英语听书《白鲸记》 第41期

Whether it was that this undulating tester rolled thesavage away to far distant scenes, I know not, buthe now spoke of his native island; and, eager tohear his history, I begged him to go on and tell it.He gladly complied. Though at the time I but illcomprehended not a few of his words, yetsubsequent disclosures, when I had become morefamiliar with his broken phraseology, now enable meto present the whole story such as it may prove inthe mere skeleton I give.

CHAPTER 12. Biographical.

Queequeg was a native of Rokovoko, an island far away to the West and South. It is not down inany map; true places never are.

When a new-hatched savage running wild about his native woodlands in a grass clout, followedby the nibbling goats, as if he were a green sapling; even then, in Queequeg's ambitious soul,lurked a strong desire to see something more of Christendom than a specimen whaler or two.His father was a High Chief, a King; his uncle a High Priest; and on the maternal side heboasted aunts who were the wives of unconquerable warriors. There was excellent blood in hisveins—royal stuff; though sadly vitiated, I fear, by the cannibal propensity he nourished in hisuntutored youth.

A Sag Harbor ship visited his father's bay, and Queequeg sought a passage to Christian lands.But the ship, having her full complement of seamen, spurned his suit; and not all the King hisfather's influence could prevail. But Queequeg vowed a vow. Alone in his canoe, he paddled offto a distant strait, which he knew the ship must pass through when she quitted the island. Onone side was a coral reef; on the other a low tongue of land, covered with mangrove thicketsthat grew out into the water. Hiding his canoe, still afloat, among these thickets, with its prowseaward, he sat down in the stern, paddle low in hand; and when the ship was gliding by, like aflash he darted out; gained her side; with one backward dash of his foot capsized and sank hiscanoe; climbed up the chains; and throwing himself at full length upon the deck, grappled aring-bolt there, and swore not to let it go, though hacked in pieces.

In vain the captain threatened to throw him overboard; suspended a cutlass over his nakedwrists; Queequeg was the son of a King, and Queequeg budged not. Struck by his desperatedauntlessness, and his wild desire to visit Christendom, the captain at last relented, and toldhim he might make himself at home.