Passer le texte de l’article
CHAPTER 6 . The Street . If I had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of so outlandish an individual as Queequeg circulating among the polite society of a civilized town , that astonishment soon departed upon taking my first daylight stroll through the streets of New Bedford . In thoroughfares nigh the docks , any considerable seaport will frequently offer to view the queerest looking nondescripts from foreign parts . Even in Broadway and Chestnut streets , Mediterranean mariners will sometimes jostle the affrighted ladies . Regent Street is not unknown to Lascars and Malays ; and at Bombay , in the Apollo Green , live Yankees have often scared the natives . But New Bedford beats all Water Street and Wapping . In these last - mentioned haunts you see only sailors ; but in New Bedford , actual cannibals stand chatting at street corners ; savages outright ; many of whom yet carry on their bones unholy flesh . It makes a stranger stare . But , besides the Feegeeans , Tongatobooarrs , Erromanggoans , Pannangians , and Brighggians , and , besides the wild specimens of the whaling - craft which unheeded reel about the streets , you will see other sights still more curious , certainly more comical . There weekly arrive in this town scores of green Vermonters and New Hampshire men , all athirst for gain and glory in the fishery . They are mostly young , of stalwart frames ; fellows who have felled forests , and now seek to drop the axe and snatch the whale - lance . Many are as green as the Green Mountains whence they came . In some things you would think them but a few hours old . Look there ! that chap strutting round the corner . He wears a beaver hat and swallow - tailed coat , girdled with a sailor - belt and sheath - knife . Here comes another with a sou ’ - wester and a bombazine cloak . No town - bred dandy will compare with a country - bred one — I mean a downright bumpkin dandy — a fellow that , in the dog - days , will mow his two acres in buckskin gloves for fear of tanning his hands . Now when a country dandy like this takes it into his head to make a distinguished reputation , and joins the great whale - fishery , you should see the comical things he does upon reaching the seaport . In bespeaking his sea - outfit , he orders bell - buttons to his waistcoats ; straps to his canvas trowsers . Ah , poor Hay - Seed ! how bitterly will burst those straps in the first howling gale , when thou art driven , straps , buttons , and all , down the throat of the tempest .
Précédent Page 32 sur 430 Page 32 sur 430 Suivant Continuez à lire avec les traductions Créez un compte gratuit : 7 jours de Pro, puis 20 traductions de mots par jour ou une formule payante.
