The Savage’s Patience
Melville draws a philosophical parallel between the “savage” and the whaleman, arguing that long exile from civilization inevitably restores a man to primitive savagery. He declares himself as much a savage as any Iroquois, ready to rebel against the King of the Cannibals. The crucial characteristic of the savage in domestic hours, Melville observes, is wonderful patience of industry—a persistence demonstrated in Hawaiian war-clubs and spear-paddles of extraordinary intricacy, carved with nothing but broken sea-shells or sharks’ teeth over years of steady application. This same patience characterizes the white sailor-savage, who with his single poor jack-knife will carve bone sculptures as intricate in design as Achilles’ shield or Dürer’s prints, filled with barbaric spirit and suggestiveness.
Wooden Whales
Wooden whales carved in profile from dark slabs of South Sea war-wood appear frequently in the forecastles of American whaling vessels. Melville notes that some of these carvings display considerable accuracy in their representation of the whale’s form. These wooden whales served both as folk art and as expressions of the whaleman’s intimate familiarity with his quarry, crafted during the long hours of ocean leisure that characterized whaling life. The tradition of carving wooden whale figures demonstrates how whales pervaded every aspect of the whaleman’s existence, even the decorative objects that surrounded him in his working and living spaces.
Brass and Iron Whales
Beyond the whaleman’s own craft, whales appear in various functional architectural contexts. At old gable-roofed country houses, brass whales hang by their tails for use as door knockers—a placement Melville wryly suggests suits sleepy porters, as the anvil-headed whale would prove most effective for rousing them. However, these decorative whales are seldom notable for their faithfulness to nature. Similarly, sheet-iron whales appear on the spires of old-fashioned churches, serving as weather-cocks. Yet their great height and their implicit “Hands off!” warning prevent close examination of their artistic merit. These functional uses of whale imagery reveal how the creature had entered the broader cultural imagination, appearing in domestic and ecclesiastical architecture even when accuracy was sacrificed for utility.
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