Chapter XVII: THE RAMADAN
As Queequeg's Ramadan, or Fasting and Humiliation, was to continue all
day, I did not choose to disturb him till towards night-fall; for I
cherish the greatest respect towards everybody's religious
obligations, never mind how comical, and could not find it in my heart
to undervalue even a congregation of ants worshipping a toad-stool; or
those other creatures in certain parts of our earth, who with a degree
of footmanism quite unprecedented in other planets, bow down before
the torso of a deceased landed proprietor merely on account of the
inordinate possessions yet owned and rented in his name. I say, we
good Presbyterian christians should be charitable in these things, and
not fancy ourselves so vastly superior to other mortals, pagans and
what not, because of their half-crazy conceits on these subjects.
There was Queequeg, now, certainly entertaining the most absurd
notions about Yojo and his Ramadan; --but what of that? Queequeg
thought he knew what he was about, I suppose; he seemed to be content;
and there let him rest. All our arguing with him would not avail; let
him be, I say: and Heaven have mercy on us all --Presbyterians and
Pagans alike --for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the
head, and sadly need mending. Towards evening, when I felt assured
that all his performances and rituals must be over, I went up to his
room and knocked at the door; but no answer. I tried to open it, but
it was fastened inside. Queequeg, said I softly through the key-hole:
--all silent. I say, Queequeg! why don't you speak? It's
I--Ishmael. But all remained still as before. I began to grow
alarmed. I had allowed him such abundant time; I thought he might
have had an apoplectic fit. I looked through the key-hole; but the
door opening into an odd corner of the room, the key-hole prospect was
but a crooked and sinister one. I could only see part of the
foot-board of the bed and a line of the wall, but nothing more. I was
surprised to behold resting against the wall the wooden shaft of
Queequeg's harpoon, which the landlady the evening previous had taken
from him, before our mounting to the chamber. That's strange, thought
I; but at any rate, since the harpoon stands yonder, and he seldom or
never goes abroad without it, therefore he must be inside here, and no
possible mistake. Queequeg! --Queequeg! --all still. Something must
have happened. Apoplexy! I tried to burst open the door; but it
stubbornly resisted. Running down stairs, I quickly stated my
suspicions to the first person i met --the chambermaid. la! la! she
cried, i thought something must be the matter. I went to make the bed
after breakfast, and the door was locked; and not a mouse to be heard;
and it's been just so silent ever since. But I thought, may be, you
had both gone off and locked your baggage in for safe keeping. La!
La, ma'am! --Mistress! murder! Mrs. Hussey! apoplexy! --and with
these cries, she ran towards the kitchen, I following. Mrs. Hussey
soon appeared, with a mustard-pot in one hand and a vinegar-cruet in
the other, having just broken away from the occupation of attending to
the castors, and scolding her little black boy meantime. Wood-house!
cried I, which way to it? Run for God's sake, and fetch something to
pry open the door --the axe! --the axe! he's had a stroke; depend
upon it! --and so saying I was unmethodically rushing up stairs again
empty-handed, when Mrs. Hussey interposed the mustard-pot and
vinegar-cruet, and the entire castor of her countenance. What's the
matter with you, young man? Get the axe! For God's sake, run for the
doctor, some one, while I pry it open! Look here, said the landlady,
quickly putting down the vinegar-cruet, so as to have one hand free;
look here; are you talking about prying open any of my doors? --and
with that she seized my arm. What's the matter with you? What's the
matter with you, shipmate? In as calm, but rapid a manner as
possible, I gave her to understand the whole case. Unconsciously
clapping the vinegar-cruet to one side of her nose, she ruminated for
an instant; then exclaimed -- No! I haven't seen it since I put it
there. Running to a little closet under the landing of the stairs,
she glanced in, and returning, told me that Queequeg's harpoon was
missing. He's killed himself, she cried. It's unfort'nate stiggs
done over again --there goes another counterpane --god pity his poor
mother! --it will be the ruin of my house. Has the poor lad a sister?
Where's that girl? --there, Betty, go to Snarles the Painter, and tell
him to paint me a sign, with --"no suicides permitted here, and no
smoking in the parlor;" --might as well kill both birds at once. Kill?
The Lord be merciful to his ghost! What's that noise there? You,
young man, avast there! And running up after me, she caught me as I
was again trying to force open the door. I won't allow it; I won't
have my premises spoiled. Go for the locksmith, there's one about a
mile from here. But avast! putting her hand in her side-pocket,
here's a key that'll fit, I guess; let's see. And with that, she
turned it in the lock; but, alas! Queequeg's supplemental bolt
remained unwithdrawn within. Have to burst it open, said I, and was
running down the entry a little, for a good start, when the landlady
caught at me, again vowing I should not break down her premises; but I
tore from her, and with a sudden bodily rush dashed myself full
against the mark. With a prodigious noise the door flew open, and the
knob slamming against the wall, sent the plaster to the ceiling; and
there, good heavens! there sat Queequeg, altogether cool and
self-collected; right in the middle of the room; squatting on his
hams, and holding Yojo on top of his head. He looked neither one way
nor the other way, but sat like a carved image with scarce a sign of
active life. Queequeg, said I, going up to him, Queequeg, what's the
matter with you? He hain't been a sittin' so all day, has he? said
the landlady. But all we said, not a word could we drag out of him; I
almost felt like pushing him over, so as to change his position, for
it was almost intolerable, it seemed so painfully and unnaturally
constrained; especially, as in all probability he had been sitting so
for upwards of eight or ten hours, going too without his regular
meals. Mrs. Hussey, said I, he's alive at all events; so leave us,
if you please, and I will see to this strange affair myself. Closing
the door upon the landlady, I endeavored to prevail upon Queequeg to
take a chair; but in vain. There he sat; and all he could do --for
all my polite arts and blandishments --he would not move a peg, nor
say a single word, nor even look at me, nor notice my presence in any
the slightest way. I wonder, thought I, if this can possibly be a
part of his Ramadan; do they fast on their hams that way in his native
island. It must be so; yes, it's part of his creed, I suppose; well,
then, let him rest; he'll get up sooner or later, no doubt. It can't
last for ever, thank God, and his Ramadan only comes once a year; and
I don't believe it's very punctual then. I went down to supper.
After sitting a long time listening to the long stories of some
sailors who had just come from a plum-pudding voyage, as they called
it (that is, a short whaling-voyage in a schooner or brig, confined to
the north of the line, in the Atlantic Ocean only); after listening to
these plum-puddingers till nearly eleven o'clock, I went up stairs to
go to bed, feeling quite sure by this time Queequeg must certainly
have brought his Ramadan to a termination. But no; there he was just
where I had left him; he had not stirred an inch. I began to grow
vexed with him; it seemed so downright senseless and insane to be
sitting there all day and half the night on his hams in a cold room,
holding a piece of wood on his head. For heaven's sake, Queequeg, get
up and shake yourself; get up and have some supper. You'll starve;
you'll kill yourself, Queequeg. But not a word did he reply.
Despairing of him, therefore, I determined to go to bed and to sleep;
and no doubt, before a great while, he would follow me. But previous
to turning in, I took my heavy bearskin jacket, and threw it over him,
as it promised to be a very cold night; and he had nothing but his
ordinary round jacket on. For some time, do all I would, I could not
get into the faintest doze. I had blown out the candle; and the mere
thought of Queequeg-- not four feet off --sitting there in that uneasy
position, stark alone in the cold and dark; this made me really
wretched. Think of it; sleeping all night in the same room with a
wide awake pagan on his hams in this dreary, unaccountable Ramadan!
But somehow I dropped off at last, and knew nothing more till break of
day; when, looking over the bedside, there squatted Queequeg, as if he
had been screwed down to the floor. But as soon as the first glimpse
of sun entered the window, up he got, with stiff and grating joints,
but with a cheerful look; limped towards me where I lay; pressed his
forehead again against mine; and said his Ramadan was over. Now, as I
before hinted, I have no objection to any person's religion, be it
what it may, so long as that person does not kill or insult any other
person, because that other person don't believe it also. But when a
man's religion becomes really frantic; when it is a positive torment
to him; and, in fine, makes this earth of ours an uncomfortable inn to
lodge in; then I think it high time to take that individual aside and
argue the point with him. And just so I now did with Queequeg.
Queequeg, said I, get into bed now, and lie and listen to me. I then
went on, beginning with the rise and progress of the primitive
religions, and coming down to the various religions of the present
time, during which time I labored to show Queequeg that all these
Lents, Ramadans, and prolonged ham-squattings in cold, cheerless rooms
were stark nonsense; bad for the health; useless for the soul;
opposed, in short, to the obvious laws of Hygiene and common sense. I
told him, too, that he being in other things such an extremely
sensible and sagacious savage, it pained me, very badly pained me, to
see him now so deplorably foolish about this ridiculous Ramadan of
his. Besides, argued I, fasting makes the body cave in; hence the
spirit caves in; and all thoughts born of a fast must necessarily be
half-starved. This is the reason why most dyspeptic religionists
cherish such melancholy notions about their hereafters. In one word,
Queequeg, said I, rather digressively; hell is an idea first born on
an undigested apple-dumpling; and since then perpetuated through the
hereditary dyspepsias nurtured by Ramadans. I then asked Queequeg
whether he himself was ever troubled with dyspepsia; expressing the
idea very plainly, so that he could take it in. He said no; only upon
one memorable occasion. It was after a great feast given by his
father the king, on the gaining of a great battle wherein fifty of the
enemy had been killed by about two o'clock in the afternoon, and all
cooked and eaten that very evening. No more, Queequeg, said I,
shuddering; that will do; for I knew the inferences without his
further hinting them. I had seen a sailor who had visited that very
island, and he told me that it was the custom, when a great battle had
been gained there, to barbecue all the slain in the yard or garden of
the victor; and then, one by one, they were placed in great wooden
trenchers, and garnished round like a pilau, with breadfruit and
cocoanuts; and with some parsley in their mouths, were sent round with
the victor's compliments to all his friends, just as though these
presents were so many Christmas turkeys. After all, I do not think
that my remarks about religion made much impression upon Queequeg.
Because, in the first place, he somehow seemed dull of hearing on that
important subject, unless considered from his own point of view; and,
in the second place, he did not more than one third understand me,
couch my ideas simply as I would; and, finally, he no doubt thought he
knew a good deal more about the true religion than I did. He looked
at me with a sort of condescending concern and compassion, as though
he thought it a great pity that such a sensible young man should be so
hopelessly lost to evangelical pagan piety. At last we rose and
dressed; and Queequeg, taking a prodigiously hearty breakfast of
chowders of all sorts, so that the landlady should not make much
profit by reason of his Ramadan, we sallied out to board the Pequod,
sauntering along, and picking our teeth with halibut bones.