Sometimes these tufts impart a rather brigandish expression
to his otherwise solemn countenance.
As every one knows, these same "hogs' bristles,"
"fins," "whiskers," "blinds," or whatever you please, furnish to
the ladies their busks and other stiffening contrivances.
But in this particular, the demand has long been on the decline.
It was in Queen Anne's time that the bone was in its glory,
the farthingale being then all the fashion. And as those ancient
dames moved about gaily, though in the jaws of the whale, as you
may say; even so, in a shower, with the like thoughtlessness,
do we nowadays fly under the same jaws for protection;
the umbrella being a tent spread over the same bone.
But now forget all about blinds and whiskers for a moment, and,
standing in the Right Whale's mouth, look around you afresh.
Seeing all these colonnades of bone so methodically ranged about,
would you not think you were inside of the great Haarlem organ,
and gazing upon its thousand pipes? For a carpet to the organ
we have a rug of the softest Turkey--the tongue, which is glued,
as it were, to the floor of the mouth. It is very fat
and tender, and apt to tear in pieces in hoisting it on deck.
Pages:
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550