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“ Peleg ! Peleg ! ” said Bildad , lifting his eyes and hands , “ thou thyself , as I myself , hast seen many a perilous time ; thou knowest , Peleg , what it is to have the fear of death ; how , then , can’st thou prate in this ungodly guise . Thou beliest thine own heart , Peleg . Tell me , when this same Pequod here had her three masts overboard in that typhoon on Japan , that same voyage when thou went mate with Captain Ahab , did’st thou not think of Death and the Judgment then ? ” “ Hear him , hear him now , ” cried Peleg , marching across the cabin , and thrusting his hands far down into his pockets , — “ hear him , all of ye . Think of that ! When every moment we thought the ship would sink ! Death and the Judgment then ? What ? With all three masts making such an everlasting thundering against the side ; and every sea breaking over us , fore and aft . Think of Death and the Judgment then ? No ! no time to think about Death then . Life was what Captain Ahab and I was thinking of ; and how to save all hands — how to rig jury - masts — how to get into the nearest port ; that was what I was thinking of . ” Bildad said no more , but buttoning up his coat , stalked on deck , where we followed him . There he stood , very quietly overlooking some sailmakers who were mending a top - sail in the waist . Now and then he stooped to pick up a patch , or save an end of tarred twine , which otherwise might have been wasted . CHAPTER 19 . The Prophet . “ Shipmates , have ye shipped in that ship ? ” Queequeg and I had just left the Pequod , and were sauntering away from the water , for the moment each occupied with his own thoughts , when the above words were put to us by a stranger , who , pausing before us , levelled his massive forefinger at the vessel in question . He was but shabbily apparelled in faded jacket and patched trowsers ; a rag of a black handkerchief investing his neck . A confluent small - pox had in all directions flowed over his face , and left it like the complicated ribbed bed of a torrent , when the rushing waters have been dried up . “ Have ye shipped in her ? ” he repeated . “ You mean the ship Pequod , I suppose , ” said I , trying to gain a little more time for an uninterrupted look at him . “ Aye , the Pequod — that ship there , ” he said , drawing back his whole arm , and then rapidly shoving it straight out from him , with the fixed bayonet of his pointed finger darted full at the object . “ Yes , ” said I , “ we have just signed the articles . ” “ Anything down there about your souls ? ” “ About what ? ” “ Oh , perhaps you hav’n’t got any , ” he said quickly . “ No matter though , I know many chaps that hav’n’t got any , — good luck to ’ em ; and they are all the better off for it . A soul’s a sort of a fifth wheel to a wagon . ”
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