Crossing the deck, let us now have a good long look at the the Right Whale's head.
As in general shape the noble Sperm1 Whale's head may be compared to a Roman war-chariot (especially in front, where it is so broadly rounded); so, at a broad view, the Right Whale's head bears a rather inelegant resemblance to a gigantic galliot-toed shoe. Two hundred years ago an old Dutch voyager likened its shape to that of a shoemaker's last. And in this same last or shoe, that old woman of the nursery tale with the swarming2 brood, might very comfortably be lodged3, she and all her progeny4.
But as you come nearer to this great head it begins to assume different aspects, according to your point of view. If you stand on its summit and look at these two f-shaped spout-holes, you would take the whole head for an enormous bass6 viol, and these spiracles, the apertures7 in its soundingboard. Then, again, if you fix your eye upon this strange, crested8, comblike incrustation on the top of the mass--this green, barnacled thing, which the Greenlanders call the "crown," and the Southern fishers the "bonnet9" of the Right Whale; fixing your eyes solely10 on this, you would take the head for the trunk of some huge oak, with a bird's nest in its crotch. At any rate, when you watch those live crabs11 that nestle here on this bonnet, such an idea will be almost sure to occur to you; unless, indeed, your fancy has been fixed12 by the technical term "crown" also bestowed13 upon it; in which case you will take great interest in thinking how this mighty14 monster is actually a diademed16 king of the sea, whose green crown has been put together for him in this marvellous manner. But if this whale be a king, he is a very sulky looking fellow to grace a diadem15. Look at that hanging lower lip! what a huge sulk and pout5 is there! a sulk and pout, by carpenter's measurement, about twenty feet long and five feet deep; a sulk and pout that will yield you some 500 gallons of oil and more.
A great pity, now, that this unfortunate whale should be hare-lipped. The fissure17 is about a foot across. Probably the mother during an important interval18 was sailing down the Peruvian coast, when earthquakes caused the beach to gape19. Over this lip, as over a slippery threshold, we now slide into the mouth. Upon my word were I at Mackinaw, I should take this to be the inside of an Indian wigwam. Good Lord! is this the road that Jonah went? The roof is about twelve feet high, and runs to a pretty sharp angle, as if there were a regular ridge-pole there; while these ribbed, arched, hairy sides, present us with those wondrous20, half vertical21, scimitar-shaped slats of whalebone, say three hundred on a side, which depending from the upper part of the head or crown bone, form those Venetian blinds which have elsewhere been cursorily22 mentioned. The edges of these bones are fringed with hairy fibres, through which the Right Whale strains the water, and in whose intricacies he retains the small fish, when openmouthed he goes through the seas of brit in feeding time. In the central blinds of bone, as they stand in their natural order, there are certain curious marks, curves, hollows, and ridges23, whereby some whalemen calculate the creature's age, as the age of an oak by its circular rings. Though the certainty of this criterion is far from demonstrable, yet it has the savor24 of analogical probability. At any rate, if we yield to it, we must grant a far greater age to the Right Whale than at first glance will seem reasonable.
In old times, there seem to have prevailed the most curious fancies concerning these blinds. One voyager in Purchas calls them the wondrous "whiskers" inside of the whale's mouth;* another, "hogs25' bristles"; a third old gentleman in Hackluyt uses the following elegant language: "There are about two hundred and fifty fins26 growing on each side of his upper chop, which arch over his tongue on each side of his mouth."
*This reminds us that the Right Whale really has a sort of whisker, or rather a moustache, consisting of a few scattered27 white hairs on the upper part of the outer end of the lower jaw28. Sometimes these tufts impart a rather brigandish expression to his otherwise solemn countenance29.
As every one knows, these same "hogs' bristles," "fins," "whiskers," "blinds," or whatever you please, furnish to the ladies their busks and other stiffening30 contrivances. But in this particular, the demand has long been on the decline. It was in Queen Anne's time that the bone was in its glory, the farthingale being then all the fashion. And as those ancient dames31 moved about gaily32, though in the jaws33 of the whale, as you may say; even so, in a shower, with the like thoughtlessness, do we nowadays fly under the same jaws for protection; the umbrella being a tent spread over the same bone.
But now forget all about blinds and whiskers for a moment, and, standing34 in the Right Whale's mouth, look around you afresh. Seeing all these colonnades35 of bone so methodically ranged about, would you not think you were inside of the great Haarlem organ, and gazing upon its thousand pipes? For a carpet to the organ we have a rug of the softest Turkey--the tongue, which is glued, as it were, to the floor of the mouth. It is very fat and tender, and apt to tear in pieces in hoisting36 it on deck. This particular tongue now before us; at a passing glance I should say it was a six-barreler; that is, it will yield you about that amount of oil.
Ere this, you must have plainly seen the truth of what I started with-- that the Sperm Whale and the Right Whale have almost entirely37 different heads. To sum up, then: in the Right Whale's there is no great well of sperm; no ivory teeth at all; no long, slender mandible of a lower jaw, like the Sperm Whale's. Nor in the Sperm Whale are there any of those blinds of bone; no huge lower lip; and scarcely anything of a tongue. Again, the Right Whale has two external spout-holes, the Sperm Whale only one.
Look your last now, on these venerable hooded38 heads, while they yet lie together; for one will soon sink, unrecorded, in the sea; the other will not be very long in following.
Can you catch the expression of the Sperm Whale's there? It is the same he died with, only some of the longer wrinkles in the forehead seem now faded away. I think his broad brow to be full of a prairie-like placidity39, born of a speculative40 indifference41 as to death. But mark the other head's expression. See that amazing lower lip, pressed by accident against the vessel's side, so as firmly to embrace the jaw. Does not this whole head seem to speak of an enormous practical resolution in facing death? This Right Whale I take to have been a Stoic42; the Sperm Whale, a Platonian, who might have taken up Spinoza in his latter years.
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sperm
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| n.精子，精液 | |
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swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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progeny
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| n.后代，子孙；结果 | |
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pout
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| v.撅嘴；绷脸；n.撅嘴；生气，不高兴 | |
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bass
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| n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴 | |
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apertures
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| n.孔( aperture的名词复数 )；隙缝；（照相机的）光圈；孔径 | |
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crested
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| adj.有顶饰的，有纹章的，有冠毛的v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的过去式和过去分词 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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crabs
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| n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 ) | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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diadem
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| n.王冠，冕 | |
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diademed
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fissure
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| n.裂缝；裂伤 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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gape
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| v.张口，打呵欠，目瞪口呆地凝视 | |
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wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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cursorily
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| adv.粗糙地，疏忽地，马虎地 | |
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ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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savor
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| vt.品尝，欣赏；n.味道，风味；情趣，趣味 | |
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hogs
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| n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人 | |
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fins
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| [医]散热片；鱼鳍；飞边；鸭掌 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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stiffening
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| n. (使衣服等)变硬的材料, 硬化 动词stiffen的现在分词形式 | |
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dames
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| n.（在英国）夫人（一种封号），夫人（爵士妻子的称号）( dame的名词复数 )；女人 | |
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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colonnades
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| n.石柱廊( colonnade的名词复数 ) | |
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hoisting
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| 起重，提升 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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placidity
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| n.平静，安静，温和 | |
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speculative
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| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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42
stoic
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| n.坚忍克己之人，禁欲主义者 | |
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