“Come hither to me—­hither, hither,” said Peleg, with a significance in his eye that almost startled me.  “Look ye, lad; never say that on board the Pequod.  Never say it anywhere.  Captain Ahab did not name himself .’Twas a foolish, ignorant whim of his crazy, widowed mother, who died when he was only a twelvemonth old.  And yet the old squaw Tistig, at Gayhead, said that the name would somehow prove prophetic.  And, perhaps, other fools like her may tell thee the same.  I wish to warn thee.  It’s a lie.  I know Captain Ahab well; I’ve sailed with him as mate years ago; I know what he is—­ a good man—­not a pious, good man, like Bildad, but a swearing good man—­something like me—­only there’s a good deal more of him.  Aye, aye, I know that he was never very jolly; and I know that on the passage home he was a little out of his mind for a spell; but it was the sharp shooting pains in his bleeding stump that brought that about, as any one might see.  I know, too, that ever since he lost his leg last voyage by that accursed whale, he’s been a kind of moody—­ desperate moody, and savage sometimes; but that will all pass off.  And once for all, let me tell thee and assure thee, young man, it’s better to sail with a moody good captain than a laughing bad one.  So good-bye to thee—­and wrong not Captain Ahab, because he happens to have a wicked name.  Besides, my boy, he has a wife—­not three voyages wedded—­a sweet, resigned girl.  Think of that; by that sweet girl that old man had a child:  hold ye then there can be any utter, hopeless harm in Ahab?  No, no, my lad; stricken, blasted, if he be, Ahab has his humanities!”

As I walked away, I was full of thoughtfulness; what had been incidentally revealed to me of Captain Ahab, filled me with a certain wild vagueness of painfulness concerning him.  And somehow, at the time, I felt a sympathy and a sorrow for him, but for I don’t know what, unless it was the cruel loss of his leg.  And yet I also felt a strange awe of him; but that sort of awe, which I cannot at all describe, was not exactly awe; I do not know what it was.  But I felt it; and it did not disincline me towards him; though I felt impatience at what seemed like mystery in him, so imperfectly as he was known to me then.  However, my thoughts were at length carried in other directions, so that for the present dark Ahab slipped my mind.

CHAPTER 17

The Ramadan

As Queequeg’s Ramadan, or Fasting and Humiliation, was to continue all day, I did not choose to disturb him till towards night-fall; for I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody’s religious obligations, never mind how comical, and could not find it in my heart to undervalue even a congregation of ants worshipping a toad-stool; or those other creatures in certain parts of our earth, who with a degree of footmanism quite unprecedented in other planets, bow down before the torso of a deceased landed proprietor merely on account of the inordinate possessions yet owned and rented in his name.