在南方的渔场，当一头捕获的抹香鲸经过漫长而疲惫的劳作，在深夜被拖到船边时，至少一般来说，并不习惯立刻动手把它剖开。因为那活儿极其费力，不是很快就能干完的，而且需要所有的人一起上手。因此，通常的做法是收起所有的帆，把舵柄扳向下风系牢，然后打发所有人到下面吊床上去，直到天亮——不过有个保留条件：在那之前要安排锚更；也就是说，每两个人一组，轮流上一小时甲板，查看一切是否无恙。
但有时，尤其是在太平洋的赤道一带，这办法根本行不通；因为会有不计其数的鲨鱼聚到系泊的鲸尸周围，要是让它那样搁上六个小时，比方说，到了早上就只剩一副骨架了。然而，在海洋大多数别的海域，这类鱼没这么密集，它们惊人的贪吃有时可以用锋利的捕鲸铲使劲搅动它们而大大减弱——不过，这种做法在某些情况下，似乎只是逗得它们更活跃。但“裴廓德号”上的鲨鱼这回却不是这样；固然，任一个不习惯这种场面的人，那夜从船边望出去，几乎会以为整个圆海是一块巨大的奶酪，而那些鲨鱼便是里面的蛆。
尽管如此，当斯塔布吃完晚饭安排下锚更，相应地，魁魁格和一名前舱水手上到甲板时，鲨鱼群中引起了不小的骚动；因为这两名水手立刻把剖鲸的工作台吊在船侧，放下三盏灯笼，让长长的灯光投在浑浊的海面上，然后掷出长长的捕鲸铲，不停地对鲨鱼大开杀戒*，把锋利的钢铲深深扎进它们的脑壳——那似乎是唯一要害。但在它们混作一团、挣扎翻滚的浑浊骚乱中，投手并不总能命中目标；这就显出了敌方那难以置信的凶暴。它们恶狠狠地咬，不光咬彼此被剖出的内脏，还像柔韧的弓一样弯过身来咬自己；直到那些肠子像被同一张嘴咽了又咽，又从大张的伤口里反着吐出来。这还不算完。去碰这些畜生的尸体和阴魂是不安全的。一种类属的或泛神论的生机，在所谓的个体生命离去后，似乎还潜伏在它们的关节和骨头里。有一条鲨鱼为了剥皮被杀死吊上甲板，当魁魁格想去合上那杀生的下颌的死盖时，它差点把可怜的魁魁格的手齐腕咬断。
*剖鲸用的捕鲸铲是用极好的钢打的；约莫一个人张开的手那么大；总体形状与依其命名的园艺铲相仿；只是两边完全平直，上端比下端窄得多。这武器总是尽量保持锋利；用时像剃刀一样不时磨一磨。柄插座里插一根二十到三十英尺长的硬杆当把手。
“魁魁格不管什么神造的鲨鱼，”那野人痛苦地把手上下抬动着说，“不管是斐济神还是南塔基特神；但造鲨鱼的神准是个该死的印第安人。”
When in the Southern Fishery, a captured Sperm Whale, after long and
weary toil, is brought alongside late at night, it is not, as a general
thing at least, customary to proceed at once to the business of cutting
him in. For that business is an exceedingly laborious one; is not very
soon completed; and requires all hands to set about it. Therefore, the
common usage is to take in all sail; lash the helm a’lee; and then send
every one below to his hammock till daylight, with the reservation
that, until that time, anchor-watches shall be kept; that is, two and
two for an hour, each couple, the crew in rotation shall mount the deck
to see that all goes well.
But sometimes, especially upon the Line in the Pacific, this plan will
not answer at all; because such incalculable hosts of sharks gather
round the moored carcase, that were he left so for six hours, say, on a
stretch, little more than the skeleton would be visible by morning. In
most other parts of the ocean, however, where these fish do not so
largely abound, their wondrous voracity can be at times considerably
diminished, by vigorously stirring them up with sharp whaling-spades, a
procedure notwithstanding, which, in some instances, only seems to
tickle them into still greater activity. But it was not thus in the
present case with the Pequod’s sharks; though, to be sure, any man
unaccustomed to such sights, to have looked over her side that night,
would have almost thought the whole round sea was one huge cheese, and
those sharks the maggots in it.
Nevertheless, upon Stubb setting the anchor-watch after his supper was
concluded; and when, accordingly, Queequeg and a forecastle seaman came
on deck, no small excitement was created among the sharks; for
immediately suspending the cutting stages over the side, and lowering
three lanterns, so that they cast long gleams of light over the turbid
sea, these two mariners, darting their long whaling-spades, kept up an
incessant murdering of the sharks,* by striking the keen steel deep
into their skulls, seemingly their only vital part. But in the foamy
confusion of their mixed and struggling hosts, the marksmen could not
always hit their mark; and this brought about new revelations of the
incredible ferocity of the foe. They viciously snapped, not only at
each other’s disembowelments, but like flexible bows, bent round, and
bit their own; till those entrails seemed swallowed over and over again
by the same mouth, to be oppositely voided by the gaping wound. Nor was
this all. It was unsafe to meddle with the corpses and ghosts of these
creatures. A sort of generic or Pantheistic vitality seemed to lurk in
their very joints and bones, after what might be called the individual
life had departed. Killed and hoisted on deck for the sake of his skin,
one of these sharks almost took poor Queequeg’s hand off, when he tried
to shut down the dead lid of his murderous jaw.
*The whaling-spade used for cutting-in is made of the very best steel;
is about the bigness of a man’s spread hand; and in general shape,
corresponds to the garden implement after which it is named; only its
sides are perfectly flat, and its upper end considerably narrower than
the lower. This weapon is always kept as sharp as possible; and when
being used is occasionally honed, just like a razor. In its socket, a
stiff pole, from twenty to thirty feet long, is inserted for a handle.
“Queequeg no care what god made him shark,” said the savage,
agonizingly lifting his hand up and down; “wedder Fejee god or
Nantucket god; but de god wat made shark must be one dam Ingin.”
