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CHAPTER 119 . The Candles . Warmest climes but nurse the cruellest fangs : the tiger of Bengal crouches in spiced groves of ceaseless verdure . Skies the most effulgent but basket the deadliest thunders : gorgeous Cuba knows tornadoes that never swept tame northern lands . So , too , it is , that in these resplendent Japanese seas the mariner encounters the direst of all storms , the Typhoon . It will sometimes burst from out that cloudless sky , like an exploding bomb upon a dazed and sleepy town . Towards evening of that day , the Pequod was torn of her canvas , and bare - poled was left to fight a Typhoon which had struck her directly ahead . When darkness came on , sky and sea roared and split with the thunder , and blazed with the lightning , that showed the disabled masts fluttering here and there with the rags which the first fury of the tempest had left for its after sport . Holding by a shroud , Starbuck was standing on the quarter - deck ; at every flash of the lightning glancing aloft , to see what additional disaster might have befallen the intricate hamper there ; while Stubb and Flask were directing the men in the higher hoisting and firmer lashing of the boats . But all their pains seemed naught . Though lifted to the very top of the cranes , the windward quarter boat ( Ahab’s ) did not escape . A great rolling sea , dashing high up against the reeling ship’s high teetering side , stove in the boat’s bottom at the stern , and left it again , all dripping through like a sieve . “ Bad work , bad work ! Mr . Starbuck , ” said Stubb , regarding the wreck , “ but the sea will have its way . Stubb , for one , can’t fight it . You see , Mr . Starbuck , a wave has such a great long start before it leaps , all round the world it runs , and then comes the spring ! But as for me , all the start I have to meet it , is just across the deck here . But never mind ; it’s all in fun : so the old song says ; ” — ( sings . ) Oh ! jolly is the gale , And a joker is the whale , A ’ flourishin ’ his tail , — Such a funny , sporty , gamy , jesty , joky , hoky - poky lad , is the Ocean , oh ! The scud all a flyin ’ , That’s his flip only foamin ’ ; When he stirs in the spicin ’ , — Such a funny , sporty , gamy , jesty , joky , hoky - poky lad , is the Ocean , oh ! Thunder splits the ships , But he only smacks his lips , A tastin ’ of this flip , — Such a funny , sporty , gamy , jesty , joky , hoky - poky lad , is the Ocean , oh ! “ Avast Stubb , ” cried Starbuck , “ let the Typhoon sing , and strike his harp here in our rigging ; but if thou art a brave man thou wilt hold thy peace . ” “ But I am not a brave man ; never said I was a brave man ; I am a coward ; and I sing to keep up my spirits . And I tell you what it is , Mr . Starbuck , there’s no way to stop my singing in this world but to cut my throat . And when that’s done , ten to one I sing ye the doxology for a wind - up . ”
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