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1Nimble as a cat, Tashtego mounts aloft; and without altering his erect posture, runs straight out upon the overhanging
2mainyard-arm, to the part where it exactly projects over the hoisted Tun. He has carried with him a light tackle called
3a whip, consisting of only two parts, travelling through a single-sheaved block. Securing this block, so that it hangs
4down from the yard-arm, he swings one end of the rope, till it is caught and firmly held by a hand on deck. Then,
5hand-over-hand, down the other part, the Indian drops through the air, till dexterously he lands on the summit of the
6head. There--still high elevated above the rest of the company, to whom he vivaciously cries--he seems some Turkish
7Muezzin calling the good people to prayers from the top of a tower. A short-handled sharp spade being sent up to him, he
8diligently searches for the proper place to begin breaking into the Tun. In this business he proceeds very heedfully,
9like a treasure-hunter in some old house, sounding the walls to find where the gold is masoned in. By the time this
10cautious search is over, a stout iron-bound bucket, precisely like a well-bucket, has been attached to one end of the
11whip; while the other end, being stretched across the deck, is there held by two or three alert hands. These last now
12hoist the bucket within grasp of the Indian, to whom another person has reached up a very long pole. Inserting this pole
13into the bucket, Tashtego downward guides the bucket into the Tun, till it entirely disappears; then giving the word to
14the seamen at the whip, up comes the bucket again, all bubbling like a dairy-maid's pail of new milk. Carefully lowered
15from its height, the full-freighted vessel is caught by an appointed hand, and quickly emptied into a large tub. Then
16remounting aloft, it again goes through the same round until the deep cistern will yield no more. Towards the end,
17Tashtego has to ram his long pole harder and harder, and deeper and deeper into the Tun, until some twenty feet of the
18pole have gone down. Now, the people of the Pequod had been baling some time in this way; several tubs had been filled
19with the fragrant sperm; when all at once a queer accident happened. Whether it was that Tashtego, that wild Indian, was
20so heedless and reckless as to let go for a moment his one-handed hold on the great cabled tackles suspending the head;
21or whether the place where he stood was so treacherous and oozy; or whether the Evil One himself would have it to fall
22out so, without stating his particular reasons; how it was exactly, there is no telling now; but, on a sudden, as the
23eightieth or ninetieth bucket came suckingly up--my God! poor Tashtego--like the twin reciprocating bucket in a
24veritable well, dropped head-foremost down into this great Tun of Heidelburgh, and with a horrible oily gurgling, went
25clean out of sight! "Man overboard!" cried Daggoo, who amid the general consternation first came to his senses. "Swing
26the bucket this way!" and putting one foot into it, so as the better to secure his slippery hand-hold on the whip
27itself, the hoisters ran him high up to the top of the head, almost before Tashtego could have reached its interior
28bottom. Meantime, there was a terrible tumult. Looking over the side, they saw the before lifeless head throbbing and
29heaving just below the surface of the sea, as if that moment seized with some momentous idea; whereas it was only the
30poor Indian unconsciously revealing by those struggles the perilous depth to which he had sunk. At this instant, while
31Daggoo, on the summit of the head, was clearing the whip--which had somehow got foul of the great cutting tackles--a
32sharp cracking noise was heard; and to the unspeakable horror of all, one of the two enormous hooks suspending the head
33tore out, and with a vast vibration the enormous mass sideways swung, till the drunk ship reeled and shook as if smitten
34by an iceberg. The one remaining hook, upon which the entire strain now depended, seemed every instant to be on the
35point of giving way; an event still more likely from the violent motions of the head. "Come down, come down!" yelled the
36seamen to Daggoo, but with one hand holding on to the heavy tackles, so that if the head should drop, he would still
37remain suspended; the negro having cleared the foul line, rammed down the bucket into the now collapsed well, meaning
38that the buried harpooneer should grasp it, and so be hoisted out. "In heaven's name, man," cried Stubb, "are you
39ramming home a cartridge there?--Avast! How will that help him; jamming that iron-bound bucket on top of his head?
40Avast, will ye!" "Stand clear of the tackle!" cried a voice like the bursting of a rocket. Almost in the same instant,
41with a thunder-boom, the enormous mass dropped into the sea, like Niagara's Table-Rock into the whirlpool; the suddenly
42relieved hull rolled away from it, to far down her glittering copper; and all caught their breath, as half swinging--now
43over the sailors' heads, and now over the water--Daggoo, through a thick mist of spray, was dimly beheld clinging to the
44pendulous tackles, while poor, buried-alive Tashtego was sinking utterly down to the bottom of the sea! But hardly had
45the blinding vapor cleared away, when a naked figure with a boarding-sword in his hand, was for one swift moment seen
46hovering over the bulwarks. The next, a loud splash announced that my brave Queequeg had dived to the rescue. One packed
47rush was made to the side, and every eye counted every ripple, as moment followed moment, and no sign of either the
48sinker or the diver could be seen. Some hands now jumped into a boat alongside, and pushed a little off from the ship.
49"Ha! ha!" cried Daggoo, all at once, from his now quiet, swinging perch overhead; and looking further off from the side,
50we saw an arm thrust upright from the blue waves; a sight strange to see, as an arm thrust forth from the grass over a
51grave. "Both! both!--it is both!"--cried Daggoo again with a joyful shout; and soon after, Queequeg was seen boldly
52striking out with one hand, and with the other clutching the long hair of the Indian. Drawn into the waiting boat, they
53were quickly brought to the deck; but Tashtego was long in coming to, and Queequeg did not look very brisk. Now, how had
54this noble rescue been accomplished? Why, diving after the slowly descending head, Queequeg with his keen sword had made
55side lunges near its bottom, so as to scuttle a large hole there; then dropping his sword, had thrust his long arm far
56inwards and upwards, and so hauled out poor Tash by the head. He averred, that upon first thrusting in for him, a leg
57was presented; but well knowing that that was not as it ought to be, and might occasion great trouble;--he had thrust
58back the leg, and by a dexterous heave and toss, had wrought a somerset upon the Indian; so that with the next trial, he
59came forth in the good old way--head foremost. As for the great head itself, that was doing as well as could be
60expected. And thus, through the courage and great skill in obstetrics of Queequeg, the deliverance, or rather, delivery
61of Tashtego, was successfully accomplished, in the teeth, too, of the most untoward and apparently hopeless impediments;
62which is a lesson by no means to be forgotten. Midwifery should be taught in the same course with fencing and boxing,
63riding and rowing. I know that this queer adventure of the Gay-Header's will be sure to seem incredible to some
64landsmen, though they themselves may have either seen or heard of some one's falling into a cistern ashore; an accident
65which not seldom happens, and with much less reason too than the Indian's, considering the exceeding slipperiness of the
66curb of the Sperm Whale's well.
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