Moby-Dick (Chap. 99: The Doubloon)

Ere now it has been related how Ahab was wont to pace his quarter-deck, taking regular turns at either limit, the binnacle and mainmast; but in the multiplicity of other things requiring narration it has not been added how that sometimes in these walks, when most plunged in his mood, he was wont to pause in turn at each spot, and stand there strangely eyeing the particular object before him. When he halted before the binnacle, with his glance fastened on the pointed needle in the compass, that glance shot like a javelin with the pointed intensity of his purpose; and when resuming his walk he again paused before the mainmast, then, as the same riveted glance fastened upon the riveted gold coin there, he still wore the same aspect of nailed firmness, only dashed with a certain wild longing, if not hopefulness.

But one morning, turning to pass the doubloon, he seemed to be newly
attracted by the strange figures and inscriptions stamped on it, as
though now for the first time beginning to interpret for himself in some monomaniac way whatever significance might lurk in them. And some
certain significance lurks in all things, else all things are little
worth, and the round world itself but an empty cipher, except to sell by the cartload, as they do hills about Boston, to fill up some morass in the Milky Way.

Now this doubloon was of purest, virgin gold, raked somewhere out of the
Heart of gorgeous hills, whence, east and west, over golden sands, the
Head-waters of many a Pactolus flows. And though now nailed amidst all
The rustiness of iron bolts and the verdigris of copper spikes, yet,
Untouchable and immaculate to any foulness, it still preserved its Quito
Glow. Nor, though placed amongst a ruthless crew and every hour passed
By ruthless hands, and through the livelong nights shrouded with thick
Darkness which might cover any pilfering approach, nevertheless every
Sunrise found the doubloon where the sunset left it last. For it was
Set apart and sanctified to one awe-striking end; and however wanton
In their sailor ways, one and all, the mariners revered it as the white
Whale's talisman. Sometimes they talked it over in the weary watch by
Night, wondering whose it was to be at last, and whether he would ever
Live to spend it.

Now those noble golden coins of South America are as medals of the sun
And tropic token-pieces. Here palms, alpacas, and volcanoes; sun's disks
And stars; ecliptics, horns-of-plenty, and rich banners waving, are in
Luxuriant profusion stamped; so that the precious gold seems almost to
Derive an added preciousness and enhancing glories, by passing through
Those fancy mints, so Spanishly poetic.

It so chanced that the doubloon of the Pequod was a most wealthy example
Of these things. On its round border it bore the letters, REPUBLICA DEL
ECUADOR: QUITO. So this bright coin came from a country planted in the
Middle of the world, and beneath the great equator, and named after it;
And it had been cast midway up the Andes, in the unwaning clime that
Knows no autumn. Zoned by those letters you saw the likeness of three
Andes' summits; from one a flame; a tower on another; on the third a
Crowing cock; while arching over all was a segment of the partitioned
Zodiac, the signs all marked with their usual cabalistics, and the
Keystone sun entering the equinoctial point at Libra.

Before this equatorial coin, Ahab, not unobserved by others, was now
Pausing.

"There's something ever egotistical in mountain-tops and towers, and
All other grand and lofty things; look here,--three peaks as proud as
Lucifer. The firm tower, that is Ahab; the volcano, that is Ahab; the
Courageous, the undaunted, and victorious fowl, that, too, is Ahab; all
Are Ahab; and this round gold is but the image of the rounder globe,
Which, like a magician's glass, to each and every man in turn but
Mirrors back his own mysterious self. Great pains, small gains for those
Who ask the world to solve them; it cannot solve itself. Methinks now
This coined sun wears a ruddy face; but see! aye, he enters the sign
Of storms, the equinox! and but six months before he wheeled out of a
Former equinox at Aries! From storm to storm! So be it, then. Born in
Throes, 't is fit that man should live in pains and die in pangs! So be
It, then! Here's stout stuff for woe to work on. So be it, then."

"No fairy fingers can have pressed the gold, but devil's claws must
Have left their mouldings there since yesterday," murmured Starbuck
To himself, leaning against the bulwarks. "The old man seems to read
Belshazzar's awful writing. I have never marked the coin inspectingly.
He goes below; let me read. A dark valley between three mighty,
Heaven-abiding peaks, that almost seem the Trinity, in some faint
Earthly symbol. So in this vale of Death, God girds us round; and over
All our gloom, the sun of Righteousness still shines a beacon and a
Hope. If we bend down our eyes, the dark vale shows her mouldy soil;
But if we lift them, the bright sun meets our glance half way, to cheer.
Yet, oh, the great sun is no fixture; and if, at midnight, we would fain
Snatch some sweet solace from him, we gaze for him in vain! This coin
Speaks wisely, mildly, truly, but still sadly to me. I will quit it,
Lest Truth shake me falsely."

"There now's the old Mogul," soliloquized Stubb by the try-works, "he's
Been twigging it; and there goes Starbuck from the same, and both with
Faces which I should say might be somewhere within nine fathoms long.
And all from looking at a piece of gold, which did I have it now on
Negro Hill or in Corlaer's Hook, I'd not look at it very long ere
Spending it. Humph! in my poor, insignificant opinion, I regard this as
Queer. I have seen doubloons before now in my voyagings; your doubloons
Of old Spain, your doubloons of Peru, your doubloons of Chili, your
Doubloons of Bolivia, your doubloons of Popayan; with plenty of gold
Moidores and pistoles, and joes, and half joes, and quarter joes. What
Then should there be in this doubloon of the Equator that is so killing
Wonderful? By Golconda! let me read it once. Halloa! here's signs and
Wonders truly! That, now, is what old Bowditch in his Epitome calls the
Zodiac, and what my almanac below calls ditto. I'll get the almanac and
As I have heard devils can be raised with Daboll's arithmetic, I'll try
My hand at raising a meaning out of these queer curvicues here with
The Massachusetts calendar. Here's the book. Let's see now. Signs and
Wonders; and the sun, he's always among 'em. Hem, hem, hem; here they
Are--here they go--all alive:--Aries, or the Ram; Taurus, or the Bull
And Jimimi! here's Gemini himself, or the Twins. Well; the sun he
Wheels among 'em. Aye, here on the coin he's just crossing the threshold
Between two of twelve sitting-rooms all in a ring. Book! you lie there;
The fact is, you books must know your places. You'll do to give us the
Bare words and facts, but we come in to supply the thoughts. That's my
Small experience, so far as the Massachusetts calendar, and Bowditch's
Navigator, and Daboll's arithmetic go. Signs and wonders, eh? Pity if
There is nothing wonderful in signs, and significant in wonders! There's
A clue somewhere; wait a bit; hist--hark! By Jove, I have it! Look you,
Doubloon, your zodiac here is the life of man in one round chapter;
And now I'll read it off, straight out of the book. Come, Almanack! To
Begin: there's Aries, or the Ram--lecherous dog, he begets us; then,
Taurus, or the Bull--he bumps us the first thing; then Gemini, or the
Twins--that is, Virtue and Vice; we try to reach Virtue, when lo! comes
Cancer the Crab, and drags us back; and here, going from Virtue, Leo,
A roaring Lion, lies in the path--he gives a few fierce bites and surly
Dabs with his paw; we escape, and hail Virgo, the Virgin! that's our
First love; we marry and think to be happy for aye, when pop comes
Libra, or the Scales--happiness weighed and found wanting; and while we
Are very sad about that, Lord! how we suddenly jump, as Scorpio, or the
Scorpion, stings us in the rear; we are curing the wound, when whang
Come the arrows all round; Sagittarius, or the Archer, is amusing
Himself. As we pluck out the shafts, stand aside! here's the
Battering-ram, Capricornus, or the Goat; full tilt, he comes rushing,
And headlong we are tossed; when Aquarius, or the Water-bearer, pours
Out his whole deluge and drowns us; and to wind up with Pisces, or the
Fishes, we sleep. There's a sermon now, writ in high heaven, and the
Sun goes through it every year, and yet comes out of it all alive and
Hearty. Jollily he, aloft there, wheels through toil and trouble; and
So, alow here, does jolly Stubb. Oh, jolly's the word for aye! Adieu,
Doubloon! But stop; here comes little King-Post; dodge round the
Try-works, now, and let's hear what he'll have to say. There; he's
Before it; he'll out with something presently. So, so; he's beginning."

"I see nothing here, but a round thing made of gold, and whoever raises
A certain whale, this round thing belongs to him. So, what's all this
Staring been about? It is worth sixteen dollars, that's true; and at
Two cents the cigar, that's nine hundred and sixty cigars. I won't smoke
Dirty pipes like Stubb, but I like cigars, and here's nine hundred and
Sixty of them; so here goes Flask aloft to spy 'em out."

"Shall I call that wise or foolish, now; if it be really wise it has a
Foolish look to it; yet, if it be really foolish, then has it a sort
Of wiseish look to it. But, avast; here comes our old Manxman--the old
Hearse-driver, he must have been, that is, before he took to the sea. He
Luffs up before the doubloon; halloa, and goes round on the other side
Of the mast; why, there's a horse-shoe nailed on that side; and now he's
Back again; what does that mean? Hark! he's muttering--voice like an old
Worn-out coffee-mill. Prick ears, and listen!"

"If the White Whale be raised, it must be in a month and a day, when
The sun stands in some one of these signs. I've studied signs, and know
Their marks; they were taught me two score years ago, by the old witch
In Copenhagen. Now, in what sign will the sun then be? The horse-shoe
Sign; for there it is, right opposite the gold. And what's the
Horse-shoe sign? The lion is the horse-shoe sign--the roaring and
Devouring lion. Ship, old ship! my old head shakes to think of thee."

"There's another rendering now; but still one text. All sorts of men
In one kind of world, you see. Dodge again! here comes Queequeg--all
Tattooing--looks like the signs of the Zodiac himself. What says the
Cannibal? As I live he's comparing notes; looking at his thigh bone;
Thinks the sun is in the thigh, or in the calf, or in the bowels, I
Suppose, as the old women talk Surgeon's Astronomy in the back country.
And by Jove, he's found something there in the vicinity of his thigh--I
Guess it's Sagittarius, or the Archer. No: he don't know what to make
Of the doubloon; he takes it for an old button off some king's trowsers.
But, aside again! here comes that ghost-devil, Fedallah; tail coiled out
Of sight as usual, oakum in the toes of his pumps as usual. What does he
Say, with that look of his? Ah, only makes a sign to the sign and bows
Himself; there is a sun on the coin--fire worshipper, depend upon it.
Ho! more and more. This way comes Pip--poor boy! would he had died,
Or I; he's half horrible to me. He too has been watching all of these
Interpreters--myself included--and look now, he comes to read, with that
Unearthly idiot face. Stand away again and hear him. Hark!"

"I look, you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look."

"Upon my soul, he's been studying Murray's Grammar! Improving his mind,
Poor fellow! But what's that he says now--hist!"

"I look, you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look."

"Why, he's getting it by heart--hist! again."

"I look, you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look."

"Well, that's funny."

"And I, you, and he; and we, ye, and they, are all bats; and I'm a crow,
Especially when I stand a'top of this pine tree here. Caw! caw! caw!
Caw! caw! caw! Ain't I a crow? And where's the scare-crow? There he
Stands; two bones stuck into a pair of old trowsers, and two more poked
Into the sleeves of an old jacket."

"Wonder if he means me?--complimentary!--poor lad!--I could go hang
Myself. Any way, for the present, I'll quit Pip's vicinity. I can stand
The rest, for they have plain wits; but he's too crazy-witty for my
Sanity. So, so, I leave him muttering."

"Here's the ship's navel, this doubloon here, and they are all on fire
To unscrew it. But, unscrew your navel, and what's the consequence? Then
Again, if it stays here, that is ugly, too, for when aught's nailed to
The mast it's a sign that things grow desperate. Ha, ha! old Ahab!
The White Whale; he'll nail ye! This is a pine tree. My father, in old
Tolland county, cut down a pine tree once, and found a silver ring grown
Over in it; some old darkey's wedding ring. How did it get there? And
So they'll say in the resurrection, when they come to fish up this old
Mast, and find a doubloon lodged in it, with bedded oysters for the
Shaggy bark. Oh, the gold! the precious, precious, gold! the green
Miser'll hoard ye soon! Hish! hish! God goes 'mong the worlds
Blackberrying. Cook! ho, cook! and cook us! Jenny! hey, hey, hey, hey,
Hey, Jenny, Jenny! and get your ho-cake done!"