thought
might
be
sailors
'
trowsers
buttons
;
but
it
afterwards
turned
out
that
they
were
nothing
,
more
than
pieces
of
small
squid
bones
embalmed
in
that
manner
.
Now
that
the
incorruption
of
this
most
fragrant
ambergris
should
be
found
in
the
heart
of
such
decay
;
is
this
nothing
?
Bethink
thee
of
that
saying
of
St.
Paul
in
Corinthians
,
about
corruption
and
incorruption
;
how
that
we
are
sown
in
dishonor
,
but
raised
in
glory
.
And
likewise
call
to
mind
that
saying
of
Paracelsus
about
what
it
is
that
maketh
the
best
musk
.
Also
forget
not
the
strange
fact
that
of
all
things
of
ill-savor
,
Cologne-water
,
in
its
rudimental
manufacturing
stages
,
is
the
worst
.
I
should
like
to
conclude
the
chapter
with
the
above
appeal
,
but
can
not
,
owing
to
my
anxiety
to
repel
a
charge
often
made
against
whalemen
,
and
which
,
in
the
estimation
of
some
already
biased
minds
,
might
be
considered
as
indirectly
substantiated
by
what
has
been
said
of
the
Frenchman
's
two
whales
.
Elsewhere
in
this
volume
the
slanderous
aspersion
has
been
disproved
,
that
the
vocation
of
whaling
is
throughout
a
slatternly
,
untidy
business
.
But
there
is
another
thing
to
rebut
.
They
hint
that
all
whales
always
smell
bad
.
Now
how
did
this
odious
stigma
originate
?
I
opine
,
that
it
is
plainly
traceable
to
the
first
arrival
of
the
Greenland
whaling
ships
in
London
,
more
than
two
centuries
ago
.
Because
those
whalemen
did
not
then
,
and
do
not
now
,
try
out
their
oil
at
sea
as
the
Southern
ships
have
always
done
;
but
cutting
up
the
fresh
blubber
in
small
bits
,
thrust
it
through
the
bung
holes
of
large
casks
,
and
carry
it
home
in
that
manner
;
the
shortness
of
the
season
in
those
Icy
Seas
,
and
the
sudden
and
violent
storms
to
which
they
are
exposed
,
forbidding
any
other
course
.
The
consequence
is
,
that
upon
breaking
into
the
hold
,
and
unloading
one
of
these
whale
cemeteries
,
in
the
Greenland
dock
,
a
savor
is
given
forth
somewhat
similar
to
that
arising
from
excavating
an
old
city
graveyard
,
for
the
foundations
of
a
Lying-in
Hospital
.
I
partly
surmise
also
,
that
this
wicked
charge
against
whalers
may
be
likewise
imputed
to
the
existence
on
the
coast
of
Greenland
,
in
former
times
,
of
a
Dutch
village
called
Schmerenburgh
or
Smeerenberg
,
which
latter
name
is
the
one
used
by
the
learned
Fogo
Von
Slack
,
in
his
great
work
on
Smells
,
a
text-book
on
that
subject
.
As
its
name
imports
(
smeer
,
fat
;
berg
,
to
put
up
)
,
this
village
was
founded
in
order
to
afford
a
place
for
the
blubber
of
the
Dutch
whale
fleet
to
be
tried
out
,
without
being
taken
home
to
Holland
for
that
purpose
.
It
was
a
collection
of
furnaces
,
fat-kettles
,
and
oil
sheds
;
and
when
the
works
were
in
full
operation
certainly
gave
forth
no
very
pleasant
savor
But
all
this
is
quite
different
with
a
South
Sea
Sperm
Whaler
;
which
in
a
voyage
of
four
years
perhaps
,
after
completely
filling
her
hold
with
oil
,
does
not
,
perhaps
,
consume
fifty
days
in
the
business
of
boding
out
;
and
in
the
state
that
it
is
casked
,
the
oil
is
nearly
scentless
.
The
truth
is
,
that
living
or
dead
,
if
but
decently
treated
,
whales
as
a
species
are
by
no
means
creatures
of
ill
odor
;
nor
can
whalemen
be
recognised
,
as
the
people
of
the
middle
ages
affected
to
detect
a
Jew
in
the
company
,
by
the
nose
.
Nor
indeed
can
the
whale
possibly
be
otherwise
than
fragrant
,
when
,
as
a
general
thing
,
he
enjoys
such
high
health
;
taking
abundance
of
exercise
;
always
out
of
doors
;
though
,
it
is
true
,
seldom
in
the
open
air
.
I
say
,
that
the
motion
of
a
Sperm
Whale
's
flukes
above
water
dispenses
a
perfume
,
as
when
a
musk-scented
lady
rustles
her
dress
in
a
warm
parlor
.
What
then
shall
I
liken
the
Sperm
Whale
to
for
fragrance
,
considering
his
magnitude
?
Must
it
not
be
to
that
famous
elephant
,
with
jeweled
tusks
,
and
redolent
with
myrrh
,
which
was
led
out
of
an
Indian
town
to
do
honor
to
Alexander
the
Great
?
