Seeing, now, that there were no curtains to the window,
and that the street being very narrow, the house opposite
commanded a plain view into the room, and observing
more and more the indecorous figure that Queequeg
made, staving about with little else but his hat and
boots on; I begged him as well as I could, to accelerate
his toilet somewhat, and particularly to get into
his pantaloons as soon as possible. He complied,
and then proceeded to wash himself. At that time
in the morning any Christian would have washed his
face; but Queequeg, to my amazement, contented himself
with restricting his ablutions to his chest, arms,
and hands. He then donned his waistcoat, and
taking up a piece of hard soap on the wash-stand centre
table, dipped it into water and commenced lathering
his face. I was watching to see where he kept
his razor, when lo and behold, he takes the harpoon
from the bed corner, slips out the long wooden stock,
unsheathes the head, whets it a little on his boot,
and striding up to the bit of mirror against the wall,
begins a vigorous scraping, or rather harpooning of
his cheeks. Thinks I, Queequeg, this is using
Rogers’s best cutlery with a vengeance.
Afterwards I wondered the less at this operation when
I came to know of what fine steel the head of a harpoon
is made, and how exceedingly sharp the long straight
edges are always kept.
The rest of his toilet was soon achieved, and he proudly
marched out of the room, wrapped up in his great pilot
monkey jacket, and sporting his harpoon like a marshal’s
baton.
CHAPTER 5
Breakfast
I quickly followed suit, and descending into the bar-room
accosted the grinning landlord very pleasantly.
I cherished no malice towards him, though he had
been skylarking with me not a little in the matter
of my bedfellow.
However, a good laugh is a mighty good thing, and
rather too scarce a good thing; the more’s the
pity. So, if any one man, in his own proper
person, afford stuff for a good joke to anybody, let
him not be backward, but let him cheerfully allow
himself to spend and to be spent in that way.
And the man that has anything bountifully laughable
about him, be sure there is more in that man than
you perhaps think for.
The bar-room was now full of the boarders who had
been dropping in the night previous, and whom I had
not as yet had a good look at. They were nearly
all whalemen; chief mates, and second mates, and third
mates, and sea carpenters, and sea coopers, and sea
blacksmiths, and harpooneers, and ship keepers; a
brown and brawny company, with bosky beards; an unshorn,
shaggy set, all wearing monkey jackets for morning
gowns.
You could pretty plainly tell how long each one had
been ashore. This young fellow’s healthy
cheek is like a sun-toasted pear in hue, and would
seem to smell almost as musky; he cannot have been
three days landed from his Indian voyage. That
man next him looks a few shades lighter; you might
say a touch of satin wood is in him. In the
complexion of a third still lingers a tropic tawn,
but slightly bleached withal; he doubtless has tarried
whole weeks ashore. But who could show a cheek
like Queequeg? which, barred with various tints, seemed
like the Andes’ western slope, to show forth
in one array, contrasting climates, zone by zone.
