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But Stubb , he eats the whale by its own light , does he ? and that is adding insult to injury , is it ? Look at your knife - handle , there , my civilized and enlightened gourmand dining off that roast beef , what is that handle made of ? — what but the bones of the brother of the very ox you are eating ? And what do you pick your teeth with , after devouring that fat goose ? With a feather of the same fowl . And with what quill did the Secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Cruelty to Ganders formally indite his circulars ? It is only within the last month or two that that society passed a resolution to patronize nothing but steel pens . CHAPTER 66 . The Shark Massacre . When in the Southern Fishery , a captured Sperm Whale , after long and weary toil , is brought alongside late at night , it is not , as a general thing at least , customary to proceed at once to the business of cutting him in . For that business is an exceedingly laborious one ; is not very soon completed ; and requires all hands to set about it . Therefore , the common usage is to take in all sail ; lash the helm a’lee ; and then send every one below to his hammock till daylight , with the reservation that , until that time , anchor - watches shall be kept ; that is , two and two for an hour , each couple , the crew in rotation shall mount the deck to see that all goes well . But sometimes , especially upon the Line in the Pacific , this plan will not answer at all ; because such incalculable hosts of sharks gather round the moored carcase , that were he left so for six hours , say , on a stretch , little more than the skeleton would be visible by morning . In most other parts of the ocean , however , where these fish do not so largely abound , their wondrous voracity can be at times considerably diminished , by vigorously stirring them up with sharp whaling - spades , a procedure notwithstanding , which , in some instances , only seems to tickle them into still greater activity . But it was not thus in the present case with the Pequod’s sharks ; though , to be sure , any man unaccustomed to such sights , to have looked over her side that night , would have almost thought the whole round sea was one huge cheese , and those sharks the maggots in it . Nevertheless , upon Stubb setting the anchor - watch after his supper was concluded ; and when , accordingly , Queequeg and a forecastle seaman came on deck , no small excitement was created among the sharks ; for immediately suspending the cutting stages over the side , and lowering three lanterns , so that they cast long gleams of light over the turbid sea , these two mariners , darting their long whaling - spades , kept up an incessant murdering of the sharks , * by striking the keen steel deep into their skulls , seemingly their only vital part . But in the foamy confusion of their mixed and struggling hosts , the marksmen could not always hit their mark ; and this brought about new revelations of the incredible ferocity of the foe .
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