第九十二章 龙涎香
如今这龙涎香是一种非常奇特的物质，作为商品又极其重要，以至于在一七九一年，一位生于南塔基特的科芬船长曾为此在英国下议院的议席前接受质询。因为在那时，事实上直到相当晚近的日子，龙涎香的确切来源始终像琥珀本身一样，是学者们的一个谜。虽然“ambergris”一词不过是法语中“灰色琥珀”的复合词，但这两种物质却截然不同。琥珀虽偶尔见于海岸，却也采掘于某些远在内陆的土壤中；而龙涎香除海上之外绝无觅处。此外，琥珀是一种坚硬、透明、易碎、无味的物质，用作烟斗嘴、珠串与饰物；龙涎香却柔软、如蜡，且香气浓烈而辛馥，故大量用于香水、香饼、贵重蜡烛、发粉与润发脂中。土耳其人将它用于烹调，也携往麦加，正如乳香被带往罗马圣彼得大教堂一般。有些酒商向红葡萄酒中投入几粒，以添风味。
那么谁会想到，如此高雅的先生女士竟以某种病鲸不光彩的肠胃中所藏的精华为宴？然而事实如此。有人以为龙涎香是鲸鱼消化不良的因，有人以为是果。要说如何治疗这等消化不良，实在难办，除非投以三四船舱的布兰德雷斯药丸，然后如矿工炸石般避到安全之处。
我忘了说，在这龙涎香中发现了某些坚硬、浑圆、骨质的薄片，起初斯塔布以为是水手裤上的纽扣；后证明不过是些小鱿鱼骨以那样的方式被封存其中。
这最芬芳的龙涎香之不朽，竟见于如此腐坏之物的心脏中；这难道算不得什么？且想想圣保罗在《哥林多书》中论朽坏与不朽之言；我们如何是带着羞辱种下，却带着荣耀复活。 likewise 请记起帕拉塞尔苏斯论何物成就最佳麝香之语。也勿忘那怪事：一切恶臭之物中，科隆香水在其初制阶段气味最劣。
我本愿以上述吁请结束此章，却不能，因我急欲驳斥一桩常加于捕鲸者之指控；在若干早存偏见者心中，前述法国人那两头鲸之事或间接坐实了此控。本书别处已证那诽谤之谬——谓捕鲸一行自始至终邋遢不洁。但尚有一事待驳。人暗示鲸鱼总是臭不可闻。此可憎污名从何而起？
我以为，分明可溯至两个多世纪前格陵兰捕鲸船首抵伦敦之时。因那些捕鲸者当时不曾、至今也不在海上炼油，如南方船队向来所为；他们将鲜脂切作小块，塞入大桶桶口，如此运回。那些冰海季节短促，又骤遇狂暴风雨，不容他法。后果便是，在格陵兰码头破开舱口、卸下这等鲸鱼墓场时，散出之气略似为一育婴堂地基挖掘旧城墓园时所冒者。
我亦略疑，这加于捕鲸者之恶控，或亦归咎于格陵兰海岸昔时有荷兰村落曰斯梅伦堡（Schmerenburgh或Smeerenberg），博学之福戈·冯·斯莱克于其论气味巨著——该科课本——中即用后一名。顾名思义（smeer，脂；berg，贮），此村之建，在为荷兰鲸队炼脂，免运回荷兰。那是熔炉、脂锅与油棚之聚；工场全开时，自不散宜人之气。然南太平洋抹香鲸船全然不同；其四年航程或尽填油于舱，炼煮之工或不过五十日，且成桶之油几无气味。实情是，鲸类无论生死，但得善待，绝非恶臭之物；捕鲸者亦不能如中世之人佯于众中辨犹太般以鼻识之。鲸鱼既常享康健，多运动，总在户外——虽确少在露空——则势必芬芳。吾言，抹香鲸尾叶出水之动，散香如麝香夫人于暖室中曳裙。然则此兽庞大，其芳当比何物？岂非那饰宝牙、溢没药之象，曾出印度城以礼亚历山大大帝者乎？
Now this ambergris is a very curious substance, and so important as an
article of commerce, that in 1791 a certain Nantucket-born Captain
Coffin was examined at the bar of the English House of Commons on that
subject. For at that time, and indeed until a comparatively late day,
the precise origin of ambergris remained, like amber itself, a problem
to the learned. Though the word ambergris is but the French compound
for grey amber, yet the two substances are quite distinct. For amber,
though at times found on the sea-coast, is also dug up in some far
inland soils, whereas ambergris is never found except upon the sea.
Besides, amber is a hard, transparent, brittle, odorless substance,
used for mouth-pieces to pipes, for beads and ornaments; but ambergris
is soft, waxy, and so highly fragrant and spicy, that it is largely
used in perfumery, in pastiles, precious candles, hair-powders, and
pomatum. The Turks use it in cooking, and also carry it to Mecca, for
the same purpose that frankincense is carried to St. Peter’s in Rome.
Some wine merchants drop a few grains into claret, to flavor it.
Who would think, then, that such fine ladies and gentlemen should
regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a
sick whale! Yet so it is. By some, ambergris is supposed to be the
cause, and by others the effect, of the dyspepsia in the whale. How to
cure such a dyspepsia it were hard to say, unless by administering
three or four boat loads of Brandreth’s pills, and then running out of
harm’s way, as laborers do in blasting rocks.
I have forgotten to say that there were found in this ambergris,
certain hard, round, bony plates, which at first Stubb thought might be
sailors’ trowsers buttons; but it afterwards turned out that they were
nothing more than pieces of small squid bones embalmed in that manner.
Now that the incorruption of this most fragrant ambergris should be
found in the heart of such decay; is this nothing? Bethink thee of that
saying of St. Paul in Corinthians, about corruption and incorruption;
how that we are sown in dishonor, but raised in glory. And likewise
call to mind that saying of Paracelsus about what it is that maketh the
best musk. Also forget not the strange fact that of all things of
ill-savor, Cologne-water, in its rudimental manufacturing stages, is
the worst.
I should like to conclude the chapter with the above appeal, but
cannot, owing to my anxiety to repel a charge often made against
whalemen, and which, in the estimation of some already biased minds,
might be considered as indirectly substantiated by what has been said
of the Frenchman’s two whales. Elsewhere in this volume the slanderous
aspersion has been disproved, that the vocation of whaling is
throughout a slatternly, untidy business. But there is another thing to
rebut. They hint that all whales always smell bad. Now how did this
odious stigma originate?
I opine, that it is plainly traceable to the first arrival of the
Greenland whaling ships in London, more than two centuries ago. Because
those whalemen did not then, and do not now, try out their oil at sea
as the Southern ships have always done; but cutting up the fresh
blubber in small bits, thrust it through the bung holes of large casks,
and carry it home in that manner; the shortness of the season in those
Icy Seas, and the sudden and violent storms to which they are exposed,
forbidding any other course. The consequence is, that upon breaking
into the hold, and unloading one of these whale cemeteries, in the
Greenland dock, a savor is given forth somewhat similar to that arising
from excavating an old city grave-yard, for the foundations of a
Lying-in Hospital.
I partly surmise also, that this wicked charge against whalers may be
likewise imputed to the existence on the coast of Greenland, in former
times, of a Dutch village called Schmerenburgh or Smeerenberg, which
latter name is the one used by the learned Fogo Von Slack, in his great
work on Smells, a text-book on that subject. As its name imports
(smeer, fat; berg, to put up), this village was founded in order to
afford a place for the blubber of the Dutch whale fleet to be tried
out, without being taken home to Holland for that purpose. It was a
collection of furnaces, fat-kettles, and oil sheds; and when the works
were in full operation certainly gave forth no very pleasant savor. But
all this is quite different with a South Sea Sperm Whaler; which in a
voyage of four years perhaps, after completely filling her hold with
oil, does not, perhaps, consume fifty days in the business of boiling
out; and in the state that it is casked, the oil is nearly scentless.
The truth is, that living or dead, if but decently treated, whales as a
species are by no means creatures of ill odor; nor can whalemen be
recognised, as the people of the middle ages affected to detect a Jew
in the company, by the nose. Nor indeed can the whale possibly be
otherwise than fragrant, when, as a general thing, he enjoys such high
health; taking abundance of exercise; always out of doors; though, it
is true, seldom in the open air. I say, that the motion of a Sperm
Whale’s flukes above water dispenses a perfume, as when a musk-scented
lady rustles her dress in a warm parlor. What then shall I liken the
Sperm Whale to for fragrance, considering his magnitude? Must it not be
to that famous elephant, with jewelled tusks, and redolent with myrrh,
which was led out of an Indian town to do honor to Alexander the Great?
