In Noah's flood he despised Noah's Ark;
and if ever the world is to be again flooded, like the Netherlands,
to kill off its rats, then the eternal whale will still survive,
and rearing upon the topmost crest of the equatorial flood,
spout his frothed defiance to the skies.
CHAPTER 106
Ahab's Leg
The precipitating manner in which Captain Ahab had quitted
the Samuel Enderby of London, had not been unattended with some small
violence to his own person. He had lighted with such energy upon a thwart
of his boat that his ivory leg had received a half-splintering shock.
And when after gaining his own deck, and his own pivot-hole there,
he so vehemently wheeled round with an urgent command to the steersman
(it was, as ever, something about his not steering inflexibly enough);
then, the already shaken ivory received such an additional twist
and wrench, that though it still remained entire, and to all
appearances lusty, yet Ahab did not deem it entirely trustworthy.
And, indeed, it seemed small matter for wonder, that for all
his pervading, mad recklessness, Ahab, did at times give careful
heed to the condition of that dead bone upon which he partly stood.
For it had not been very long prior to the Pequod's sailing
from Nantucket, that he had been found one night lying prone upon
the ground, and insensible; by some unknown, and seemingly inexplicable,
unimaginable casualty, his ivory limb having been so violently displaced,
that it had stake-wise smitten, and all but pierced his groin;
nor was it without extreme difficulty that the agonizing wound
was entirely cured.
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