10 A Bosom Friend
CHAPTER 10
A BOSOM FRIEND.
Returning to the Spouter-Inn from the Chapel, I found Queequeg there quite alone; he having left the Chapel before the benediction some time. He was sitting on a bench before the fire, with his feet on the stove hearth, and in one hand was holding close up to his face that little negro idol of his; peering hard into its face, and with a jack-knife gently whittling away at its nose, meanwhile humming to himself in his heathenish way.
But being now interrupted, he put up the image; and pretty soon, going to the table, took up a large book there, and placing it on his lap began counting the pages with deliberate regularity; at every fiftieth page—as I fancied—stopping a moment, looking vacantly around him, and giving utterance to a long-drawn gurgling whistle of astonishment. He would then begin again at the next fifty; seeming to commence at number one each time, as though he could not count more than fifty, and it was only by such a large number of fifties being found togetherfifties being found together: In his “revised third” Norton Critical Edition of Moby-Dick, Hershel Parker has changed “found together” to “bound together.” Although the 1988 NN and 2002 second Norton editions concur with the American and British versions in printing “found,” Parker offers no discussion of his decision to print a different word. In the scene, Ishmael observes Queequeg thumbing through “a large book,” counting off fifty pages at a time, and wondering at the volume’s size and structure: it seems to be the first time he has spent time with such a marvel. Since, in Moby-Dick, book structure is an issue, at least from bookish Ishmael’s point of view, the bibliographical term “bound” might be justified. But, here, Ishmael’s use of “found” allows him to partake in Queequeg’s perspective and the wonderment of his discovery of how books are put together; therefore, the emendation of “found” to “bound” flattens this effect. Given its policy of emending the American version base text only to avoid significant reader confusion, MEL makes no change., that his astonishment at the multitude of pages was excited.
With much interest I sat watching him. Savage though he was, and hideously marred about the face—at least to my taste—his countenance yet had a something in it which was by no means disagreeable. You cannot hide the soul. Through all his unearthly tattooings, I thought I saw the traces of a simple honest heart; and in his large, deep eyes, fiery black and bold, there seemed tokens of a spirit that would dare a thousand devils. And besides all this, there was a certain lofty bearing about the Pagan, which even his uncouthness could not altogether maim. He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had had a creditor. Whether it was, too, that his head being shaved, his forehead was drawn out in freer and brighter relief, and looked more expansive than it otherwise would, this I will not venture to decide; but certain it was his head was phrenologicallyphrenologically: the pseudo-science of phrenology links personality and mental ability to the shape of the skull. an excellent one. It may seem ridiculous, but it reminded me of General Washington’s head, as seen in the popular busts of him. It had the same long regularly graded retreating slope from above the brows, which were likewise very projecting, like two long promontories thickly wooded on top. Queequeg was George Washington cannibalistically developed.
Whilst I was thus closely scanning him, half-pretending meanwhile to be looking out at the storm from the casement, he never heeded my presence, never troubled himself with so much as a single glance; but appeared wholly occupied with counting the pages of the marvellous book. Considering how sociably we had been sleeping together the night previous, and especially considering the affectionate arm I had found thrown over me upon waking in the morning, I thought this indifference of his very strange. But savages are strange beings; at times you do not know exactly how to take them. At first they are overawing; their calm self-collectedness of simplicity seems a Socratic wisdomSocratic wisdom: the oracle of Delphi declared Greek philosopher Socrates (470/469-399 BCE) to be the wisest of men.. I had noticed also that Queequeg never consorted at all, or but very little, with the other seamen in the inn. He made no advances whatever; appeared to have no desire to enlarge the circle of his acquaintances. All this struck me as mighty singular; yet, upon second thoughts, there was something almost sublime in it. Here was a man some twenty thousand miles from home, by the way of Cape Horn, that is—which was the only way he could get there—thrown among people as strange to him as though he were in the planet Jupiter; and yet he seemed entirely at his ease; preserving the utmost serenity; content with his own companionship; always equal to himself. Surely this was a touch of fine philosophy; though no doubt he had never heard there was such a thing as that. But, perhaps, to be true philosophers, we mortals should not be conscious of so living or so striving. So soon as I hear that such or such a man gives himself out for a philosopher, I conclude that, like the dyspepticdyspeptic: having indigestion. old woman, he must have “broken his digester.”
As I sat there in that now lonely room; the fire burning low, in that mild stage when, after its first intensity has warmed the air, it then only glows to be looked at; the evening shades and phantoms gathering round the casements, and peering in upon us silent, solitary twain; the storm booming without in solemn swells; I began to be sensible of strange feelings. I felt a melting in me. No more my splintered heart and maddened hand were turned against the wolfish world. This soothing savage had redeemed it. There he sat, his very indifference speaking a nature in which there lurked no civilized hypocrisies and bland deceits. Wild he was; a very sight of sights to see; yet I began to feel myself mysteriously drawn towards him. And those same things that would have repelled most others, they were the very magnets that thus drew me. I’ll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy. I drew my bench near him, and made some friendly signs and hints, doing my best to talk with him meanwhile. At first he little noticed these advances; but presently, upon my referring to his last night’s hospitalities, he made out to ask me whether we were again to be bedfellows. I told him yes; whereat I thought he looked pleased, perhaps a little complimented.
We then turned over the book together, and I endeavored to explain to him the purpose of the printing, and the meaning of the few pictures that were in it. Thus I soon engaged his interest; and from that we went to jabbering the best we could about the various outer sights to be seen in this famous town. Soon I proposed a social smoke; and, producing his pouch and tomahawk, he quietly offered me a puff. And then we sat exchanging puffs from that wild pipe of his, and keeping it regularly passing between us.
If there yet lurked any ice of indifference towards me in the Pagan’s breast, this pleasant, genial smoke we had, soon thawed it out, and left us cronies. He seemed to take to me quite as naturally and unbiddenly as I to him; and when our smoke was over, he pressed his forehead against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that henceforth we were married; meaning, in his country’s phrase, that we were bosom friends; he would gladly die for me, if need should be. In a countryman, this sudden flame of friendship would have seemed far too premature, a thing to be much distrusted; but in this simple savage those old rules would not apply.
After supper, and another social chat and smoke, we went to our room together. He made me a present of his embalmed head; took out his enormous tobacco wallet, and groping under the tobacco, drew out some thirty dollars in silver; then spreading them on the table, and mechanically dividing them into two equal portions, pushed one of them towards me, and said it was mine. I was going to remonstrate; but he silenced me by pouring them into my trowsers’ pockets. I let them stay. He then went about his evening prayers, took out his idol, and removed the paper fireboard. By certain signs and symptoms, I thought he seemed anxious for me to join him; but well knowing what was to follow, I deliberated a moment whether, in case he invited me, I would comply or otherwise.
I was a good Christian; born and bred in the bosom of the infallible Presbyterian Churchinfallible Presbyterian Church: Raised in the Dutch Reformed Church and later affiliated with the Episcopal Church while writing Moby-Dick in Pittsfield, Melville often humorously suggests the failings of doctrine and practice shared by these churches and Presbyterianism. In later years, Melville affiliated with New York City’s All-Souls Unitarian Church.. How then could I unite with this wild idolator in worshipping his piece of wood? But what is worship? thought I. Do you suppose now, Ishmael, that the magnanimous God of heaven and earth—pagans and all included—can possibly be jealous of an insignificant bit of black wood? Impossible!REVISION NARRATIVE: Ishmael and Queequeg, Bosom Friends 1 // A set of British revisions regarding Ishmael’s relation to Queequeg spans two chapters. In closing Ch. 10, Ishmael argues that to be a good Christian, he must turn idolator, but his sentence introducing this argument bothered Melville's British editor, who expurgated both the question that asks whether God could “possibly be jealous” of a wooden idol and Ishmael's emphatic answer “Impossible!” Two sexual passages were also cut. See “in our hearts’ honeymoon,” which concludes Ch. 10, and two consecutive lines regarding Queequeg's “brown tattooed legs” and Ishmael and Queequeg's “free and easy” sociability in the opening lines of Ch. 11. See also Revision Narratives in Ch. 4. To compare American and British pages, click the thumbnails in the right margin. But what is worship?—to do the will of God—that is worship. And what is the will of God?—to do to my fellow man what I would have my fellow man to do to me—that is the will of God. Now, Queequeg is my fellow man. And what do I wish that this Queequeg would do to me? Why, unite with me in my particular Presbyterian form of worship. Consequently, I must then unite with him in his; ergo, I must turn idolator. So I kindled the shavings; helped prop up the innocent little idol; offered him burnt biscuit with Queequeg; salamed before him twice or thrice; kissed his nose; and that done, we undressed and went to bed, at peace with our own consciences and all the world. But we did not go to sleep without some little chat.
How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts’ honeymoon,REVISION NARRATIVE: Ishmael and Queequeg, Bosom Friends 2 // Melville's British editor deleted "in our hearts' honeymoon" to reduce the homosexual implications of Ishmael and Queequeg's friendship. See also a similar expurgation in the opening of Ch. 11 and in Ch. 4. To compare American and British pages, click the thumbnails in the right margin. lay I and Queequeg—a cosy, loving pairI and Queequeg—a cosy, loving pair: Ishmael and Queequeg's relationship is intense, physical, and expressed in marital terms that challenge conventional notions of sexuality. While men often shared beds for convenience, then as today, these two also have a “homosocial” bond of affection that, though typical in western cultures, may specifically reflect the Polynesian idea and practice of aikāne. According to Henry Hughes, although the word ai (sexual intercourse) + kāne (man) originally connoted male-male sexuality, its meaning evolved, and even Polynesians used it to mean close, non-sexual male-male friendships. With reference to Ishmael and Queequeg (the son and heir of a chief), during his years in the Pacific, Melville may have learned that aikāne meant not only an intimate friend of the same sex, but the male lover of a chief. Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-1882) explains the term in Two Years Before the Mast (1840) in passages reflected in Moby-Dick, including Queequeg’s sharing his money and “marrying” Ishmael, and Ishmael’s explaining the printing and pictures in a book. Like Queequeg in Ch. 110, Dana’s aikāne, Hope, falls dangerously ill and recovers. Dana tells us that “every Kanaka [Polynesian man] has one particular friend, whom he considers himself bound to do everything for, and with whom he has a sort of contract—an alliance offensive and defensive,—and for whom he will often make the greatest sacrifices. This friend they call aikane; and for such did Hope adopt me. I do not believe I could have wanted anything which he had, that he would not have given me. In return for this, I was always his friend among the Americans, and used to teach him letters and numbers.” See also Revision Narratives in this chapter and in Chs. 4 and 11..