CHAPTER 61
Stubb Kills a Whale
If to Starbuck the apparition of the Squid was a thing of portents,
to Queequeg it was quite a different object.
"When you see him 'quid," said the savage, honing his harpoon in the bow
of his hoisted boat, "then you quick see him 'parm whale."
The next day was exceedingly still and sultry, and with nothing
special to engage them, the Pequod's crew could hardly
resist the spell of sleep induced by such a vacant sea.
For this part of the Indian Ocean through which we then were
voyaging is not what whalemen call a lively ground; that is,
it affords fewer glimpses of porpoises, dolphins, flying-fish, and
other vivacious denizens of more stirring waters, than those off
the Rio de la Plata, or the in-shore ground off Peru.
It was my turn to stand at the foremast-head; and with my
shoulders leaning against the slackened royal shrouds,
to and fro I idly swayed in what seemed an enchanted air.
No resolution could withstand it; in that dreamy mood losing
all consciousness, at last my soul went out of my body;
though my body still continued to sway as a pendulum will,
long after the power which first moved it is withdrawn.
Ere forgetfulness altogether came over me, I had noticed that
the seamen at the main and mizzen mast-heads were already drowsy.
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