It is very curious to watch this harem and its lord in their
indolent ramblings. Like fashionables, they are for ever
on the move in leisurely search of variety. You meet them
on the Line in time for the full flower of the Equatorial
feeding season, having just returned, perhaps, from spending
the summer in the Northern seas, and so cheating summer of all
unpleasant weariness and warmth. By the time they have lounged
up and down the promenade of the Equator awhile, they start
for the Oriental waters in anticipation of the cool season there,
and so evade the other excessive temperature of the year.
When serenely advancing on one of these journeys, if any strange
suspicious sights are seen, my lord whale keeps a wary eye on his
interesting family. Should any unwarrantably pert young Leviathan coming
that way, presume to draw confidentially close to one of the ladies,
with what prodigious fury the Bashaw assails him, and chases him away!
High times, indeed, if unprincipled young rakes like him
are to be permitted to invade the sanctity of domestic bliss;
though do what the Bashaw will, he cannot keep the most notorious
Lothario out of his bed; for alas! all fish bed in common.
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