As for the ends of the flukes, have them soused, cook. There, now
ye may go."
But Fleece had hardly got three paces off, when he was recalled.
"Cook, give me cutlets for supper to-morrow night in the mid-watch. D'ye
hear? away you sail then.--Halloa! stop! make a bow before you go.--
Avast heaving again! Whale-balls for breakfast--don't forget."
"Wish, by gor! whale eat him, 'stead of him eat whale.
I'm bressed if he ain't more of shark dan Massa Shark hisself,"
muttered the old man, limping away; with which sage ejaculation
he went to his hammock.
CHAPTER 65
The Whale as a Dish
That mortal man should feed upon the creature that feeds
his 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 little
into the history and philosophy of it.
It is upon record, that three centuries ago the tongue of the Right Whale
was esteemed a great delicacy in France, and commanded large
prices there. Also, that in Henry VIIIth's time, a certain cook of
the court obtained a handsome reward for inventing an admirable sauce
to be eaten with barbacued porpoises, which, you remember, are a species
of whale.
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