He lay without moving a few minutes, then told one to go
to his bag and bring out his little god, Yojo. Then crossing
his arms on his breast with Yojo between, he called for
the coffin lid (hatch he called it) to be placed over him.
The head part turned over with a leather hinge, and there lay
Queequeg in his coffin with little but his composed countenance
in view. "Rarmai" (it will do; it is easy), he murmured at last,
and signed to be replaced in his hammock.
But ere this was done, Pip, who had been slily hovering near by all
the while, drew nigh to him where he lay, and with soft sobbings,
took him by the hand; in the other, holding his tambourine.
"Poor rover! will ye never have done with all this weary roving?
Where go ye now? But if the currents carry ye to those sweet Antilles
where the beaches are only beat with water-lilies, will ye do one
little errand for me? Seek out one Pip, who's now been missing long:
I think he's in those far Antilles. If ye find him, then comfort him;
for he must be very sad; for look! he's left his tambourine behind;--
I found it. Rig-a-dig, dig, dig! Now, Queequeg, die; and I'll beat
ye your dying march."
"I have heard," murmured Starbuck, gazing down the scuttle, "that in
violent fevers, men, all ignorance, have talked in ancient tongues;
and that when the mystery is probed, it turns out always
that in their wholly forgotten childhood those ancient tongues
had been really spoken in their hearing by some lofty scholars.
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