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CHAPTER 83 . Jonah Historically Regarded . Reference was made to the historical story of Jonah and the whale in the preceding chapter . Now some Nantucketers rather distrust this historical story of Jonah and the whale . But then there were some sceptical Greeks and Romans , who , standing out from the orthodox pagans of their times , equally doubted the story of Hercules and the whale , and Arion and the dolphin ; and yet their doubting those traditions did not make those traditions one whit the less facts , for all that . One old Sag - Harbor whaleman’s chief reason for questioning the Hebrew story was this : — He had one of those quaint old - fashioned Bibles , embellished with curious , unscientific plates ; one of which represented Jonah’s whale with two spouts in his head — a peculiarity only true with respect to a species of the Leviathan ( the Right Whale , and the varieties of that order ) , concerning which the fishermen have this saying , “ A penny roll would choke him ” ; his swallow is so very small . But , to this , Bishop Jebb’s anticipative answer is ready . It is not necessary , hints the Bishop , that we consider Jonah as tombed in the whale’s belly , but as temporarily lodged in some part of his mouth . And this seems reasonable enough in the good Bishop . For truly , the Right Whale’s mouth would accommodate a couple of whist - tables , and comfortably seat all the players . Possibly , too , Jonah might have ensconced himself in a hollow tooth ; but , on second thoughts , the Right Whale is toothless . Another reason which Sag - Harbor ( he went by that name ) urged for his want of faith in this matter of the prophet , was something obscurely in reference to his incarcerated body and the whale’s gastric juices . But this objection likewise falls to the ground , because a German exegetist supposes that Jonah must have taken refuge in the floating body of a dead whale — even as the French soldiers in the Russian campaign turned their dead horses into tents , and crawled into them . Besides , it has been divined by other continental commentators , that when Jonah was thrown overboard from the Joppa ship , he straightway effected his escape to another vessel near by , some vessel with a whale for a figure - head ; and , I would add , possibly called “ The Whale , ” as some craft are nowadays christened the “ Shark , ” the “ Gull , ” the “ Eagle . ” Nor have there been wanting learned exegetists who have opined that the whale mentioned in the book of Jonah merely meant a life - preserver — an inflated bag of wind — which the endangered prophet swam to , and so was saved from a watery doom . Poor Sag - Harbor , therefore , seems worsted all round . But he had still another reason for his want of faith . It was this , if I remember right : Jonah was swallowed by the whale in the Mediterranean Sea , and after three days he was vomited up somewhere within three days ’ journey of Nineveh , a city on the Tigris , very much more than three days ’ journey across from the nearest point of the Mediterranean coast . How is that ?
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