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CHAPTER 94 . A Squeeze of the Hand . That whale of Stubb’s , so dearly purchased , was duly brought to the Pequod’s side , where all those cutting and hoisting operations previously detailed , were regularly gone through , even to the baling of the Heidelburgh Tun , or Case . While some were occupied with this latter duty , others were employed in dragging away the larger tubs , so soon as filled with the sperm ; and when the proper time arrived , this same sperm was carefully manipulated ere going to the try - works , of which anon . It had cooled and crystallized to such a degree , that when , with several others , I sat down before a large Constantine’s bath of it , I found it strangely concreted into lumps , here and there rolling about in the liquid part . It was our business to squeeze these lumps back into fluid . A sweet and unctuous duty ! No wonder that in old times this sperm was such a favourite cosmetic . Such a clearer ! such a sweetener ! such a softener ! such a delicious molifier ! After having my hands in it for only a few minutes , my fingers felt like eels , and began , as it were , to serpentine and spiralise . As I sat there at my ease , cross - legged on the deck ; after the bitter exertion at the windlass ; under a blue tranquil sky ; the ship under indolent sail , and gliding so serenely along ; as I bathed my hands among those soft , gentle globules of infiltrated tissues , woven almost within the hour ; as they richly broke to my fingers , and discharged all their opulence , like fully ripe grapes their wine ; as I snuffed up that uncontaminated aroma , — literally and truly , like the smell of spring violets ; I declare to you , that for the time I lived as in a musky meadow ; I forgot all about our horrible oath ; in that inexpressible sperm , I washed my hands and my heart of it ; I almost began to credit the old Paracelsan superstition that sperm is of rare virtue in allaying the heat of anger ; while bathing in that bath , I felt divinely free from all ill - will , or petulance , or malice , of any sort whatsoever . Squeeze ! squeeze ! squeeze ! all the morning long ; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it ; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me ; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co - laborers ’ hands in it , mistaking their hands for the gentle globules . Such an abounding , affectionate , friendly , loving feeling did this avocation beget ; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands , and looking up into their eyes sentimentally ; as much as to say , — Oh ! my dear fellow beings , why should we longer cherish any social acerbities , or know the slightest ill - humor or envy ! Come ; let us squeeze hands all round ; nay , let us all squeeze ourselves into each other ; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness .
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