= Valkyria Chronicles III = 
 Senjō no Valkyria 3 : Unrecorded Chronicles ( Japanese : 戦場のヴァルキュリア3 , lit . Valkyria of the Battlefield 3 ) , commonly referred to as Valkyria Chronicles III outside Japan , is a tactical role @-@ playing video game developed by Sega and Media.Vision for the PlayStation Portable . Released in January 2011 in Japan , it is the third game in the Valkyria series . Employing the same fusion of tactical and real @-@ time gameplay as its predecessors , the story runs parallel to the first game and follows the " Nameless " , a penal military unit serving the nation of Gallia during the Second Europan War who perform secret black operations and are pitted against the Imperial unit " Calamaty Raven " . 
 The game began development in 2010 , carrying over a large portion of the work done on Valkyria Chronicles II . While it retained the standard features of the series , it also underwent multiple adjustments , such as making the game more forgiving for series newcomers . Character designer Raita Honjou and composer Hitoshi Sakimoto both returned from previous entries , along with Valkyria Chronicles II director Takeshi Ozawa . A large team of writers handled the script . The game 's opening theme was sung by May 'n . 
 It met with positive sales in Japan , and was praised by both Japanese and western critics . After release , it received downloadable content , along with an expanded edition in November of that year . It was also adapted into manga and an original video animation series . Due to low sales of Valkyria Chronicles II , Valkyria Chronicles III was not localized , but a fan translation compatible with the game 's expanded edition was released in 2014 . Media.Vision would return to the franchise with the development of Valkyria : Azure Revolution for the PlayStation 4 . 
 = = Gameplay = = 
 As with previous Valkyira Chronicles games , Valkyria Chronicles III is a tactical role @-@ playing game where players take control of a military unit and take part in missions against enemy forces . Stories are told through comic book @-@ like panels with animated character portraits , with characters speaking partially through voiced speech bubbles and partially through unvoiced text . The player progresses through a series of linear missions , gradually unlocked as maps that can be freely scanned through and replayed as they are unlocked . The route to each story location on the map varies depending on an individual player 's approach : when one option is selected , the other is sealed off to the player . Outside missions , the player characters rest in a camp , where units can be customized and character growth occurs . Alongside the main story missions are character @-@ specific sub missions relating to different squad members . After the game 's completion , additional episodes are unlocked , some of them having a higher difficulty than those found in the rest of the game . There are also love simulation elements related to the game 's two main heroines , although they take a very minor role . 
 The game 's battle system , the BliTZ system , is carried over directly from Valkyira Chronicles . During missions , players select each unit using a top @-@ down perspective of the battlefield map : once a character is selected , the player moves the character around the battlefield in third @-@ person . A character can only act once per @-@ turn , but characters can be granted multiple turns at the expense of other characters ' turns . Each character has a field and distance of movement limited by their Action Gauge . Up to nine characters can be assigned to a single mission . During gameplay , characters will call out if something happens to them , such as their health points ( HP ) getting low or being knocked out by enemy attacks . Each character has specific " Potentials " , skills unique to each character . They are divided into " Personal Potential " , which are innate skills that remain unaltered unless otherwise dictated by the story and can either help or impede a character , and " Battle Potentials " , which are grown throughout the game and always grant boons to a character . To learn Battle Potentials , each character has a unique " Masters Table " , a grid @-@ based skill table that can be used to acquire and link different skills . Characters also have Special Abilities that grant them temporary boosts on the battlefield : Kurt can activate " Direct Command " and move around the battlefield without depleting his Action Point gauge , the character Reila can shift into her " Valkyria Form " and become invincible , while Imca can target multiple enemy units with her heavy weapon . 
 Troops are divided into five classes : Scouts , Shocktroopers , Engineers , Lancers and Armored Soldier . Troopers can switch classes by changing their assigned weapon . Changing class does not greatly affect the stats gained while in a previous class . With victory in battle , experience points are awarded to the squad , which are distributed into five different attributes shared by the entire squad , a feature differing from early games ' method of distributing to different unit types . 
 = = Plot = = 
 The game takes place during the Second Europan War . Gallian Army Squad 422 , also known as " The Nameless " , are a penal military unit composed of criminals , foreign deserters , and military offenders whose real names are erased from the records and thereon officially referred to by numbers . Ordered by the Gallian military to perform the most dangerous missions that the Regular Army and Militia will not do , they are nevertheless up to the task , exemplified by their motto , Altaha Abilia , meaning " Always Ready . " The three main characters are No.7 Kurt Irving , an army officer falsely accused of treason who wishes to redeem himself ; Ace No.1 Imca , a female Darcsen heavy weapons specialist who seeks revenge against the Valkyria who destroyed her home ; and No.13 Riela Marcellis , a seemingly jinxed young woman who is unknowingly a descendant of the Valkyria . Together with their fellow squad members , these three are tasked to fight against a mysterious Imperial unit known as Calamity Raven , consisting of mostly Darcsen soldiers . 
 As the Nameless officially do not exist , the upper echelons of the Gallian Army exploit the concept of plausible deniability in order to send them on missions that would otherwise make Gallia lose face in the war . While at times this works to their advantage , such as a successful incursion into Imperial territory , other orders cause certain members of the 422nd great distress . One such member , Gusurg , becomes so enraged that he abandons his post and defects into the ranks of Calamity Raven , attached to the ideal of Darcsen independence proposed by their leader , Dahau . At the same time , elements within Gallian Army Command move to erase the Nameless in order to protect their own interests . Hounded by both allies and enemies , and combined with the presence of a traitor within their ranks , the 422nd desperately move to keep themselves alive while at the same time fight to help the Gallian war effort . This continues until the Nameless 's commanding officer , Ramsey Crowe , who had been kept under house arrest , is escorted to the capital city of Randgriz in order to present evidence exonerating the weary soldiers and expose the real traitor , the Gallian General that had accused Kurt of Treason . 
 Partly due to these events , and partly due to the major losses in manpower Gallia suffers towards the end of the war with the Empire , the Nameless are offered a formal position as a squad in the Gallian Army rather than serve as an anonymous shadow force . This is short @-@ lived , however , as following Maximilian 's defeat , Dahau and Calamity Raven move to activate an ancient Valkyrian super weapon within the Empire , kept secret by their benefactor . Without the support of Maximilian or the chance to prove themselves in the war with Gallia , it is Dahau 's last trump card in creating a new Darcsen nation . As an armed Gallian force invading the Empire just following the two nations ' cease @-@ fire would certainly wreck their newfound peace , Kurt decides to once again make his squad the Nameless , asking Crowe to list himself and all under his command as killed @-@ in @-@ action . Now owing allegiance to none other than themselves , the 422nd confronts Dahau and destroys the Valkyrian weapon . Each member then goes their separate ways in order to begin their lives anew . 
 = = Development = = 
 Concept work for Valkyria Chronicles III began after development finished on Valkyria Chronicles II in early 2010 , with full development beginning shortly after this . The director of Valkyria Chronicles II , Takeshi Ozawa , returned to that role for Valkyria Chronicles III . Development work took approximately one year . After the release of Valkyria Chronicles II , the staff took a look at both the popular response for the game and what they wanted to do next for the series . Like its predecessor , Valkyria Chronicles III was developed for PlayStation Portable : this was due to the team wanting to refine the mechanics created for Valkyria Chronicles II , and they had not come up with the " revolutionary " idea that would warrant a new entry for the PlayStation 3 . Speaking in an interview , it was stated that the development team considered Valkyria Chronicles III to be the series ' first true sequel : while Valkyria Chronicles II had required a large amount of trial and error during development due to the platform move , the third game gave them a chance to improve upon the best parts of Valkyria Chronicles II due to being on the same platform . In addition to Sega staff from the previous games , development work was also handled by Media.Vision. The original scenario was written Kazuki Yamanobe , while the script was written by Hiroyuki Fujii , Koichi Majima , Kishiko Miyagi , Seiki Nagakawa and Takayuki Shouji . Its story was darker and more somber than that of its predecessor . 
 The majority of material created for previous games , such as the BLiTZ system and the design of maps , was carried over . Alongside this , improvements were made to the game 's graphics and some elements were expanded , such as map layouts , mission structure , and the number of playable units per mission . A part of this upgrade involved creating unique polygon models for each character 's body . In order to achieve this , the cooperative elements incorporated into the second game were removed , as they took up a large portion of memory space needed for the improvements . They also adjusted the difficulty settings and ease of play so they could appeal to new players while retaining the essential components of the series ' gameplay . The newer systems were decided upon early in development . The character designs were done by Raita Honjou , who had worked on the previous Valkyria Chronicles games . When creating the Nameless Squad , Honjou was faced with the same problem he had had during the first game : the military uniforms essentially destroyed character individuality , despite him needing to create unique characters the player could identify while maintaining a sense of reality within the Valkyria Chronicles world . The main color of the Nameless was black . As with the previous Valkyria games , Valkyria Chronicles III used the CANVAS graphics engine . The anime opening was produced by Production I.G. 
 = = = Music = = = 
 The music was composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto , who had also worked on the previous Valkyria Chronicles games . When he originally heard about the project , he thought it would be a light tone similar to other Valkyria Chronicles games , but found the themes much darker than expected . An early theme he designed around his original vision of the project was rejected . He redid the main theme about seven times through the music production due to this need to reassess the game . The main theme was initially recorded using orchestra , then Sakimoto removed elements such as the guitar and bass , then adjusted the theme using a synthesizer before redoing segments such as the guitar piece on their own before incorporating them into the theme . The rejected main theme was used as a hopeful tune that played during the game 's ending . The battle themes were designed around the concept of a " modern battle " divorced from a fantasy scenario by using modern musical instruments , constructed to create a sense of atonality . While Sakimoto was most used to working with synthesized music , he felt that he needed to incorporate live instruments such as orchestra and guitar . The guitar was played by Mitsuhiro Ohta , who also arranged several of the later tracks . The game 's opening theme song , " If You Wish for ... " ( もしも君が願うのなら , Moshimo Kimi ga Negauno Nara ) , was sung by Japanese singer May 'n . Its theme was the reason soldiers fought , in particular their wish to protect what was precious to them rather than a sense of responsibility or duty . Its lyrics were written by Seiko Fujibayashi , who had worked on May 'n on previous singles . 
 = = = Release = = = 
 In September 2010 , a teaser website was revealed by Sega , hinting at a new Valkyria Chronicles game . In its September issue , Famitsu listed that Senjō no Valkyria 3 would be arriving on the PlayStation Portable . Its first public appearance was at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show ( TGS ) , where a demo was made available for journalists and attendees . During the publicity , story details were kept scant so as not to spoil too much for potential players , along with some of its content still being in flux at the time of its reveal . To promote the game and detail the story leading into the game 's events , an episodic Flash visual novel written by Fujii began release in January 2011 . The game was released January 27 , 2011 . During an interview , the development team said that the game had the capacity for downloadable content ( DLC ) , but that no plans were finalized . Multiple DLC maps , featuring additional missions and recruitable characters , were released between February and April 2011 . An expanded edition of the game , Valkyria Chronicles III Extra Edition , released on November 23 , 2011 . Packaged and sold at a lower price than the original , Extra Edition game with seven additional episodes : three new , three chosen by staff from the game 's DLC , and one made available as a pre @-@ order bonus . People who also owned the original game could transfer their save data between versions . 
 Unlike its two predecessors , Valkyria Chronicles III was not released in the west . According to Sega , this was due to poor sales of Valkyria Chronicles II and the general unpopularity of the PSP in the west . An unofficial fan translation patch began development in February 2012 : players with a copy of Valkyria Chronicles III could download and apply the patch , which translated the game 's text into English . Compatible with the Extra Edition , the patch was released in January 2014 . 
 = = Reception = = 
 On its day of release in Japan , Valkyria Chronicles III topped both platform @-@ exclusive and multi @-@ platform sales charts . By early February , the game sold 102 @,@ 779 units , coming in second overall to The Last Story for the Wii . By the end of the year , the game had sold just over 152 @,@ 500 units . 
 Famitsu enjoyed the story , and were particularly pleased with the improvements to gameplay . Japanese gaming site Game Watch Impress , despite negatively noting its pacing and elements recycled from previous games , was generally positive about its story and characters , and found its gameplay entertaining despite off @-@ putting difficulty spikes . 4Gamer.net writer Naohiko Misuosame , in a " Play Test " article based on the game 's PSN demo , felt that Valkyria Chronicles III provided a " profound feeling of closure " for the Valkyria Chronicles series . He praised its gameplay despite annoying limitations to aspects such as special abilities , and positively noted its shift in story to a tone similar to the first game . 
 PlayStation Official Magazine - UK praised the story 's blurring of Gallia 's moral standing , art style , and most points about its gameplay , positively noting the latter for both its continued quality and the tweaks to balance and content . Its one major criticism were multiple difficulty spikes , something that had affected the previous games . Heath Hindman of gaming website PlayStation Lifestyle praised the addition of non @-@ linear elements and improvements or removal of mechanics from Valkyria Chronicles II in addition to praising the returning gameplay style of previous games . He also positively noted the story 's serious tone . Points criticized in the review were recycled elements , awkward cutscenes that seemed to include all characters in a scene for no good reason , pacing issues , and occasional problems with the game 's AI . 
 In a preview of the TGS demo , Ryan Geddes of IGN was left excited as to where the game would go after completing the demo , along with enjoying the improved visuals over Valkyria Chronicles II . Kotaku 's Richard Eisenbeis was highly positive about the game , citing is story as a return to form after Valkyria Chronicles II and its gameplay being the best in the series . His main criticisms were its length and gameplay repetition , along with expressing regret that it would not be localized . 
 = = Legacy = = 
 Kurt and Riela were featured in the Nintendo 3DS crossover Project X Zone , representing the Valkyria series . Media.Vision would return to the series to develop Valkyria : Azure Revolution , with Ozawa returning as director . Azure Revolution is a role @-@ playing video game for the PlayStation 4 that forms the beginning of a new series within the Valkyria franchise . 
 = = = Adaptations = = = 
 Valkyria Chronicles 3 was adapted into a two @-@ episode original video animation series in the same year of its release . Titled Senjō no Valkyria 3 : Taga Tame no Jūsō ( 戦場のヴァルキュリア３ 誰がための銃瘡 , lit . Valkyria of the Battlefield 3 : The Wound Taken for Someone 's Sake ) , it was originally released through PlayStation Network and Qriocity between April and May 2011 . The initially @-@ planned release and availability period needed to be extended due to a stoppage to PSN during the early summer of that year . It later released for DVD on June 29 and August 31 , 2011 , with separate " Black " and " Blue " editions being available for purchase . The anime is set during the latter half of Valkyria Chronicles III , detailing a mission by the Nameless against their Imperial rivals Calamity Raven . The anime was first announced in November 2010 . It was developed by A @-@ 1 Pictures , produced by Shinji Motoyama , directed by Nobuhiro Kondō , and written by Hiroshi Ōnogi . Sakimoto 's music for the game was used in the anime . 
 The anime 's title was inspired by the principle purpose of the Nameless : to suffer in battle for the goals of others . A subtitle attached to the project during development was " The Road to Kubinka " , which referenced the Kubinka Tank Museum in Moscow . The game 's main theme was how the characters regained their sense of self when stripped of their names and identities , along with general themes focused on war and its consequences . While making the anime , the production team were told by Sega to make it as realistic as possible , with the consequence that the team did extensive research into aspects such as what happened when vehicles like tanks were overturned or damaged . Due to it being along the same timeline as the original game and its television anime adaptation , the cast of Valkyria Chronicles could make appearances , which pleased the team . The opening theme , " Akari ( Light ) -Tomoshibi- " ( 灯 @-@ TOMOSHIBI- ) , was sung by Japanese singer Faylan . The ending theme , " Someday the Flowers of Light Will Bloom " ( いつか咲く光の花 , Itsuka Saku Hikari no Hana ) , was sung by Minami Kuribayashi . Both songs ' lyrics were written by their respective artists . 
 Two manga adaptations were produced , following each of the game 's main female protagonists Imca and Riela . They were Senjō no Valkyria 3 : Namo naki Chikai no Hana ( 戦場のヴァルキュリア3 名もなき誓いの花 , lit . Valkyria of the Battlefield 3 : The Flower of the Nameless Oath ) , illustrated by Naoyuki Fujisawa and eventually released in two volumes after being serialized in Dengeki Maoh between 2011 and 2012 ; and Senjō no Valkyria 3 : -Akaki Unmei no Ikusa Otome- ( 戦場のヴァルキュリア3 -赤き運命の戦乙女- , lit . Valkyria of the Battlefield 3 -The Valkyrie of the Crimson Fate ) , illustrated by Mizuki Tsuge and eventually released in a single volume by Kadokawa Shoten in 2012 . 
 = Tower Building of the Little Rock Arsenal = 
 The Tower Building of the Little Rock Arsenal , also known as U.S. Arsenal Building , is a building located in MacArthur Park in downtown Little Rock , Arkansas . Built in 1840 , it was part of Little Rock 's first military installation . Since its decommissioning , The Tower Building has housed two museums . It was home to the Arkansas Museum of Natural History and Antiquities from 1942 to 1997 and the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History since 2001 . It has also been the headquarters of the Little Rock Æsthetic Club since 1894 . 
 The building receives its name from its distinct octagonal tower . Besides being the last remaining structure of the original Little Rock Arsenal and one of the oldest buildings in central Arkansas , it was also the birthplace of General Douglas MacArthur , who became the supreme commander of US forces in the South Pacific during World War II . It was also the starting place of the Camden Expedition . In 2011 it was named as one of the top 10 attractions in the state of Arkansas by Arkansas.com. 
 = = Construction = = 
 The arsenal was constructed at the request of Governor James Sevier Conway in response to the perceived dangers of frontier life and fears of the many Native Americans who were passing through the state on their way to the newly established Oklahoma Territory . Thirty @-@ six acres were appropriated on the outskirts of Little Rock by Major Robert B. Lee of the U.S. Army . The land had been previously used as a racetrack by the local jockey club . John Wormley Walker , a builder for the Federal Government , supervised the construction . Originally $ 14 @,@ 000 was allocated for the construction of the arsenal , but proved inadequate . The budget was later increased to $ 30 @,@ 000 . Work began on the Tower Building in 1840 , and it was the first permanent structure of the arsenal to be built . Being originally constructed to store ammunition , the building was designed with 3 @-@ foot @-@ thick ( 0 @.@ 91 m ) exterior walls . The original plans called for it to be built of stone , however , masonry was used instead . The Arkansas Gazette referred to the structure as " A splendid specimen of masonry " . 
 = = Civil War = = 
 For several years the arsenal , which was owned by the federal government , served as a simple arms depot and was staffed with only a handful of soldiers . But in November 1860 , with the American Civil War on the horizon , a company of the Second United States Artillery , consisting of sixty @-@ five men , was transferred to Little Rock under the command of Captain James Totten . On January 15 , 1861 , the state legislature decided to hold a referendum to determine if a state convention should be held to consider the issue of secession and to elect delegates to such a convention . It was planned for February 18 ; however , events at the arsenal , would not wait . On January 28 , then Governor Henry Massey Rector informed Captain Totten that he and his soldiers would be " permitted to remain in the possession of the Federal officers until the State , by authority of the people , shall have determined to sever their connection with the General Government , " Totten responded to this by telling the Governor that his orders came from the United States Government and began a desperate but ultimately futile dispatch of letters and telegrams asking for reinforcements , although rumors were widely spread that they were already coming . The first telegraph wire to span between Little Rock and Memphis had recently been completed . Local attorney John M Harrel was asked to compose the first telegraph dispatched from Arkansas 's capital . In his message , Harrel reported unconfirmed rumors that more federal troops had been sent to reinforce the Little Rock Arsenal . 
 The United States troops at the outposts of the western frontier of the state and in the Indian nation have all been recalled from winter quarters to reinforce the garrison at Fort Smith . The garrison at Fort Smith had been previously transferred to the United States Arsenal in this city ( Little Rock ) . The arsenal is one of the richest depositories of military stores in the United States and is supposed to be the ultimate destination of the tropps [ sic ] ordered from the frontier . 
 -John M Harrel Telegram , January 31 , 1861 
 The item was intended simply as a piece of news , but telegraph lines quickly spread the news throughout the state , fueling procession sentiment . The rumor was interpreted by some Arkansans as a call from the governor to assemble to help expel the federal troops from the arsenal . By February 5 , six militia units , consisting of 1 @,@ 000 men , with a guarantee that the numbers could be increased to 5 @,@ 000 if the situations deemed it necessary , had assembled in Little Rock . Governor Rector vehemently denied ordering the troops to assemble or giving any order at all in connection with the troops . Faced with the fact that the military had assembled believing they were following his orders and the consensus of the citizens of Little Rock against any armed conflict between the civilian army and federal troops , Governor Rector was forced to take control of the situation . On February 6 , he sent a formal demand for surrender of the arsenal to Captain Totten , 
 This movement is prompted by the feeling that pervades the citizens of this State that in the present emergency the arms and munitions of war in the Arsenal should be under the control of the State authorities , in order to their security . This movement , although not authorized by me , has assumed such an aspect that it becomes my duty , as the executive of this Sate , to interpose my official authority to prevent a collision between the people of the State and the Federal troops under your command . I therefore demand in the name of the State the delivery of the possession of the Arsenal and munitions of war under your charge to the State authorities , to be held subject to the action of the convention to be held on the 4th of March next . 
 Perhaps because Abraham Lincoln had not yet been inaugurated as President , Captain Totten received no instructions from his superiors and was forced to withdraw his troops . He agreed to surrender the arsenal as long as the governor agreed to three provisions : 
 The governor would take possession of the arsenal in the name of the United States . 
 The soldiers would be allowed safe passage in any direction carrying any personal and public property besides munitions of war . 
 The soldiers would be allowed to march away as men leaving under orders , not as conquered and surrendering soldiers . 
 On the morning of February 8 , 1861 , Rector and Totten signed an agreement placing the arsenal in the hands of state officials . That afternoon , the citizen militia marched to the arsenal with Governor Rector at its head . All of the federal troops had left at this point , except Totten who had stayed behind to listen to the Governor 's speech and to hand the arsenal over in person . 
 The Little Rock Arsenal was classified in 1860 as an " arsenal of deposit , " meaning that it was simply a warehouse for the storage of weapons intended for the use of the state militia in times of crisis . Thus there were no substantial operations for ordnance fabrication or repairs , nor for the manufacture of cartridges at the time the Arsenal fell into State hands . Most of these operations were started from scratch through the efforts of the Arkansas Military Board . 
 Inside the Little Rock Arsenal after its seizure in February , 1861 , the Confederates inventoried some 10 @,@ 247 weapons , 250 @,@ 000 musket cartridges , and 520 @,@ 000 percussion caps , as well as the four bronze cannon of Totten 's battery . Long arms in the Arsenal 's inventory consisted of : 
 M1822 .69 cal ( flintlock ) 5 @,@ 625 
 M1822 .69 cal ( percussion @-@ converted ) 53 
 M1842 .69 cal smoothbore ( percussion ) 357 
 M1855 .58 cal rifle @-@ muskets 900 
 M1817 common rifles 125 
 M1841 rifle ( " Mississippi Rifle " ) 54 
 M1847 musketoon 2 
 Hall 's carbines 267 
 Hall 's rifles ( flintlock ) 2 @,@ 864 
 Total 10 @,@ 247 
 Of this number , approximately 9600 weapons were serviceable , or ready @-@ for @-@ issue . Note there were only 1 @,@ 364 percussion weapons available . Disposition of the weapons found in the Arsenal is somewhat sketchy , but from various records it can be surmised that the 5th , 6th , 7th , and 8th Arkansas Infantry Regiments , mustered in June , 1861 , were issued M1816 / M1822 .69 caliber flintlocks . The 9th and 10th Arkansas , four companies of Kelly 's 9th Arkansas Battalion , and the 3rd Arkansas Cavalry Regiment were issued flintlock Hall 's Rifles . The units comprising the infantry force of Van Dorn 's Army of the West were the 1st and 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles were also armed with M1822 flintlocks from the Little Rock Arsenal . By the time the 11th and 12th Arkansas Infantry Regiments mustered in at Little Rock , the supply of arms had been almost completely exhausted , and only old " junker " weapons were left . 
 Most of the equipment , arms , and machinery at the Little Rock Arsenal was removed to east of the Mississippi River by order of Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn in April and May 1862 , and accountability for it is lost at that point . By all appearances , the equipment was sent down the river to Napoleon , Arkansas , and from there to Jackson Mississippi , where it was probably destroyed during the Vicksburg campaign in the early summer of 1863 . 
 Major General Thomas C. Hindman , sent to command the district of Arkansas in May , 1862 , found the state nearly destitute of military material . Hindman established another armory at Arkadelphia , and revived the Little Rock Arsenal as a collection point and depot for armaments and ammunition manufacture for small arms . Hindman recorded : 
 " Machinery was made for manufacturing percussion caps and small arms , and both were turned out in small quantity , but of excellent quality . Lead mines were opened and worked , and a chemical laboratory was established and successfully operated in aid of the Ordnance Department and in the manufacture of calomel , castor oil , spirits of nitre , the various tinctures of iron , and other valuable medicines . Most of these works were located at or near Arkadelphia on the Ouachita River , 75 miles south from Little Rock . The tools , machinery , and the material were gathered piecemeal or else made by hand labor . Nothing of this sort had been before attempted on Government account in Arkansas to my knowledge , except for the manufacture of small arms , the machinery for which was taken away by General Van Dorn and there was neither capital nor sufficient enterprise among the citizens to engage in such undertakings � A further supply , along with lead and caps , was procured from the citizens of Little Rock and vicinity by donation , purchases , and impressments . 
 This ammunition , and that which I brought with me , was rapidly prepared for use at the Laboratory established at the Little Rock Arsenal for that purpose . As illustrating as the pitiful scarcity of material in the country , the fact may be stated that it was found necessary to use public documents of the State Library for cartridge paper . Gunsmiths were employed or conscripted , tools purchased or impressed , and the repair of the damaged guns I brought with me and about an equal number found at Little Rock commenced at once . But , after inspecting the work and observing the spirit of the men I decided that a garrison 500 strong could hold out against Fitch and that I would lead the remainder - about 1500 - to Gen 'l Rust as soon as shotguns and rifles could be obtained from Little Rock instead of pikes and lances , with which most of them were armed . Two days elapsed before the change could be effected . " 
 The Confederate ordnance establishment at Little Rock was reactivated in August , 1862 . Looking around for a suitable person to head this activity , General Hindman turned to the Confederate Navy and borrowed Lieutenant John W. Dunnington . Lt. Dunnington was the commander of the gunboat C.S.S. Ponchartrain , which had been brought to Little Rock in hopes of converting it to an ironclad . Dunnington was selected to head the ordnance works at Little Rock , and although he continued to draw his pay from the Confederate Navy Department , he was placed in charge of all Confederate ordnance activities ( which included artillery functions ) there with the rank of lieutenant colonel . 
 Lt. Col. Dunnington 's " Returns for the month of August , 1862 , at Little Rock Arsenal , C.S.A. , " are found in Vol . 149 , Chapter IV of the " Captured Rebel Ordnance Records , " and are most enlightening as to the scope of Confederate ordnance activities at Little Rock during this crucial time . According to Dunnington , " When I assumed command at this Post , all material had been removed to Arkadelphia . There were no persons employed . No shops were open for repair of arms or for fabricating ammunition . Material , tools , etc . , had to be procured as well as the employment of laborers . Work commenced the last part of the month . " 
 The military force at Little Rock under Dunnington 's command consisted of four officers : himself , Major John B. Lockman , Captain C.C. Green , and 2nd Lt. W.W. Murphy . In addition to these , he had 20 enlisted men and a civilian force composed of a foreman , 2 clerks , 3 gunsmiths for repairing small arms , a laboratorian , 26 laborers in the ammunition laboratory , and a carpenter for making packing boxes . 
 During the month of August , 1862 , the following work was performed : " Fabricated : one pair of musket bullet moulds ; 10 @,@ 000 buck & ball shot cartridges ; repaired : 750 muskets , shotguns , and rifles ; received and repaired : ordnance stores and ordnances ; performed : guard , office , and police duties ; inspected : Posts at Camden and Arkadelphia . " 
 Lt. Col. Dunnington continued to build up his works at Little Rock until November 1862 , when Captain Sanford C. Faulkner ( composer of The Arkansas Traveler ) was placed in charge of the Arsenal . Dunnington presumably returned to his naval duties and the Ponchartrain . 
 A " Summary of the Work Done for November , 1862 , Little Rock Arsenal " shows : Fabrication : 
 75 @,@ 000 buck & ball cartridges - percussion 
 14 @,@ 000 buck & ball cartridges - flint 
 275 paper fuzes 
 117 rounds , 6 @-@ pounder canister shot 
 130 rounds , 6 @-@ pounder ball shot 
 96 ammunition packing boxes 
 Repaired : 
 2 @,@ 236 shotguns and rifles ( repaired mostly for troops in service ) 
 23 pistols ( repaired mostly for troops in service ) 
 Received & Issued : 
 752 packages of ordnance and ordnance stores received and mostly issued to troops in service . 
 Repaired and painted : 
 4 gun carriages 
 Performed : 
 Guard , office , and police duties . 
 Perhaps the most illuminating points of the above " Summary of Work " and those for following months are that the standard ammunition made was . " buck & ball " , indicating that the .69 caliber smoothbores and shotguns remained the predominant caliber weapon in use , and of this , nearly one sixth or more of all small arms ammunition was still for flintlock weapons , indicating that no less than a sixth of the Confederate troops in this vicinity were still armed with obsolete flintlock weapons . 
 The " Summaries of Work done at Little Rock Arsenal , C.S.A. " continue at about the same pace and scale from August 1862 until August 1863 . Appended to the " Summary " for August , 1863 is the ominous notation , " During the last week in the month , nearly all stores at the Arsenal have been packed and sent to Arkadelphia , in obedience to orders from Chief of Ordnance , District of Arkansas . " This then marks the beginning of the evacuation of ordnance activities from Little Rock , with the city being surrendered to the advancing Federal troops of Frederick Steele 's Arkansas Expedition on September 11 , 1863 . 
 In 1864 , after Little Rock fell to the Union Army and the arsenal had been recaptured , General Fredrick Steele marched 8 @,@ 500 troops from the arsenal beginning the Camden Expedition . 
 The arsenal was briefly seized once more by Joseph Brooks loyalists during the Brooks @-@ Baxter War of 1874 . 
 = = Decommissioning = = 
 In 1873 , the building was renamed Little Rock Barracks and used as a barracks for married officers and their families . The building was drastically altered the inside and outside . Prior to renovation , a rear basement door provided the only entrance to the building , while the tower served as a hoist to move munitions between floors . By 1868 , front and rear porches had been added to the building , as well as interior walls and stairs , some of which remain today , including the central staircase . In 1880 , Douglas MacArthur was born on the northwest upper floor of this building while his father , Captain Arthur MacArthur , was stationed there . 
 In the 1880s , the federal government began closing many small arsenals around the country in favor of smaller ones built near railroads for quick deployment . The arsenal commander received word from Washington that the Little Rock site must be abandoned " not later than October 1 , 1890 . " On April 12 , 1893 the tower building and the surrounding buildings were traded to the city of Little Rock for 1 @,@ 000 acres ( 4 km ² ) in North Little Rock under the condition that the building and land be " forever exclusively devoted to the uses and purposes of a public park " for 1 @,@ 000 acres ( 4 km ² ) in Big Rock Mountain on the north side of the Arkansas River , present day North Little Rock . That site later became Fort Logan H. Roots . All of the original buildings surrounding the Tower Building were demolished . 
 = = Æsthetic Club = = 
 In 1894 the Little Rock Æsthetic Club , one of the oldest women 's societies west of the Mississippi River , moved into the Tower Building . This was prompted due to increased membership and a need for larger , more permanent quarters . The previous year , club members working with women 's organizations throughout the state , raised money to furnish the Arkansas Building of the Columbian Exposition at The Chicago World 's Fair . At the fair 's conclusion , artifacts from the exhibit were displayed in the Tower Building , with the Æsthetic Club invited to meet in the " Columbian Room . " 
 Except for Æsthetic Club meetings , the Tower Building remained largely unoccupied for almost fifty years and suffered significant deterioration . The Æsthetic Club provided much @-@ needed financial support during the period and even paid the electric bill during the Great Depression . The Æsthetic Club is still headquartered in the Tower Building . 
 = = Public use = = 
 The building and the surrounding park were used for many public purposes throughout the early 20th century . The Tower Building served as headquarters for the United Confederate Veterans Reunion , May 15 – 18 , 1911 . Over 106 @,@ 000 Civil War veterans , the largest popular gathering in the history of the city up to that time , attended and were housed in the building or camped in the park , which had also become a popular camping area . Later the building served as an armory for the Arkansas National Guard . In 1912 , the second floor of the Tower Building became Little Rock 's first public library . In 1917 , Little Rock built a fire station in the park , that building is now gone . A band shell named for H. H. Foster also was built in the park during this time , but also no longer exists . In 1936 , Works Progress Administration built the Museum of Fine Arts , now called the Arkansas Arts Center , just south of the Tower Building . 
 The arsenal was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 . Due to its association with the Camden Expedition of 1864 , the arsenal may be included in the Camden Expedition Sites National Historic Landmark designated in 1994 . 
 In 1942 , the Tower Building was renovated due to the efforts of the Æsthetic Club , Little Rock philanthropist Frederick W. Allsop , and the Works Progress Administration . It became the new home of The Arkansas Museum of Natural History and Antiquities , which had been located in Little Rock City Hall . The museum remained in the tower building for approximately fifty @-@ five years . The area surrounding the Tower Building had been known as Arsenal Park when the first decommissioned and then later renamed City Park . Due to the efforts of Bernie Babcock , however , the city finally named it MacArthur Park in 1942 in honor of Douglas MacArthur . 
 In 1997 , the Museum of Science and Natural History merged with the Little Rock Children 's Museum , which had been located in Union Station , to form the Arkansas Museum of Discovery . The new museum was relocated to a historic building in the Little Rock River Market District . The MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History opened on May 19 , 2001 in the Tower Building . The new museum 's goal is to educate and inform visitors about the military history of Arkansas , preserve the Tower Building , honor servicemen and servicewomen of the United States and commemorate the birthplace of Douglas MacArthur . 
 = Cicely Mary Barker = 
 Cicely Mary Barker ( 28 June 1895 – 16 February 1973 ) was an English illustrator best known for a series of fantasy illustrations depicting fairies and flowers . Barker 's art education began in girlhood with correspondence courses and instruction at the Croydon School of Art . Her earliest professional work included greeting cards and juvenile magazine illustrations , and her first book , Flower Fairies of the Spring , was published in 1923 . Similar books were published in the following decades . 
 Barker was a devout Anglican , and donated her artworks to Christian fundraisers and missionary organizations . She produced a few Christian @-@ themed books such as The Children ’ s Book of Hymns and , in collaboration with her sister Dorothy , He Leadeth Me . She designed a stained glass window for St. Edmund 's Church , Pitlake , and her painting of the Christ Child , The Darling of the World Has Come , was purchased by Queen Mary . 
 Barker was equally proficient in watercolour , pen and ink , oils , and pastels . Kate Greenaway and the Pre @-@ Raphaelites were the principal influences on her work . She claimed to paint instinctively and rejected artistic theories . Barker died in 1973 . Though she published Flower Fairy books with spring , summer , and autumn themes , it wasn 't until 1985 that a winter collection was assembled from her remaining work and published posthumously . 
 = = Biography = = 
 = = = Early life = = = 
 Barker was born the second daughter and youngest child of Walter Barker , a partner in a seed supply company and an amateur artist , and his wife Mary Eleanor ( Oswald ) Barker on 28 June 1895 at home at 66 Waddon Road in Croydon , Surrey , England . Barker was an epileptic as a child , and cared for at home by her parents . Later , her sister and elder by two years , Dorothy Oswald Barker , continued the care . 
 The family of four was moderately well off , and belonged to the lower end of the upper middle class . A nanny , a governess , and a cook to prepare special meals for Barker were hired . She spent much time in bed at home amusing herself with painting books and a nursery library that included the works of Kate Greenaway and Randolph Caldecott – two artists who exerted strong influences on her later art . 
 = = = Art education and first professional work = = = 
 Barker took correspondence courses in art , probably until about 1919 . In 1908 at 13 years , she entered an evening class at the Croydon School of Art , and attended the school into the 1940s . In time , she received a teaching position . 
 In 1911 , Raphael Tuck & Sons bought four of Barker 's " little drawings " for half a sovereign , and published them as postcards . In October 1911 , she won second prize in the Croydon Art Society 's poster competition , and shortly afterward was elected the youngest member of the Society . The art critic for the Croydon Advertiser remarked , " Her drawings show a remarkable freedom of spirit . She has distinct promise . " 
 Following her father ’ s death in June 1912 , the seventeen @-@ year @-@ old Barker submitted art and poetry to My Magazine , Child ’ s Own , Leading Strings , and Raphael Tuck annuals in an effort to support both her mother and sister . Her sister Dorothy taught kindergarten in two private schools before opening a kindergarten at home . She brought in some money for the family 's support while supervising the household . 
 = = = Flower Fairies of the Spring , 1923 = = = 
 Fairies became a popular theme in art and literature in the early 20th century following the releases of The Coming of the Fairies by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie , and the fairy @-@ themed work of Australian Ida Rentoul Outhwaite . Queen Mary made such themes even more popular by sending Outhwaite postcards to friends during the 1920s . In 1918 , Barker produced a postcard series depicting elves and fairies . 
 In 1923 , Barker sent her flower fairy paintings to various publishers . Blackie paid £ 25 for 24 paintings with accompanying verses , but it wasn 't until publication of Flower Fairies of the Summer in 1925 that Barker received royalties for her work . Mary Violet Clayton Calthrop , wife of author Dion Clayton Calthrop , wrote in April 1925 about Barker and Flower Fairies of the Spring : " She has such exquisite taste , besides draughtsmanship . " 
 = = = The Waldrons = = = 
 In 1924 , the family moved into a four @-@ level , semi @-@ detached Victorian house at 23 The Waldrons . Barker had a studio built in the garden and her sister conducted a kindergarten in a room at the back of the house . The family lived frugally and attended both St. Edmund 's and St. Andrew 's in Croydon – " low " churches for the less privileged . Barker sometimes incorporated portraits of her fellow parishioners in her religious works . She was described by Canon Ingram Hill as " one of the pillars " of St. Andrew 's . 
 The children in the kindergarten modelled for the Flower Fairies until the kindergarten closed in 1940 . In an interview in 1958 , Barker said , " My sister ran a kindergarten and I used to borrow her students for models . For many years I had an atmosphere of children about me – I never forgot it . " She also painted the children of relatives as well as Gladys Tidy , the Barkers ' young housekeeper , who posed for the Primrose Fairy in 1923 . The plants were painted from life , and if a specimen was not readily at hand , Kew Gardens staff would provide her the specimens needed . Barker designed and built the Flower Fairy costumes , and based each on the flowers and leaves of the particular plant to be illustrated . The costumes were kept in a trunk in her studio along with wings made of twigs and gauze . Each was broken down after an illustration was completed and the parts recycled for other costumes . She often referred to Dion Clayton Calthrop 's English Costume . 
 = = = Middle years = = = 
 In the late 1920s , Barker began to doubt she was doing enough for the church and considered focusing solely on sacred works . Family and friends recommended she continue secular and sacred works , which she did . 
 Barker continued to attend evening classes at the Croydon Art School between the 1920s and the 1940s , eventually receiving a teaching position . She took sketching trips to Amberley and Storrington in Sussex and to Cornwall and the southern coast with family and friends . She visited and stayed with artist Margaret Tarrant in Gomshall , Surrey and with family in Ugglebarnby , Near Whitby , North Yorkshire . 
 In 1940 , the Barker 's live @-@ in maid retired , and Dorothy Barker closed her school at the back of the house in The Waldrons . She continued to supervise the household , and to give both her mother and sister the care they needed . Dorothy and her sister collaborated upon only two books : Our Darling 's First Book and the Christian @-@ themed , He Leadeth Me . In 1954 Dorothy Barker died of a heart attack . Barker was unable to pursue her art to any significant extent following her sister 's death , as all the care of her aged mother devolved upon her , but she did manage to begin planning a stained glass window design in her sister 's memory for St. Edmund 's , Pitlake . 
 = = = Later life and death = = = 
 Barker 's mother died in 1960 , and , in 1961 , Barker moved from 23 The Waldrons to 6 Duppas Avenue in Croydon . She restored a maisonette in Storrington , Sussex , England , bequeathed by her friend Edith Major , and named it St. Andrew 's . After taking up residence , her health began to deteriorate . She was in and out of nursing and convalescent homes , and tended by relatives and friends . 
 Barker died at Worthing Hospital on 16 February 1973 , aged 77 years . Two funeral services were held – one in Storrington Church and one in Barker 's maisonette . Her ashes were scattered in Storrington churchyard . In 1989 , Frederick Warne , a division of Penguin Books since 1983 , acquired the Flower Fairies properties . 
 = = Art = = 
 Barker worked principally in watercolor with pen @-@ and @-@ ink , but she was equally competent in black @-@ and @-@ white , in oils , and in pastels . She carried a sketchbook with her for capturing interesting children . She once indicated , " I have always tried to paint instinctively in a way that comes naturally to me , without any real thought or attention to artistic theories . " 
 Kate Greenaway was a childhood favorite and an influence on her art . Barker 's child subjects wear nostalgic clothing as Greenaway 's children do , though Barker 's children are less melancholy and less flat in appearance , due perhaps to advances in printing technology . Barker studied flowers with an analytical eye and was friend to children 's illustrator , Margaret Tarrant . Along with Greenaway , illustrator Alice B. Woodward also influenced Barker 's work . 
 The Pre @-@ Raphaelites were a strong , lifelong influence on Barker . She once indicated , " I am to some extent influenced by them — not in any technical sense , but in the choice of subject matter and the feeling and atmosphere they could achieve . " She admitted a fondness for the early paintings of John Everett Millais and " the wonderful things " of Edward Burne @-@ Jones . 
 = = = Depictions of children = = = 
 Barker 's sketches , drawings , and paintings of children were given to friends or to the parents of the subjects , donated to charitable institutions and church sponsored events , or exhibited through various art organizations . She illustrated magazine covers , dust jackets , and produced series of postcards for Raphael Tuck and other publishers such as Picturesque Children of the Allies ( 1915 ) , Seaside Holidays ( 1918 ) , and Shakespeare 's Boy and Girl Characters ( 1917 , 1920 ) . Her own Old Rhymes for All Times ( 1928 ) and The Lord of the Rushie River ( 1938 ) , a tale about a girl who lives among swans on a riverbank , were critically well received . Set about 1800 , Groundsel and Necklaces ( 1943 ) tells of a girl named Jenny who rescues her family from poverty through the agency of the fairies . The story features an old Scrooge @-@ like man called Mr. Petercoo and tonally suggests a Dickensian social consciousness . Simon the Swan , intended as a sequel to Rushie River was outlined in 1943 with Groundsel , but only developed in 1953 . It was published posthumously in 1988 and is critically considered less successful than Groundsel . 
 = = = Christian @-@ themed works = = = 
 Barker was a devout Christian , and produced religious @-@ themed works throughout her life . She published eight postcards and five guardian angel birthday cards for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1916 and in 1923 respectively . Christmas cards were designed for The Girls ' Friendly Society over a 20 @-@ year period , and the first three designs sold out a combined printing of 46 @,@ 500 in 1923 . An original design for the society called The Darling of the World Has Come was purchased by Queen Mary for ₤ 5 @.@ 5 @.@ 0 in 1926 . The Croydon Art Society hung Barker 's booklet cover design for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in its November 1919 exhibition . 
 Religious @-@ themed books include The Children 's Book of Hymns ( 1929 ) and He Leadeth Me ( 1933 ) , the latter written in collaboration with her sister . Major religious works include the triptychs in oil , The Feeding of the Five Thousand ( 1929 ) , for the chapel in Llandaff House , a home for destitute women at Penarth , Wales , and The Parable of the Great Supper ( 1934 ) for St. George 's Chapel , Waddon . The Feeding has since disappeared , and only a black @-@ and @-@ white photograph dated 1929 reproduces the work . In 1941 , she completed oil panels on the subject of the seven sacraments for the baptismal font at St. Andrew 's , South Croydon . She designed baptismal rolls for the wall behind the font in 1948 and 1962 . In 1946 , she completed the 4 x 7 ft. oil painting , Out of Great Tribulation , for the Memorial Chapel of Norbury Methodist Church . Following the death of her sister in 1954 , Barker began designs for a stained glass memorial window depicting Christ preparing to wash the feet of his disciples . Her last religious @-@ themed work , it was installed in St. Edmund 's , Pitlake , in 1962 . 
 = = Works = = 
 = = = Cards = = = 
 Picturesque Children of the Allies ; J. Salmon , 1916 
 National Mission ; Society for the Preservation of Christian Knowledge , 1916 
 Shakespeare 's Boy Characters ; C. W. Faulkner , 1917 
 Shakespeare 's Girl Characters ; C. W. Faulkner , 1920 
 Seaside Holiday ; J. Salmon , 1918 , 1921 
 Elves and Fairies ; S. Harvey , 1918 
 Guardian Angel ; Society for the Preservation of Christian Knowledge , 1923 
 Christmas cards ; Girls ' Friendly Society , 1920s , 1930s 
 Christmas cards ( US ) ; Barton @-@ Colton , 1920s , 1930s 
 Beautiful Bible Pictures ; Blackie , 1932 
 = = = Books = = = 
 Flower Fairies of the Spring ; Blackie , 1923 
 Spring Songs with Music ; Blackie , 1923 
 Flower Fairies of the Summer ; Blackie , 1925 
 Child Thoughts in Picture and Verse ( by M. K. Westcott ) ; Blackie , 1925 
 Flower Fairies of the Autumn ; Blackie , 1926 
 Summer Songs with Music ; Blackie , 1926 
 The Book of the Flower Fairies ; Blackie , 1927 
 Autumn Songs with Music ; Blackie , 1927 
 Old Rhymes for All Times ; Blackie , 1928 
 The Children ’ s Book of Hymns ; Blackie , 1929 ; rep . 1933 
 Our Darling ’ s First Book ( written in collaboration with Dorothy Barker ) ; Blackie , 1929 
 The Little Picture Hymn Book ; Blackie , 1933 
 Rhymes New and Old ; Blackie , 1933 
 A Flower Fairy Alphabet ; Blackie , 1934 
 A Little Book of Old Rhymes ; Blackie , 1936 
 He Leadeth Me ( written in collaboration with Dorothy Barker ) ; Blackie , 1936 
 A Little Book of Rhymes New and Old ; Blackie , 1937 
 The Lord of the Rushie River ; Blackie , 1938 
 Flower Fairies of the Trees ; Blackie , 1940 
 When Spring Came In at the Window ; Blackie , 1942 
 A Child ’ s Garden of Verses ( Robert Louis Stevenson ) ; Blackie , 1944 
 Flower Fairies of the Garden ; Blackie , 1944 
 Groundsel and Necklaces ; Blackie , 1946 ; reprinted as Fairy Necklaces 
 Flower Fairies of the Wayside ; Blackie , 1948 
 Flower Fairies of the Flowers and Trees ; Blackie , 1950 
 Lively Stories ; Macmillan , 1954 
 The Flower Fairy Picture Book ; Blackie , 1955 
 Lively Numbers ; Macmillan , 1957 
 Lively Words ; Macmillan , 1961 . 
 The Sand , the Sea and the Sun ; Gibson , 1970 
 = = = = Posthumously published = = = = 
 Flower Fairies of the Winter ; Blackie , 1985 
 Simon the Swan ; Blackie , 1988 
 Flower Fairies of the Seasons ; Bedrick / Blackie , 1988 
 A Little Book of Prayers and Hymns ; Frederick Warne , 1994 
 A Flower Fairies Treasury ; Frederick Warne , 1997 
 Fairyopolis ; Frederick Warne , 2005 
 Wild Cherry Makes A Wish ; ( collaboration with Pippa Le Quesne ) Frederick Warne , 2006 
 How to find Flower Fairies ; Frederick Warne , 2007 
 Return to Fairyopolis ; Frederick Warne , 2008 
 = = = Book covers = = = 
 A New Epiphany ; Society for the Preservation of Christian Knowledge , 1919 
 43 Annuals ; Blackie , 1920s , 1930s 
 = = = Religious works = = = 
 St. Cecily 's Garden ; 1920 
 Cradle roll design ; St. Edmund 's , Pitlake , 1922 
 Banner design ; St. Mary 's , Sanderstead , 1923 
 The Feeding of the Five Thousand ; reredos triptych , chapel at Penarth , Wales ; 1929 
 The Parable of the Great Supper ; triptych , St. George 's chapel , Waddon 
 The Seven Sacraments ; baptismal font panels , St. Andrew 's , Croydon 
 St. John the Baptist ; central banner panel , Abesford church , 1943 
 Lettering , sword , and shield ; mount for a list of men and woman serving in the Forces , St. Andrews , Croydon , 1943 
 Baptismal rolls ; St. Andrews , Croydon , 1948 , 1962 
 The font in St Andrew 's Church , South Croydon 
 Out of Great Tribulation ; memorial chapel , Norbury Medthodist church , 1948 
 I Am Among You As He That Serveth ; stained glass window design , St. Edmund 's , Pitlake , 1962 
 = Gambia women 's national football team = 
 The Gambia women 's national football team represents the Gambia in international football competition . The team , however , has not competed in a match recognised by FIFA , the sport 's international governing body , despite that organised women 's football has been played in the country since 1998 . The Gambia has two youth teams , an under @-@ 17 side that has competed in FIFA U @-@ 17 Women 's World Cup qualifiers , and an under @-@ 19 side that withdrew from regional qualifiers for an under @-@ 19 World Cup . The development of a national team faces challenges similar to those across Africa , although the national football association has four staff members focusing on women 's football . 
 = = The team = = 
 In 1985 , few countries had women 's national football teams . While the sport gained popularity worldwide in later decades , the Gambia 's national team only played its first game in 2007 . That game was not FIFA @-@ recognised . As of March 2012 , the team was unranked by FIFA , and as of the following month the Gambia had not played in a FIFA @-@ sanctioned match . The team has not participated in major regional and international tournaments , including the Women 's World Cup , the 2010 African Women 's Championship or the 2011 All @-@ Africa Games . 
 The country did not have a FIFA @-@ recognised youth national team until 2012 , when the Gambia under @-@ 17 women 's team competed in Confederation of African Football qualifiers for the FIFA U @-@ 17 World Cup , to be held in Azerbaijan in September 2012 . The Gambia had fielded an under @-@ 17 team of 24 players , narrowed from an initial pool of 49 young women . Two girls from the SOS Children ’ s Village Bakoteh were chosen as a members of the team . The Gambia first played Sierra Leone in a pair of qualifying matches for the tournament . Gambia won the first match 3 @-@ 0 in Banjul , the Gambia 's capital . The return match was delayed in for 24 hours and played in Makeni . The Gambia beat Sierra Leone 4 @-@ 3 to qualify for the final round . The Gambia then beat Tunisia 1 @-@ 0 at home and won 2 @-@ 1 in Tunisia . Adama Tamba and Awa Demba scored the Gambia 's goals . Tunisia 's only goal was a Gambian own goal . The win qualified Gambia for the 2012 Azerbaijan World Cup . 
 The Gambia also has an under @-@ 19 team that was to play in the African Women 's U @-@ 19 Championship in 2002 . The Gambia 's first match was against Morocco , but the team withdrew from the competition . 
 = = Background and development = = 
 The development of women 's football in Africa faces several challenges , including limited access to education , poverty amongst women , inequalities and human rights abuses targeting women . Funding is another issue impacting the game in Africa , where most financial assistance comes from FIFA and not national football associations . Another challenge is the retention of football players . Many women footballers leave the continent to seek greater opportunity in Europe or the United States . 
 Gambia 's national football association was founded in 1952 , and became affiliated with FIFA in 1968 . Football is the most popular women 's sport in the country , and was first played in an organized system in 1998 . A national competition was launched in 2007 , the same year FIFA started an education course on football for women . Competition was active on both the national and scholastic levels by 2009 . There are four staffers dedicated to women 's football in the Gambia Football Association , and representation of women on the board is required by the association 's charter . 
 = Plain maskray = 
 The plain maskray or brown stingray ( Neotrygon annotata ) is a species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae . It is found in shallow , soft @-@ bottomed habitats off northern Australia . Reaching 24 cm ( 9 @.@ 4 in ) in width , this species has a diamond @-@ shaped , grayish green pectoral fin disc . Its short , whip @-@ like tail has alternating black and white bands and fin folds above and below . There are short rows of thorns on the back and the base of the tail , but otherwise the skin is smooth . While this species possesses the dark mask @-@ like pattern across its eyes common to its genus , it is not ornately patterned like other maskrays . 
 Benthic in nature , the plain maskray feeds mainly on caridean shrimp and polychaete worms , and to a lesser extent on small bony fishes . It is viviparous , with females producing litters of one or two young that are nourished during gestation via histotroph ( " uterine milk " ) . This species lacks economic value but is caught incidentally in bottom trawls , which it is thought to be less able to withstand than other maskrays due to its gracile build . As it also has a limited distribution and low fecundity , the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) has listed it as Near Threatened . 
 = = Taxonomy and phylogeny = = 
 The first scientific description of the plain maskray was authored by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ( CSIRO ) researcher Peter Last in a 1987 issue of Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria . The specific name annotatus comes from the Latin an ( " not " ) and notatus ( " marked " ) , and refers to the ray 's coloration . The holotype is a male 21 @.@ 2 cm ( 8 @.@ 3 in ) across , caught off Western Australia ; several paratypes were also designated . Last tentatively placed the species in the genus Dasyatis , noting that it belonged to the " maskray " species group that also included the bluespotted stingray ( then Dasyatis kuhlii ) . In 2008 , Last and William White elevated the kuhlii group to the rank of full genus as Neotrygon , on the basis of morphological and molecular phylogenetic evidence . 
 In a 2012 phylogenetic analysis based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA , the plain maskray and the Ningaloo maskray ( N. ningalooensis ) were found to be the most basal members of Neotrygon . The divergence of the N. annotata lineage was estimated to have occurred ~ 54 Ma . Furthermore , the individuals sequenced in the study sorted into two genetically distinct clades , suggesting that N. annotata is a cryptic species complex . The two putative species were estimated to have diverged ~ 4 @.@ 9 Ma ; the precipitating event was likely the splitting of the ancestral population by coastline changes . 
 = = Description = = 
 The pectoral fin disc of the plain maskray is thin and diamond @-@ shaped with narrowly rounded outer corners , measuring 1 @.@ 1 – 1 @.@ 3 times longer than wide . The leading margins of the disc are gently concave and converge at a broad angle to the pointed tip of the snout . The small eyes are placed close together , and behind them are the spiracles . The nostrils are elongated and have a skirt @-@ shaped flap of skin between them . The small mouth bears prominent furrows at the corners and contains two slender papillae on the floor . Small papillae are also found around the outside of the mouth . There are five pairs of gill slits . The pelvic fins are fairly large and pointed . 
 The tail is short , barely exceeding the length of the disc when intact , and has a broad and flattened base leading to usually two stinging spines . After the stings , the tail becomes slender and bears a long ventral fin fold and a much shorter , lower dorsal fin fold . Most of the body lacks dermal denticles ; a midline row of 4 – 13 small , closely spaced thorns is present behind the spiracles , and another row of 0 – 4 thorns before the stings . The dorsal coloration is grayish green , becoming pinkish towards the disc margins ; there is a dark mask @-@ like shape around the eyes and a pair of small dark blotches behind the spiracles . The tail behind the stings has alternating black and white bands of variable width , ending with black at the tip . The underside is plain white and the ventral fin fold is light grayish in color . This species grows to 24 cm ( 9 @.@ 4 in ) across and 45 cm ( 18 in ) long . 
 = = Distribution and habitat = = 
 The plain maskray inhabits the continental shelf of northern Australia from the Wellesley Islands in Queensland to the Bonaparte Archipelago in Western Australia , including the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Timor and Arafura Seas . There are unsubstantiated reports that its range extends to southern Papua New Guinea . It is the least common of the several maskray species native to the region . This species is a bottom @-@ dweller that prefers habitats with fine sediment . It has been recorded from between 12 and 62 m ( 39 and 203 ft ) deep , and tends to be found farther away from shore than other maskrays in its range . 
 = = Biology and ecology = = 
 The plain maskray generally hunts at the surface of the bottom substrate , rather than digging for prey . Its diet consists predominantly of caridean shrimp and polychaete worms . Small bony fishes are also eaten , along with the occasional penaeid prawn or amphipod . Larger rays consume a greater variety of prey and relatively more polychaete worms when compared to smaller rays . This species is parasitized by the tapeworm Acanthobothrium jonesi . 
 Like other stingrays , the plain maskray is viviparous with the developing embryos sustained to term by histotroph ( " uterine milk " ) produced by the mother . Mature females have a single functional ovary and uterus , on the left . Litter size is one or two ; the newborns measure 12 – 14 cm ( 4 @.@ 7 – 5 @.@ 5 in ) across . Males and females reach sexual maturity at disc widths of 20 – 21 cm ( 7 @.@ 9 – 8 @.@ 3 in ) and 18 – 19 cm ( 7 @.@ 1 – 7 @.@ 5 in ) respectively . The maximum lifespan is estimated to be 9 years for males and 13 years for females . 
 = = Human interactions = = 
 The main conservation threat to the plain maskray is incidental capture by commercial bottom trawl fisheries . In the present day , this is mostly caused by Australia 's Northern Prawn Fishery , which operates throughout its range . Although this species is discarded when caught , it is more delicate @-@ bodied than other maskrays and is thus unlikely to survive encounters with trawling gear . Historically , this species may also have been negatively affected by Japanese , Chinese , and Taiwanese trawlers that fished intensively off northern Australia from 1959 to 1990 . These factors , coupled with the plain maskray 's limited distribution and low reproductive rate , have resulted in its being assessed as Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) . 
 = 2011 – 12 Columbus Blue Jackets season = 
 The 2011 – 12 Columbus Blue Jackets season was the team 's 12th season in the National Hockey League ( NHL ) . The Blue Jackets ' record of 29 – 46 – 7 [ note 1 ] was the worst record in the NHL for 2011 – 12 and the first time in franchise history they finished in last place . It also marked the third straight year that they missed the playoffs . Consequently , they had the best chance to receive the first overall selection in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft lottery , but lost out to the Edmonton Oilers and received the second pick instead . 
 The Blue Jackets began the year with the worst start in franchise history and the worst by any team in an NHL season in 19 years . After an 11 – 25 – 5 start , Head Coach Scott Arniel was fired and replaced by Assistant Coach Todd Richards . The poor season prompted several personnel changes including the trade of All @-@ Star forward Jeff Carter , who was acquired with much fanfare during the off @-@ season . With the prospect of another rebuild looming the Blue Jackets ' captain and best player , Rick Nash , requested to be traded , though he would remain with the team for the entire season . 
 The team was involved in a controversial loss to the Los Angeles Kings , when the Staples Center clock appeared to freeze at 1 @.@ 8 seconds allowing the Kings time to score the tying goal , before winning in overtime . During the season Columbus managed only two winning streaks of three or more games . One of which came towards the end of the year helping the Blue Jackets finish with 65 points , the third worst point total in franchise history . 
 = = Off @-@ season = = 
 In the off @-@ season the Blue Jackets ' approach to building their team changed , moving from a team of young developing players into one with established players . The first deal General Manager Scott Howson made was the acquisition of All @-@ Star forward Jeff Carter on June 23 , 2011 . The deal sent Jakub Voracek , Columbus ' first @-@ round draft choice , the eighth overall , and their third @-@ round pick in the 2011 Draft to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Carter . The trade received a positive response in Columbus from fans and management who felt they finally had a number one center to play alongside of their best player , Rick Nash . Next , they traded for the negotiating rights of soon to be free agent James Wisniewski . Wisniewski scored a career high 51 points during the 2010 – 11 season , splitting time between the New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens . The point total was fifth @-@ highest in the league for defenseman scoring , tying Tobias Enstrom . The Blue Jackets came to terms with Wisniewski , just an hour prior to the start of free agency , signing him to a six @-@ year , $ 33 million deal . 
 Columbus also traded former first round draft pick Nikita Filatov to the Ottawa Senators for a third @-@ round pick in the 2011 Draft . Filatov had failed to live up to expectations in Columbus , playing in only 44 games over three seasons scoring six goals . Prior to the start of the season , the Blue Jackets were questioned for not signing a veteran back @-@ up to starting goaltender Steve Mason , as the former Calder Memorial Trophy winner had struggled in consecutive seasons . The Blue Jackets signed Mark Dekanich as the back @-@ up who had only 50 minutes of NHL experience prior to the start of the season . Columbus did sign a veteran Curtis Sanford to be their third string goaltender and to start for their American Hockey League ( AHL ) affiliate , the Springfield Falcons . Sanford had not played in the NHL since 2009 . During training camp , Dekanich suffered a high ankle sprain that was expected to keep him out of the line @-@ up for a month . Additionally , Sanford suffered a groin injury , leaving Allen York as the back @-@ up . York had only played four professional games , all in the AHL , entering the season . 
 = = Regular season = = 
 = = = October – December = = = 
 After the first five games , all losses , Jeff Carter suffered a broken foot that kept him out of the line @-@ up for 10 games . While Carter was injured , the Blue Jackets continued to lose games . In the eighth game of the year , they had a chance to end the losing streak against the Ottawa Senators . Columbus held a 3 – 2 lead with under a minute to play . Jason Spezza tied the game on a late power play , and with just 4 @.@ 7 seconds remaining , Milan Michalek notched the winning goal for the Senators . The loss helped set a franchise record for futility with a 0 – 7 – 1 record to start a season . [ note 1 ] The losing streak came to an end three days later with a win over the Detroit Red Wings . During the game , several milestones were reached . James Wisniewski made his Columbus debut , Ryan Johansen and John Moore scored their first career NHL goals and Grant Clitsome had a career @-@ high three assists . Columbus was unable to create any momentum from the win , however , and continued to struggle , culminating in a 2 – 12 – 1 record , which was the worst start to an NHL season for any team in 19 years . With the team struggling , management attempted to " shake things up " by making some roster moves . The first move was the acquisition of center Mark Letestu from the Pittsburgh Penguins . Next , they traded defenseman Kris Russell to the St. Louis Blues for Nikita Nikitin . As the clubs slow start continued , there were rumors that Head Coach Scott Arniel would be fired and replaced with Ken Hitchcock . Hitchcock had previously coached the Blue Jackets to their only playoff appearance in club history and was still under contract with the franchise through to the end of the season . Before any of these rumors came to fruition , the St. Louis Blues asked Columbus for permission to hire Hitchcock , which the Blue Jackets allowed . Hitchcock began his Blues coaching career with a 6 – 1 – 2 record in his first nine games , while Columbus amassed a 6 – 13 – 3 record to start the season . 
 During the same time frame as the Hitchcock rumors , goaltender Curtis Sanford returned from his groin injury on November 13 . He made his first start of the season against the Boston Bruins , losing 2 – 1 in a shootout . Sanford continued his strong play , posting a 3 – 1 – 2 record , 1 @.@ 38 goals against average and .947 save percentage over his next six games . Sanford started 12 consecutive games before Steve Mason made his next start . The number of starts might not have been as numerous , but prior to the November 23 game , Mason was hit in the head by a shot from Rick Nash during pre @-@ game warm @-@ ups and suffered a concussion . Mason returned from his concussion after two games , making a start against the Vancouver Canucks . Mason allowed only one goal in the game despite suffering from cramping in the third period , temporarily being replaced by Sanford for just over three minutes . Columbus won the game 2 – 1 in a shootout , breaking a nine @-@ game losing streak to the Canucks . After the game , Arniel stated that Sanford was still seen as the team 's number one goaltender . However , Mason started four of the next six games with the Blue Jackets going 0 – 5 – 1 during that stretch . 
 = = = January – February = = = 
 With the losing continuing , more rumors began to surface . Unlike before , the rumors were about player moves rather than coaching changes . The majority of rumors were that the Blue Jackets would trade Rick Nash . While Howson stated that he had never brought up trading Nash in discussions , other teams had inquired about his availability . Nash stated that if Columbus felt it would make the franchise better than he would be willing to waive his no @-@ trade clause . Howson publicly stated that he had no intention of trading Nash . More rumors came to light when reports attributed to Réseau des sports stated that Carter was unhappy in Columbus and demanded a trade . Howson , Carter and his agent all denied that a trade request was ever made , and they were unsure where the reports were coming from . With the trade deadline approaching , speculation picked up on the Blue Jackets trading Carter . Reports were that Columbus was trying to trade Carter and that he was " 100 percent available . " 
 At the halfway point of the season , with the Blue Jackets barely into double digit wins with an 11 – 25 – 5 record , worst in the league , and sitting 20 points out of playoff position , Columbus fired Arniel . He was replaced by Assistant Coach Todd Richards on an interim basis . Richards had previously coached the Minnesota Wild . He recorded his first coaching victory for the Blue Jackets in his second game , a 4 – 3 win over the Phoenix Coyotes . The change in coaching did not change the fortunes of the team , as they reached the All @-@ Star break with a 13 – 30 – 6 record . At the break , Blue Jackets ' owner John P. McConnell sent out a letter to fans stating his understanding of their frustration . He added that action would be taken around the trade deadline , the Entry Draft and free agency to take the team in a new direction . When speaking of the season , McConnell stated " disappointing is not a strong enough word " and that he was committed to giving fans a team of which they can be proud of . He also thanked them for their dedication and passion , while reiterating that the team goal was to " win consistently and compete for the Stanley Cup . " Days later , a 250 @-@ person protest occurred outside of Nationwide Arena . Fans were upset with the Blue Jackets ' management and were calling for changes at the top . The same day the fans protested , it was announced that the franchise would host the 2013 All @-@ Star Game . Columbus was without a representative for the 2012 All @-@ star Game , but Ryan Johansen represented the club as a rookie participant in the Super Skills Competition . In the competition , Johansen participated in the Allstate Insurance NHL Breakaway Challenge , a shootout themed event judged by the fans . He received just 1 % of the vote and finished last . 
 Following the break , the Blue Jackets were on the road playing the Los Angeles Kings , and with the score tied late in the game , Kings ' defenseman Drew Doughty scored with just 0 @.@ 4 seconds remaining to win the game . Upon review of the goal it , was determined that the clock at Staples Center froze at 1 @.@ 8 seconds for over a full second , which would have resulted in time expiring prior to the goal being scored . Kings ' General Manager Dean Lombardi stated that the clock was correct and no extra time had been added due to the way the clock self @-@ corrects at various times . Howson stated on the team 's blog that " It is an amazing coincidence that with the Kings on a power play at Staples Center and with a mad scramble around our net in the dying seconds of the third period of a 2 – 2 hockey game that the clock stopped for at least one full second , " adding that , " Either there was a deliberate stopping of the clock or the clock malfunctioned . " NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell stated that the Blue Jackets were wronged , but that the outcome of the game could not be changed , and that the delay was not noticed by the off @-@ ice officials or the situation room in Toronto . To determine the true cause of the clock pause , the NHL launched an investigation , talking with the clock 's manufacturer and interviewing Staples Center staff . 
 Two weeks prior to the NHL trade deadline , Columbus announced that unlike earlier in the season , they would listen to trade proposals involving Rick Nash , though they were not actively shopping him . Howson stated that the team was open to all options for improving the team , including trading Nash . Speculation was that in return for Nash the Blue Jackets would ask for a " combination of young , proven players , high @-@ end prospects and draft picks . " Leading up to the trade deadline , the Blue Jackets dealt Antoine Vermette to the Phoenix Coyotes for two draft picks and goaltender Curtis McElhinney . Despite being injured at the time , the acquisition of McElhinney was believed to give Columbus the flexibility to trade Curtis Sanford . The following day , on February 23 , Columbus traded Jeff Carter to the Kings . In the deal , Columbus acquired defenseman Jack Johnson and a first @-@ round draft pick ; the team was given the choice of taking the pick in either 2012 or 2013 . At the deadline , Columbus was unable to come to terms on a deal involving Nash , but they did make one more move ; they sent center Samuel Pahlsson to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for two fourth @-@ round draft picks and minor league defenseman Taylor Ellington . Following the trade deadline , Howson announced that the team had attempted to trade Nash at the player 's request . Nash stated that he had requested the trade after being informed that the franchise was going into another rebuilding phase . He further noted that he felt that he " could be a huge part of that towards bringing assets in , " and in his view " it was the best thing for the team , the organization , and personally for [ his ] career . " After the personnel changes , the Blue Jackets closed out the month with a three @-@ game losing streak . 
 = = = March – April = = = 
 Columbus started March with a 2 – 0 shutout against the Colorado Avalanche . They proceeded to win their next game against the Phoenix Coyotes 5 – 2 , which marked the first time that the Blue Jackets posted back @-@ to @-@ back regulation victories during the season . Columbus again defeated the Coyotes three days later to earn their first three @-@ game win streak of the season . They extended the streak to four with a win over the Los Angeles Kings before it came to an end with a 4 – 1 loss to the St. Louis Blues . It was the only four @-@ game win streak of the season for the Blue Jackets . They immediately matched their four @-@ game win streak with a four @-@ game losing streak and with ten games remaining , the Blue Jackets were the first team eliminated from playoff contention . Shortly after being eliminated , they were defeated by the Edmonton Oilers 6 – 3 ; the loss clinched last place in the NHL for Columbus . It was the first time in franchise history the Blue Jackets finished in 30th place . 
 Three days later , on March 28 , goaltender Steve Mason was injured in the morning skate when a shot from Colton Gillies hit him in the mask . With Sanford again injured , York made an emergency start . Playing against the Detroit Red Wings , York made 29 saves , including 17 in the third period , helping Columbus to a 4 – 2 victory and giving York his first career NHL win . York remained the starter and led the Blue Jackets to a second three @-@ game winning streak . In his fourth start , Columbus was shutout by the Coyotes despite a franchise @-@ record 54 shots on goal , losing 2 – 0 . The 54 saves by Phoenix goaltender Mike Smith set an NHL record for a regulation shutout . Mason returned to the starter 's role for the final two games , winning both . The two victories gave Columbus 65 points for the year , their third @-@ lowest total in franchise history . 
 The Blue Jackets struggled in shorthanded situations , allowing the most power @-@ play goals in the League , with 64 , and having the lowest penalty @-@ kill percentage , at 76 @.@ 64 % 
 = = Post @-@ season = = 
 Finishing with the worst record in the NHL , Columbus had the best chance of receiving the first overall pick in the 2012 draft . With the NHL 's weighted draft lottery the Blue Jackets had a 48 @.@ 2 % chance of drafting first overall . However , the lottery was won by the Edmonton Oilers , who proceeded to leapfrog Columbus and secure the number one draft pick for a third consecutive year . It was the fifth time that the Blue Jackets were dropped one draft position in the franchise 's 12 lottery participations . 
 A month later , on May 14 , the Blue Jackets announced that Richards would remain as head coach and signed him to a two @-@ year contract . During the press conference , Howson noted , " Our team continuously improved under Todd and he has earned the opportunity to build upon the work he started . " Columbus posted an 18 – 21 – 2 record under Richards , including winning seven of their final 11 games . 
 = = Standings = = 
 Since being founded as an expansion team , the Blue Jackets have played in the Central Division of the Western Conference . Division rivals Chicago Blackhawks , Detroit Red Wings , Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues , all made the playoff during the 2011 – 12 season , which helped Columbus finish 36 points behind fourth place Chicago and 44 points out of first . 
 Divisions : CE – Central , NW – Northwest , PA – Pacific 
 bold - qualified for playoffs , y – Won division , p – Won Presidents ' Trophy ( best record in NHL ) 
 = = Schedule and results = = 
 = = = Pre @-@ season = = = 
 = = = Regular season = = = 
 Green background indicates win ( 2 points ) . 
 Red background indicates regulation loss ( 0 points ) . 
 Silver background indicates overtime / shootout loss ( 1 point ) . 
 = = Player statistics = = 
 In ice hockey , a combination of a player 's goals and assists are collectively called points . Penalty minutes are the total number of minutes assigned to a player for infractions assessed during the season.Plus @-@ minus is a statistic that tracks when a player was on the ice while goals were scored , both for and against their team , though some in game situations will not effect the statistic . Below is a listing of all player statistics for the Blue Jackets during the season . 
 = = = Skaters = = = 
 Note : Pos 
 = Position ; GP = 
 Games played in ; G 
 = Goals ; A = 
 Assists ; Pts 
 = Points ; PIM = 
 Penalty minutes ; + / - = Plus / minus 
 = = = Goaltenders = = = 
 Note : GP 
 = Games Played ; TOI = 
 Time On Ice ( minutes ) ; W 
 = Wins ; L = 
 Losses ; OT 
 = Overtime Losses ; GA = 
 Goals Against ; GAA = Goals Against Average ; SA = Shots Against ; SV 
 = Saves ; Sv % = 
 Save Percentage ; SO = Shutouts 
 † Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Blue Jackets . Stats reflect time with the Blue Jackets only . ‡ Traded mid @-@ season 
 = = Milestones = = 
 When Mason was injured in warm @-@ ups late in the year , Columbus was without an active goaltender on their roster . To remedy the situation , the team signed former University of Michigan goaltender Shawn Hunwick to a one @-@ day , amateur tryout contract . After being eliminated from the NCAA Tournament just days prior , Hunwick skipped an astronomy class and drove his worn down 2003 Ford Ranger to Columbus to make the game . He served as the back @-@ up to Allen York during the game , and the following day , he signed a contract for the remainder of the year . With Mason returning from injury , Hunwick was third on the team 's depth chart when an injury to York allowed Hunwick to remain as the back @-@ up for the final two games of the year . In the final game of the season , the Blue Jackets were leading the Islanders 7 – 3 with 2 : 33 remaining when , at the behest of his teammates , Head Coach Todd Richards put Hunwick in to finish the game . He did not face a shot . Hunwick was the franchise record ninth player to make his NHL debut during the season . Conversely , Vaclav Prospal played in his 1,000th NHL game during the year . 
 = = Transactions = = 
 During the off @-@ season the Blue Jackets parted ways with defensemen Jan Hejda , Anton Stralman , Sami Lepisto and Mike Commodore . Hejda , who played four of his first five NHL seasons with the Blue Jackets , was offered a contract by Columbus , but felt that the organization undervalued him and left via free agency . Columbus had offered him a three @-@ year , $ 7 @.@ 5 million contract . He instead signed a four @-@ year , $ 13 million deal with the Colorado Avalanche . Stralman and Lepisto were not given qualifying offers which made them unrestricted free agents , and both signed with other teams . Commodore had originally signed a big contract with the Blue Jackets in 2008 , but fell out of favor . He was waived , sent to the minors and eventually had his contract bought out . In order to replace the departed players , Columbus not only acquired James Wisniewski , but also signed ten @-@ year NHL veteran Radek Martinek . Martinek played only seven games with the Blue Jackets before suffering a concussion and missing the remainder of the season . Brett Lebda was brought in to replace him . 
 = Gregorian Tower = 
 The Gregorian Tower ( Italian : Torre Gregoriana ) or Tower of the Winds ( Italian : Torre dei Venti ) is a round tower located above the Gallery of Maps , which connects the Villa Belvedere with the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City . The tower was built between 1578 and 1580 to a design by the Bolognese architect Ottaviano Mascherino ( who was credited with building the Apostolic Palace ) mainly to promote the study of astronomy for the Gregorian Calendar Reform which was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII and promulgated in 1582 . It was then also known as the Tower of Winds . The tower is now called the " Specola Astronomica Vaticana " , the Vatican Observatory . Four stages of progressive development have occurred since it was first established . The tower was an edifice of great value for astronomical observations made using a sundial as they provided essential confirmation of the need to reform the Julian calendar . 
 = = Early history = = 
 The first stage of building of the tower , as recorded by Leo XIII in his motu proprio Ut mysticam of 1891 , is credited to Pope Gregory XIII , Pope from 1572 to 1585 . The directive was to build a tower at a suitable location in the Vatican and equip it with the " greatest and best instruments of the time " . The design was effected after a series of meetings of the experts who had been appointed to reform the Julian calendar , in use since 45 BC , to verify their proposed reforms . Fr . Christoph Clavius , a Jesuit mathematician from the Roman College , was the expert on the committee who suggested the new system for the observations . The 73 metres ( 240 ft ) tower was then built above the museum and library , flanked by the Belvedere and della Pigna courtyards . The instrumentation for the observation of the sun rays falling over it consisted of a meridian line designed by Ignazio Danti of Perugia . It was in the form of a circular marble plate in the centre , embellished with scientific designs . The tower still remains today , but has undergone improvements over the centuries . 
 = = Second stage = = 
 The second stage of construction in the 17th and 18th centuries , when the tower was under the charge of the Vatican librarian , involved Mgr . Filippo Luigi Gilii , a clergyman of St. Peter 's Basilica . Earlier in 1797 , Pius VI gave approval to placing a Latin inscription Specula Vaticana at the entrance to the upper part of the tower , which was implemented by Cardinal Zelada with plans to enhance the instrumentation system in the tower 's observatory . The original observatory was then set up above the second level of the tower with the agreement of Pope Pius VI . Its instrumentation , apart from many normal devices ( such as meteorological and magnetic equipment , with a seismograph and a small transit and pendulum clock , ) was noted for the Dolland Telescope . The instrumentation facilitated recording of occurrences of eclipse , appearance of comets , Satellites of Jupiter and Mercury ’ s transit . As an addition , under the patronage of Pope Pius X , four rotary observatory domes were also added at strategic locations on the 1 @,@ 300 feet ( 400 m ) long fortification walls , more than a thousand years old . Mgr . Gilii , highly respected as a polyglot with a knowledge of physics , biology , archeology and the Hebrew language , was in charge of the observatory from 1800 to 1821 . He carried out continuous meteorological observations ( twice a day at 6 AM and 2 PM ) conforming to the programme of the Mannheim Meteorological Society . While the observation records for seven years were published , the balance data in a manuscript form was preserved in the Vatican Library . Subsequent to Gilii 's death in 1821 , the observatory on the tower was discontinued and the instruments were moved to the observatory at the Roman College . Established in 1787 , it was considered more suitable for making observations than the Vatican . 
 = = Third stage = = 
 The revival of the observatory on the Gregorian Tower was initiated by the Barnabite Francesco Denza with the approval of Pope Leo XIII . High quality instruments were procured , partly with generous donations from Hicks of London , and the automatic recording instruments were procured from Richard in Paris . A four @-@ inch equatorial , a three @-@ inch transit instrument , and four pendulum clocks with two chronometers , were also procured from the observatory at Modena . In 1888 , the gift of a 16 inch long telescope to Pope Leo XIII , became a part of the observatory . Father Denza joined the observatory in 1889 after it was upgraded with more modern instruments . The same year , a second tower was built some 400 metres ( 1 @,@ 300 ft ) away from the main Gregorian Tower , overlooking the Vatican Gardens behind St. Peter 's Basilica on the south @-@ west border . It was built to a diameter of 17 metres ( 56 ft ) with a lower wall thickness of 4 @.@ 5 metres ( 15 ft ) , which could bear the load of a 13 inch photographic refractor , newly procured from Paris . Augustinian Father Rodriguez was the expert meteorologist who held the post of director from 1898 to 1905 . In 1891 , Pope Leo XIII , promulgating the motu proprio Ut mysticam , designated the second tower as the seat of the newly established Vatican Observatory , a decision which required altering the roof to provide a flat terrace for astronomical observations . 
 = = Fourth stage = = 
 The fourth stage involved remedying the problem of communicating between the two towers during the time of Pope Pius X. His plans were to make the Gregorian Tower into a historical tower and to record and carry out observations at the second tower by linking the two towers along the fortified wall with a 83 metres ( 272 ft ) iron bridge spanning the gap . At the west end of this bridge , a four @-@ inch equatorial was installed on semicircular bastion . The east end of the bridge , above the barracks of the gendarmes , had a heliograph , with a camera attached , used to photograph the Sun ( photoheliograph ) . A new 16 @-@ inch visual telescope , called Torre Pio X , was erected in the second tower . As a result of these modifications , the original library was moved to the Pontifical Academy Lincei , and the old meteorological and seismic instruments were shifted to the Valle di Pompei observatory . The new Astronomical Library was housed in two rooms of the building . The two new Repsold machines were used for recording on the astrographic plates . The recorded observations were published along with explanatory notes together with the last two series of the atlas of stars . Charts were printed on silver bromide paper . 
 = = Features = = 
 The tower had two floors and a mezzanine . On the first floor was the famous Sundial Room or Meridian Room , which was initially an open loggia . Pope Urban VIII had it enclosed and it was subsequently decorated with long sequences of frescoes painted between 1580 and 1582 by Simon Lagi and the two Flemish artists Paul and Matthijs Bril . Today the tower has paintings by Cristoforo Roncalli and Matteino da Siena . 
 The Sundial Room , also called the Meridian Hall , was once the residence of Queen Christina of Sweden , then newly converted to Catholicism . The room was further modified by two additions which gave it its current name : a sundial , and a delicate but sophisticated anemoscope which was fixed to the ceiling of the Meridian Hall . These were created by Ignazio Danti , the papal cosmographer , in association with the Gregorian Calendar Reform . The sundial consisted of a straight line in white marble running across the floor in a north @-@ south direction , intended to measure the height of the Sun at noon according to the seasons of the year . The observations made with the sundial provided essential confirmation of the need to reform the Julian calendar . The anemoscope , in contrast , was a complex mechanism attached to the ceiling which was used to measure the strength and direction of the wind but soon stopped functioning . The instrument may have led to the other name of the tower , Tower of the Winds ; however , an ancient observatory at Athens was also called the Tower of the Winds and might have been the source for inspiration . 
 The interior walls and ceiling of the hall were richly decorated , in some cases with gaudy frescoes of the hills and Roman countryside , the Pantheons , religious themes , the buildings surrounding the area , and naval shipwrecks with Jesus calming the storm and so forth . 
 = There 's Got to Be a Way = 
 " There 's Got to Be a Way " is a song by American singer and songwriter Mariah Carey from her self @-@ titled debut studio album ( 1990 ) . Columbia released it as the fifth and final single from the album in the United Kingdom . It was one of four songs Carey wrote with Ric Wake during their first recording session together , but " There 's Got to Be a Way " was the only composition to make the final track listing . It is a socio @-@ political conscious R & B @-@ pop song which addresses the existence of poverty , racism and war in the world which gradually becomes more aspirational and positive as it progresses . The track garnered a mixed reception upon the album 's release in 1990 . While Carey 's vocals were praised , it was seen as too political . An accompanying music video highlights social injustices . The song reached number 54 on the UK Singles Chart . 
 = = Background and release = = 
 " There 's Got to Be a Way " was written by Mariah Carey and Ric Wake for Carey 's self @-@ titled debut studio album ( 1990 ) . It was written during Carey and Wake 's first recording session together . They composed four songs , but only " There 's Got to Be a Way " was chosen for the final track listing . Co @-@ produced by Wake and Narada Michael Walden , it appears as the second of ten songs on the track listing . The track was recorded and engineered by Bob Cadway at Cove City Sound Studios and The Power Station , both located in New York City . He was assisted by Dana Jon Chappelle . It was mixed by David Frazer at Tarpan Studios in San Rafael . The keyboards , bass and rhythm engineering was carried out by Louis Biancaniello , while Joe Franco performed the percussion , Vernon " Ice " Black played the guitar , and Rich Tancredo also performing on the keyboards . Walter Afanasieff played the synth horns . Carey provided her own background vocals along with Billy T. Scott , Jamiliah Muhammed and The Billy T. Scott Ensemble . The song was released as the fifth and final single from the album in the United Kingdom . It is available to purchase as a CD single while the remixes are available on vinyl . 
 = = Composition = = 
 " There 's Got to Be a Way " is an R & B @-@ pop music song with elements of gospel . The theme of social activism can be heard in the lyrics " There ’ s got to be a way / to connect this world today . " The song begins with Carey publicly denouncing the existence of poverty and racism in the world , and she uses the bridge to shift the lyrics towards an uplifting and aspirational tone . Carey suggests we should be more tolerant of each other and not resort so readily to war in the lyrics " Couldn 't we accept each other / Can 't we make ourselves aware . " 
 = = Critical reception = = 
 Music critic Robert Christgau felt that Carey was being too political in her " brave , young , idealistic attack " on war and destitution . Ralph Novak , David Hiltbrand and David Grogan of People wrote that it is a " testimony to her talent that she does so much with so little . " They continued to write that Carey 's " tone and clarity " makes " There 's Got to Be a Way " a " mesmerizing " track . To mark twenty @-@ five years since the release of Mariah Carey in June 1990 , Billboard writer Trevor Anderson wrote a track @-@ by @-@ track review of the album in June 2015 . He noted that " There 's Got to Be a Way " follows the same melodic tone as the album 's opener " Vision of Love " but highlighted their stark lyrical differences , as the former is about social activism and the latter is about love . Although he praised Carey 's vocals , writing that she " deploys " one of her best whistle notes of her career , he felt that " the aim for broad appeal comes at the expense of memorable lyrics . " 
 = = Music video = = 
 The accompanying music video begins with a shot of an empty street , followed by clips of disadvantaged and poorer members of society going about their daily activities . Two men play dominoes on a wooden crate outside a building , a gang make fun of an elderly man hanging newspapers outside his store and an obese woman walks down the street . Clips of Carey leaning against a wall and sitting on some steps looking on at what is happening are shown . As the first chorus begins , everyone starts to dance joyfully in the street and help those in need . A gospel choir comes out of one of the buildings as the street becomes more crowded with people of all ages and backgrounds rejoicing and getting along with each other . One of the shops in the background has a neon light outside the entrance which says " Jesus Saves " . 
 = = Track listings = = 
 " There 's Got to Be a Way " ( Original album version ) – 4 : 52 
 " There 's Got to Be a Way " ( 7 " remix ) 
 " There 's Got to Be a Way " ( 12 " remix ) 
 " There 's Got to Be a Way " ( Alternative Vocal Dub Mix ) 
 = = Charts = = 
 = Nebraska Highway 88 = 
 Nebraska Highway 88 ( N @-@ 88 ) is a highway in northwestern Nebraska . It has a western terminus at Wyoming Highway 151 ( WYO 151 ) at the Wyoming – Nebraska state line . The road travels eastward to N @-@ 71 , where it turns south . N @-@ 88 continues east to south of Bridgeport . The road turns north , ends at an intersection with U.S. Highway 385 ( US 385 ) and N @-@ 92 in Bridgeport . The route was designated in 1937 , before the official state highway system was created . It was extended to the state line in 1986 . 
 = = Route description = = 
 N @-@ 88 starts at the Nebraska – Wyoming state line in Banner County , where WYO 151 ends , and travels northeast . The road quickly bends east after less than one mile ( 1 @.@ 6 km ) , and continues in a straight line . For the next twenty miles ( 32 km ) , N @-@ 88 intersects minor streets , through rural farmland . The route turns south at N @-@ 71 , and becomes concurrent . Four miles ( 6 @.@ 4 km ) later , N @-@ 88 turns east , ending the concurrency with N @-@ 71 . The route continues to travel through farmland for sixteen miles ( 26 km ) , where it enters Morrill County . The road crosses over Pumpkin Creek four times , and enters the unincorporated community of Redington . Two rock formations , Courthouse and Jail Rocks , become visible from the road . N @-@ 88 turns north toward Bridgeport soon after . The road crosses over Pumpkin Creek for the fifth time , and enters into Bridgeport five miles ( 8 @.@ 0 km ) later . The road intersects a railroad owned by BNSF Railway . N @-@ 88 turns northeast soon after , and ends at the intersection of US 385 and N @-@ 92 . In 2012 , Nebraska Department of Roads ( NDOR ) calculated as many as 2 @,@ 410 vehicles traveling on the N @-@ 71 / N @-@ 88 concurrency , and as few as 315 vehicles traveling east of the Banner – Morrill county line . This is expressed in terms of annual average daily traffic ( AADT ) , a measure of traffic volume for any average day of the year . Only the N @-@ 71 / N @-@ 88 concurrency is part of the National Highway System ( NHS ) , a network of highways identified as being most important for the economy , mobility and defense of the nation . 
 = = History = = 
 N @-@ 88 was unofficially designated around 1937 , connecting from N @-@ 29 , to N @-@ 86 and N @-@ 19 in Bridgeport . The route remained relatively the same as the state highway system was officially designated . Before 1955 , Nebraska did not have an adequate legal instrument to define the state highway system . By 1960 , N @-@ 19 was renumbered to US 385 , and US 26 was rerouted north near Bridgeport . The old alignment became part of N @-@ 92 . Two years later , N @-@ 29 was renumbered to N @-@ 71 . Between 1981 @-@ 82 , a road appeared on the official state map , extending from WYO 151 to N @-@ 71 . That road became part of N @-@ 88 by 1986 . No significant changes have been made since . 
 = = Major intersections = = 
 = USS Atlanta ( 1861 ) = 
 Atlanta was a casemate ironclad that served in the Confederate and Union Navies during the American Civil War . She was converted from a Scottish @-@ built blockade runner named Fingal by the Confederacy after she made one run to Savannah , Georgia . After several failed attempts to attack Union blockaders , the ship was captured by two Union monitors in 1863 when she ran aground . Atlanta was floated off , repaired , and rearmed , serving in the Union Navy for the rest of the war . She spent most of her time deployed on the James River supporting Union forces there . The ship was decommissioned in 1865 and placed in reserve . Several years after the end of the war , Atlanta was sold to Haiti , but was lost at sea in December 1869 on her delivery voyage . 
 = = Description and career as Fingal = = 
 Fingal was designed and built as a merchantman by J & G Thomson 's Clyde Bank Iron Shipyard at Govan in Glasgow , Scotland , and was completed early in 1861 . She was described by Midshipman Dabney Scales , who served on the Atlanta before her battle with the monitors , as being a two @-@ masted , iron @-@ hulled ship 189 feet ( 57 @.@ 6 m ) long with a beam of 25 feet ( 7 @.@ 6 m ) . She had a draft of 12 feet ( 3 @.@ 7 m ) and a depth of hold of 15 feet ( 4 @.@ 6 m ) . He estimated her tonnage at around 700 tons bm . Fingal was equipped with two vertical single @-@ cylinder direct @-@ acting steam engines using steam generated by one flue @-@ tubular boiler . The engines drove the ship at a top speed of around 13 knots ( 24 km / h ; 15 mph ) . They had a bore of 39 inches ( 991 mm ) and a stroke of 30 inches ( 762 mm ) . 
 The ship briefly operated between Glasgow and other ports in Scotland for Hutcheson 's West Highland Service before she was purchased in September 1861 by James D. Bulloch , the primary foreign agent in Great Britain for the Confederacy , to deliver the military and naval ordnance and supplies that he had purchased . To disguise his control of Fingal , and the destination of her cargo , Bulloch hired an English crew and captain and put out his destination as Bermuda and Nassau in the Bahamas . The cargo was loaded in Greenock in early October , although Bullock and the other passengers would not attempt to board until they rendezvoused with the ship at Holyhead , Wales . On the night 14 / 15 October , as she was slowly rounding the breakwater at Holyhead , Fingal rammed and sank the Austrian brig Siccardi , slowly swinging at anchor without lights . Bulloch and the passengers embarked in the steamer while Bulloch dispatched a letter to his financial agents instructing them to settle damages with the brig 's owners because he could not afford to take the time to deal with the affair lest he and Fingal be detained . The ship reached Bermuda on 2 November and , after leaving port on 7 November , Bulloch informed the crew that the steamer 's real destination was Savannah , Georgia ; he offered to take anyone who objected to the plan to Nassau . However , all of the crew agreed to join in the effort to run the Union blockade . Fingal was able slip safely into the Savannah estuary in a heavy fog on the night of 12 November without sighting any blockaders . 
 While Fingal was discharging her cargo , Bulloch went to Richmond to confer with Stephen Mallory , Secretary of the Navy . Mallory endorsed Bulloch 's plan to load Fingal with cotton to sell on the Navy Department 's account to be used to purchase more ships and equipment in Europe . He returned to Savannah on 23 November and it took him almost a month to purchase a cargo and acquire enough coal . He made one attempt to break through the blockade on 23 December , but it proved impossible to do as the Union controlled every channel from Savannah , aided by their occupation of Tybee Island at the mouth of the Savannah River . Bulloch reported to Mallory in late January 1862 that breaking out was hopeless so Mallory ordered him to turn the ship over to another officer and to return to Europe some other way . 
 = = As Atlanta = = 
 The brothers Asa and Nelson Tift received the contract to convert the blockade runner into an ironclad in early 1862 with the name of Atlanta , after the city in Georgia . This was largely financed by contributions from the women of Savannah . Fingal was cut down to her main deck and large wooden sponsons were built out from the sides of her hull to support her casemate . After the conversion , Atlanta was 204 feet ( 62 @.@ 2 m ) long overall and had a beam of 41 feet ( 12 m ) . Her depth of hold was now 17 feet ( 5 @.@ 2 m ) and she now had a draft of 15 feet 9 inches ( 4 @.@ 8 m ) . Atlanta now displaced 1 @,@ 006 long tons ( 1 @,@ 022 t ) and her speed was estimated at 7 – 10 knots ( 13 – 19 km / h ; 8 @.@ 1 – 11 @.@ 5 mph ) . 
 The armor of the casemate was angled at 30 ° from the horizontal and made from two layers of railroad rails , rolled into plates 2 inches ( 51 mm ) thick and 7 inches ( 180 mm ) wide . The outer layer ran vertically and the inner layer horizontally . Her armor was backed by 3 inches ( 76 mm ) of oak , vertically oriented , and two layers of 7 @.@ 5 inches ( 191 mm ) of pine , alternating in direction . The bottom of the casemate was some 20 inches ( 508 mm ) from the waterline and its top was 8 feet 6 inches ( 2 @.@ 59 m ) above the waterline . The pyramidal pilothouse was armored in the same way and had room for two men . The upper portion of Atlanta 's hull received two inches of armor . 
 The rectangular casemate was pierced with eight narrow gun ports , one each at the bow and stern and three along each side . Each gun port was protected by an armored shutter made of two layers of iron riveted together and allowed the guns to elevate only to a maximum of + 5 to + 7 ° . Atlanta was armed with single @-@ banded , 7 @-@ inch ( 178 mm ) Brooke rifles on pivot mounts at the bow and stern . The middle gun port on each side was occupied by a single @-@ banded , 6 @.@ 4 @-@ inch ( 163 mm ) Brooke rifle . The 17 @-@ caliber , seven @-@ inch guns weighed about 15 @,@ 000 pounds ( 6 @,@ 800 kg ) and fired 80 @-@ pound ( 36 kg ) armor @-@ piercing " bolts " and 110 @-@ pound ( 50 kg ) explosive shells . The equivalent statistics for the 18 @.@ 5 @-@ caliber , 6 @.@ 4 @-@ inch gun were 9 @,@ 110 pounds ( 4 @,@ 130 kg ) with 80 @-@ pound bolts and 64 @-@ pound ( 29 kg ) shells . Atlanta was also armed with a 20 @-@ foot ( 6 @.@ 1 m ) , solid iron , ram that was reinforced by a series of vertical steel bars . In front of the ram was a spar torpedo that carried 50 pounds ( 23 kg ) of black powder on a wooden pole connected to an iron lever that could be raised or lowered by means of pulleys . 
 On 31 July 1862 , under the command of Lieutenant Charles H. McBlair , Atlanta conducted her sea trials down the Savannah River toward Fort Pulaski . The ship proved to be difficult to steer , and the additional weight of her armor and guns significantly reduced her speed and increased her draft . This latter was a real problem in the shallow waters near Savannah . She also leaked significantly , and her design virtually eliminated air circulation . One report said that " it was almost intolerable on board the Atlanta , there being no method of ventilation , and the heat was intense . " Scales commented in his diary , " What a comfortless , infernal and God @-@ forsaken ship ! ! " 
 Attempts were made to fix the problems and were at least partially successful in stopping many of the leaks . The ship was commissioned on 22 November and became the flagship of Flag Officer Josiah Tattnall , commander of the naval defenses of Georgia . Under pressure from Mallory to engage the blockading ships , Tattnall attempted to engage them before any ironclads arrived on 5 January 1863 , but army engineers could not clear the obstacles blocking the channel in a timely manner , despite early coordination being made by Tattnall to do so . It took another month to actually clear the obstacles and two monitors arrived before the end of January . Nonetheless Tattnall attempted to pass through the obstructions during high tide on 3 February , but high winds prevented the water from rising enough to allow the ship to do so . After Atlanta successfully passed through them on 19 March , Tattnall planned to attack the Union base at Port Royal , South Carolina while the monitors were attacking Charleston . Deserters revealed Tatnall 's plan while he was waiting at the head of Wassaw Sound and he was forced to retreat when three monitors augmented the defenses at Port Royal . Dissatisfied with Tattnall 's perceived lack of aggressiveness , Mallory replaced Tattnall as commander of the Savannah squadron later that month with Commander Richard L. Page . Page , in his turn was relieved in May by Commander William A. Webb ; Atlanta remained the squadron flagship throughout this time . 
 Webb demonstrated his aggressiveness when he attempted to sortie on the first spring tide ( 30 May ) after taking command , but Atlanta 's forward engine broke down after he had passed the obstructions , and the ship ran aground . She was not damaged although it took over a day to pull her free . He planned to make another attempt on the next full tide , rejecting Mallory 's idea that he wait until the nearly complete ironclad Savannah was finished before his next sortie . In the meantime , Rear Admiral Samuel F. Du Pont , commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron , had ordered the monitors Weehawken and Nahant into Wassaw Sound . Commander John Rodgers in Weehawken had overall command of the two ships . 
 In the early evening of 15 June , Webb began his next attempt by passing over the lower obstructions in the Wilmington River and spent the rest of the night coaling . He moved forward the next evening to a concealed position within easy reach of the monitors for an attack early the following morning . Webb planned to sink one of the monitors with his spar torpedo and then deal with the other one with his guns . The gunboat Isondiga and the tugboat Resolute were to accompany him to tow one or both of the monitors back to Savannah . 
 A lookout aboard Weehawken spotted Atlanta at 04 : 10 on the morning of 17 June . When the latter ship closed to within about 1 @.@ 5 miles ( 2 @.@ 4 km ) of the two Union ships , she fired one round from her bow gun that passed over Weehawken and landed near Nahant . Shortly afterward , Atlanta ran aground on a sandbar ; she was briefly able to free herself , but the pressure of the tide pushed her back onto the sandbar . This time Webb was unable to get off and the monitors closed the range . When Weehawken , the leading ship , closed to within 200 – 300 yards ( 180 – 270 m ) she opened fire with both of her guns . The 11 @-@ inch ( 279 mm ) shell missed , but the 15 @-@ inch ( 381 mm ) shell struck the ironclad above the port middle gun port , penetrated her armor and broke the wooden backing behind it , spraying splinters and fragments that disabled the entire gun crew and half the crew of the bow gun , even though it failed to cleanly penetrate through the backing . The next shot from the 11 @-@ inch Dahlgren gun struck the upper hull and started a small leak even though it failed to penetrate the two @-@ inch armor there . The next shell from the 15 @-@ inch Dahlgren glanced off the middle starboard gun shutter as it was being opened , wounding half the gun 's crew with fragments . The final shell was also from the 15 @-@ inch Dahlgren and it struck the top of the pilothouse , breaking the armor there and wounding both pilots in it . By this time , Atlanta had been able to fire only seven shots , none of which hit either Union ship , and was hard aground with high tide not due for another hour and a half . Weehawken and Nahant were able to freely maneuver into positions from which the Atlanta 's narrow gun ports would not allow her to reply and the damage already inflicted by the former ship made further resistance futile . Webb surrendered his ship within 15 minutes of opening fire , before Nahant even had a chance to fire . Of the ironclad 's 21 officers and 124 enlisted men , one man was killed and another sixteen were wounded badly enough to require hospitalization . 
 = = In the Union Navy = = 
 Atlanta was easily pulled free by the Union ships and she reached Port Royal under her own power . Not badly damaged , she was repaired and bought by the Union Navy . The prize money of $ 350 @,@ 000 was shared between the crews of Weehawken , Nahant and the gunboat Cimarron , the only ships within signaling distance . The ship retained her name and was commissioned again on 2 February 1864 , rearmed with a pair of 8 @-@ inch ( 203 mm ) , 150 @-@ pound Parrott rifles in the bow and stern and 6 @.@ 4 @-@ inch , 100 @-@ pound Parrott rifles amidships . The 150 @-@ pound Parrott rifle weighed 16 @,@ 500 pounds ( 7 @,@ 500 kg ) and was 17 calibers long . The 100 @-@ pounder weighed 9 @,@ 800 pounds ( 4 @,@ 400 kg ) and was 20 calibers long . It fired a 100 @-@ pound ( 45 kg ) shell a distance of 6 @,@ 900 yards ( 6 @,@ 300 m ) at an elevation of + 25 ° . All four of her Brooke rifles are currently located in Willard Park in the Washington Navy Yard . Atlanta was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and spent most of her time stationed up the James River where she could support operations against Richmond and defend against a sortie by the ironclads of the James River Squadron . On 21 May 1864 , she and the gunboat Dawn fired on and dispersed Confederate cavalry that was attacking Fort Powhatan and she was deployed further upriver in February 1865 after the Battle of Trent 's Reach to better blockade the Confederate ironclads at Richmond . 
 After the end of the war in April , Atlanta was decommissioned in Philadelphia on 21 June 1865 and placed in reserve at League Island . She was sold to Sam Ward on 4 May 1869 for the price of $ 25 @,@ 000 and subsequently delivered to representatives of Haiti on 8 December by Sydney Oaksmith , a lawyer who had received an advance of $ 50 @,@ 000 on her purchase price of $ 260 @,@ 000 . The ship was briefly seized by the Customs Service , possibly for violations of neutrality laws as she had just loaded four large guns and a number of recruits for the forces of Sylvain Salnave , President of Haiti , who was embroiled in a civil war . Atlanta was released and sailed for Port @-@ au @-@ Prince three days later . She broke down in Delaware Bay and had to put in at Chester , Pennsylvania for repairs . The ship , now renamed either Triumph or Triumfo , departed on 18 December 1869 and vanished en route , apparently sinking with the loss of all hands , either off Cape Hatteras or the Delaware Capes . 
 = Jacqueline Fernandez = 
 Jacqueline Fernandez ( born 11 August 1985 ) is a Sri Lankan actress , former model , and the winner of the 2006 Miss Universe Sri Lanka pageant . As Miss Universe Sri Lanka she represented her country at the 2006 world Miss Universe pageant . She graduated with a degree in mass communication from the University of Sydney , and worked as a television reporter in Sri Lanka . 
 While on a modelling assignment in India in 2009 , Fernandez successfully auditioned for Sujoy Ghosh 's fantasy drama Aladin , which marked her acting debut . Fernandez ' breakthrough role was in Mohit Suri 's psychological thriller Murder 2 ( 2011 ) , her first commercial success . This was followed by glamorous roles in the ensemble @-@ comedy Housefull 2 ( 2012 ) and its sequel Housefull 3 , and the action thriller Race 2 ( 2013 ) , all of which were box @-@ office successes . Her performance in the first of these garnered her an IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination . In 2014 , Fernandez played the leading lady in Sajid Nadiadwala 's Kick , which is one of the highest @-@ grossing Bollywood films of all time . 
 One of the most popular actresses in India , she was the recipient of the IIFA Award for Star Debut of the Year – Female in 2010 . Alongside her screen acting career , Fernandez has participated in stage shows , and is active in humanitarian work . 
 = = Early life and modeling career = = 
 Fernandez was born on 11 August 1985 , in Manama , Bahrain , and was raised in a multi @-@ ethnic family . Her father , Elroy , is Sri Lankan , and her mother , Kim , is of Malaysian descent . Her grandfather , on her mother 's side of the family , is Canadian and her great grandparents were from Goa , India . Her father , who was a musician in Sri Lanka , moved to Bahrain in the 1980s to escape civil unrest between the Tamils and Sinhalese and subsequently met her mother who was an air hostess . She is the youngest of four children with one elder sister and two elder brothers . She hosted television shows in Bahrain at the age of fourteen . After receiving her early education in Bahrain , she pursued a degree in mass communication from the University of Sydney in Australia . After graduating she worked as a television reporter in Sri Lanka . She also attended the Berlitz school of languages , where she learnt Spanish and improved her French and Arabic . 
 According to Fernandez , she had aspired to become an actress at a young age and fantasized about becoming a Hollywood movie star . She received some training at the John School of Acting . Although , she was a television reporter , she accepted offers in the modeling industry , which came as a result of her pageant success . In 2006 , she was crowned the winner of the Miss Universe Sri Lanka pageant and represented Sri Lanka at the world Miss Universe 2006 pageant held in Los Angeles . In a 2015 interview , Fernandez described the modeling industry as " a good training ground " and said : " It is a medium that is about shedding your inhibitions , knowing your body , confidence " . In 2006 , she appeared in a music video for the song " O Sathi " by music duo Bathiya and Santhush . 
 = = Acting career = = 
 = = = 2009 – 2013 = = = 
 In 2009 , Fernandez traveled to India for a modeling assignment . She studied acting under the mentorship of theatre director Barry John , and successfully auditioned for Sujoy Ghosh 's fantasy film Aladin ( 2009 ) her acting debut . She played the love interest of Riteish Deshmukh 's character , a role based on the Princess Jasmine character . Fernandez garnered mixed reviews for her performance . Anupama Chopra of NDTV called her a " plastic debutant [ e ] " , and Rajeev Masand of CNN @-@ IBN felt that she was : " easy on the eyes and appears confident but has precious little to do " . Although the film was a critical and commercial failure , she won the IIFA Award for Star Debut of the Year - Female . 
 In 2010 , Fernandez appeared opposite Deshmukh in the science fiction romantic comedy Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai . She was cast as a girl from Venus , who lands on Earth in search of love . The film , along with Fernandez 's performance , received poor reviews ; Rediff.com 's Sukanya Verma noted : " She gamely makes a fool of herself whilst aping the actions of movie stars , ranging from Sridevi 's Naagin dance , Mithun Chakravarthy 's Disco Dancer moves , to Big B 's violent headshake in Hum . Her Tara could be a keeper if only Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai wasn 't so intent on turning her into a love @-@ struck Barbie . " Critic Anupama Chopra also criticized Fernandez , calling her " a pin @-@ prick on a balloon " . Later that year , she made a cameo appearance in Sajid Khan 's Housefull in the song " Dhanno " . 
 Mahesh Bhatt 's thriller Murder 2 was Fernandez 's first commercial success and marker a turning point in her career . She took on the role of Priya , a lonely model who is in a confused relationship with Arjun Bhagwat ( played by Emraan Hashmi ) . Fernandez was praised for the her performance , and for the boldness and sex appeal she displayed in the film . Gaurav Malini of The Times of India stated that she was " tastefully tempting " but noted that her romance with Hashmi was " literally half @-@ baked " . The following year , Fernandez appeared in the ensemble comedy Housefull 2 alongside Akshay Kumar , John Abraham , and Asin . It became one of the top grossing productions of India that year and earned ₹ 1 @.@ 86 billion ( US $ 28 million ) worldwide . Fernandez received mostly negative reviews for her performance . While Gaurav Malini praised her for her looks , NDTV called her a " blathering bimbo " who " find [ s ] no pleasure in [ her role ] " . Despite the negative reviews , Fernandez received a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the 14th IIFA Awards for her performance . 
 Fernandez 's first release of 2013 was Race 2 , an ensemble action thriller ( alongside Saif Ali Khan , John Abraham , Deepika Padukone , Ameesha Patel , and Anil Kapoor ) ) , described as the " cinematic equivalent of a trashy novel " by critic Rajeev Masand . She played Omisha , a femme fatale , a role which required her learn fencing and some acrobatics . The film emerged as a commercial success , with the domestic gross of more than ₹ 1 billion ( US $ 15 million ) . In a particularly scathing review , Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV wrote that both Fernandez and Padukone " strut around like wound @-@ up automatons that are all decked @-@ up but have nowhere to go . " Fernandez also appeared in an item number ( music video ) titled " Jaadu Ki Jhappi " for Prabhu Deva 's Ramaiya Vasta Vaiya . 
 = = = 2014 – present = = = 
 In 2014 , Fernandez appeared in Sajid Nadiadwala 's directorial debut — the action film Kick , a remake of a 2009 Telugu film of same name . She starred opposite Salman Khan , playing Shaina , a psychiatry student . She retained her real voice for the first time in Kick . While Sneha May Francis commented that she is : " incredibly dazzling , and moves like a magic " , Raja Sen of Rediff.com was more critical of her dialogue delivery , calling it " unfortunate . " The film received mixed reviews from critics , but with worldwide revenue of over ₹ 3 @.@ 75 billion ( US $ 56 million ) , it became the fourth highest @-@ grossing Bollywood film . The film established Fernandez as one of the most popular Bollywood actresses . 
 In 2015 , Fernandez featured in Vicky Singh 's Roy , a romantic thriller , which critic Sarita A. Tanwar described as a " boring , exhausting and pretentious " film . Fernandez played dual roles , Ayesha Aamir , a filmmaker in a relationship with another filmmaker ( played by Arjun Rampal ) and Tia Desai , a girl in love with a thief ( played by Ranbir Kapoor ) . While India TV called it " her best act till date " , critic Rajeev Masand felt that she " appears miscast in a part that required greater range . " Roy failed to meet its box @-@ office expectations , and was a commercial failure . Later that year , she appeared in a guest appearance for the comedy @-@ satire Bangistan . 
 Karan Malhotra 's action drama Brothers was Fernandez 's next release . Co @-@ starring alongside Akshay Kumar and Sidharth Malhotra , Fernandez played Jenny , a fearless mother struggling for her child , a role which she described as " challenging " , " intense " , and " difficult " . The role marked a departure from the glamorous characters that she had a reputation for portraying . Film critics praised her performance , though their response to the film was mixed . Dhriti Sharma of Zee News called her character " soft , timid and promising " , and praised her for : " convincingly pull [ ing ] off a pleasing character of a street fighter 's wife " . Film critic Subhash K. Jha noted that she : " ... in a limited role gives her finest emotive shot " , while critic Raja Sen remarked : " [ she ] plays Kumar 's long @-@ sobbing wife who gets so deliriously happy on seeing a text message that it may well have contained news about a Kick sequel . " 
 As of September 2015 , Fernandez has several projects in various stages of production . She has completed shooting for Chandran Rutnam 's English @-@ Sri Lankan crime @-@ thriller According to Mathew , and the horror thriller Definition of Fear , which marks her Hollywood debut . Fernandez has also signed on to appear in three other projects — Rohit Dhawan 's Dishoom opposite Varun Dhawan and John Abraham as a part of three @-@ film deal with Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment , Remo D 'Souza 's Flying Jat opposite Tiger Shroff , and in an Indo @-@ Chinese film starring opposite Abhay Deol , Amitabh Bachchan , and Jackie Chan titled Gold Struck . 
 = = Personal life and other work = = 
 Fernandez shares a close bond with her family , and admits to missing being around them . She says : " I miss them so much everyday . You don 't realise when you live away from home how difficult life can be [ ... ] At the same time , staying away from them has taught me to be more responsible . It has taught me so many things about myself , about priorities and time management . " In March 2012 , Fernandez turned vegetarian for a 40 @-@ day period to observe Lent , a period from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday . 
 In 2008 , Fernandez started dating Bahraini prince Hassan bin Rashid Al Khalifa , whom she met at a mutual friend 's party ; they separated in 2011 . While filming Housefull 2 in 2011 , Fernandez began a romantic relationship with director Sajid Khan . The relationship attracted media coverage in India and there was speculation of an impending wedding . However , the relationship ended in May 2013 . 
 In addition to acting in films , Fernandez has supported charitable organisations and a number of causes . In 2011 , on the behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ( PETA ) , she sent a letter to the Mumbai Municipal Commissioner asking for an end to horse @-@ drawn carriage rides in Mumbai . In early 2013 , she asked the consulate general of the Philippines , William John T Perera in Colombo , to hasten the transfer of an elephant from its inadequate housing at the Manila Zoo to a humane sanctuary . Later that year , she auctioned a breakfast in Mayfair , London , where she raised around £ 4000 for the Pratham NGO , which helps children 's primary education . In 2014 , Fernandez was named " Woman Of The Year " by PETA ( India ) for advocating the protection of animals . The following year , she auctioned her outfits on an online portal for a philanthropic cause . Some of her outfits included the ones she wore in the song " Party On My Mind " ( from Race 2 ) and " Hangover " ( from Kick ) . In March 2016 , she was part of " Jacqueline Builds " campaign that raised funds for the victims of the 2015 South Indian floods . 
 Fernandez has participated in several concert tours and televised award ceremonies . In 2013 , she performed at the Temptations Reloaded in Auckland , Perth , and Sydney alongside Shah Rukh Khan , Rani Mukerji , and Madhuri Dixit . She also performed at the live talent show " Got Talent World Stage Live " with Khan , Priyanka Chopra and Varun Dhawan the following year . In July 2014 , Fernandez opened a restaurant in Colombo , Kaema Sutra , in collaboration with chef Dharshan Munidasa , which specialises in contemporary Sri Lankan cuisine . 
 = = In the media = = 
 In the early 2013 , Fernandez became the ambassador for HTC One , which she endorses in India . She was the face of Indian Bridal Fashion Week — IBFW of 2013 . Later that year , she became the spokesperson for Gareth Pugh 's designed Forevermark Diamonds in Mumbai , and was at the inaugural opening of the Forever 21 store in Mumbai . That year , she also launched Gillette Shaving System with Arbaaz Khan and Aditya Roy Kapur . While analysing Fernandez 's career , India TV noted : " Slowly and steadily Jacqueline Fernandez is climbing up the ladder of success [ ... ] Jacqueline is comfortably grasping every aspect of the work , which an actress is required to do and is accordingly giving results . " On the contrary , Charu Thakur of India Today criticized her acting skills , but remarked that : " [ she has ] managed to find her feet in Bollywood now by banking on glamorous roles " . 
 In 2008 and 2011 , Fernandez featured in the UK magazine Eastern Eye 's " World 's Sexiest Asian Women " list , ranking twelfth . She was ranked third on The Times of India 's listing of the " Most Desirable Woman " in 2013 and 2014 , after being ranked eighth , seventh and fourteenth , respectively , in the preceding three years . In 2013 , Rediff.com placed her on their list of " Bollywood 's Best Dressed Actresses " . The following year , she held the sixty second position in the Indian edition of the Forbes ' Celebrity 100 , a list based on the income and popularity of India 's celebrities . She has been the cover model for many Indian editions of magazines , including : Vogue , FHM , Maxim , Cosmopolitan , Grazia , Elle , Verve , Harper 's Bazaar , Women 's Health , and L 'Officiel among others . 
 = = Filmography = = 
 = = TV Appearances = = 
 = = Awards = = 
 = John Cullen = 
 Barry John Cullen ( born August 2 , 1964 ) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who played in the National Hockey League ( NHL ) for the Pittsburgh Penguins , Hartford Whalers , Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning . He was a standout player for Boston University and is the school 's all @-@ time leading scorer . After the Buffalo Sabres selected him in the 1986 NHL Supplemental Draft but chose not to offer him a contract , Cullen signed with the Flint Spirits of the International Hockey League ( IHL ) for the 1987 – 88 season where he was named the IHL 's co @-@ Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player after leading the league in scoring . 
 His career was halted in 1997 when he was diagnosed with Non @-@ Hodgkin lymphoma . He attempted a brief comeback in 1998 after an 18 @-@ month battle with the disease , for which the NHL awarded him the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy , before retiring to serve as an assistant coach for a year with the Lightning . Cullen played in two NHL All @-@ Star Games in his career . He joined his brother in the car dealership business after leaving the game , and briefly operated his own dealership until forced to close during the automotive industry crisis of 2008 – 10 . 
 = = Early life = = 
 Cullen was born in Puslinch @-@ Ontario on August 2 , 1964 . He is one of six children of Barry and Loretta Cullen . His father and uncles Brian and Ray all played in the NHL , and while Cullen and his three brothers all played as well , their father never pressured them , preferring that they enjoy the game . 
 He idolized his elder brother Terry , who was considered a top NHL prospect until Terry 's career was ended when he suffered a broken neck after being hit from behind into the boards during a college game . While his brother was highly sought by American universities , John received only two scholarship offers , choosing to play for Boston University ( BU ) in 1983 . 
 At the same time , his mother Loretta was diagnosed with skin cancer . Following her death early in his freshman year , Cullen contemplated returning to his Ontario home , but was convinced by his father to continue with both school and hockey . He used the game to cope with the loss and dedicated every game he played to his mother 's memory . Cullen felt that the inspiration he drew from his mother 's battle allowed him to become a better player . 
 = = Playing career = = 
 Cullen was a standout with BU ; he was named the East Coast Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year in 1983 – 84 after leading his team in scoring with 56 points . The National Hockey League passed him over , however , as he went unclaimed in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft . He was named to the Hockey East All @-@ Star Teams in 1985 , 1986 and 1987 , and a National Collegiate Athletic Association East Second Team All @-@ American in 1986 . He graduated as BU 's all @-@ time scoring leader with 241 points , and was named to BU 's Hockey East 25th anniversary team in 2009 . 
 Passed over in the Entry Draft , Cullen was finally selected by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1986 NHL Supplemental Draft . When the Sabres failed to offer him a contract , Cullen signed with the Flint Spirits of the International Hockey League ( IHL ) for the 1987 – 88 season . He led the league with 157 points , scoring 48 goals , and won the James Gatschene Memorial Trophy as league most valuable player while sharing the Gary F. Longman Memorial Trophy with Ed Belfour as rookie of the year . Cullen 's outstanding season in Flint caught the attention of the Sabres and the Pittsburgh Penguins . He signed a contract with the Penguins for the league minimum , passing up a superior contract offer from Buffalo as he remained upset at how they released him the year before . 
 = = = National Hockey League = = = 
 Cullen made his NHL debut in 1988 – 89 , appearing in 79 games with the Penguins and scoring 49 points . He was given a greater role with the Penguins the following year after Mario Lemieux missed 21 games due to a back injury and responded by scoring 32 goals and 92 points to finish third in team scoring . Additionally , he played for Team Canada at the 1990 World Championship , scoring four points in ten games . Cullen had his best season in 1990 – 91 . As one of the team 's top offensive centres , he scored 94 points in the Penguins ' first 65 games and played in his first NHL All @-@ Star Game . However , when Lemieux returned after missing an additional 50 @-@ games due to injury , Cullen 's playing time and production declined . 
 The Penguins ' needs led them to complete a blockbuster trade on March 1 , 1991 . Cullen was sent to the Hartford Whalers , along with Zarley Zalapski and Jeff Parker in exchange for Hartford 's all @-@ time leading scorer , Ron Francis , along with Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings . The Penguins almost turned down the deal as they were concerned about giving up Cullen 's playmaking and leadership abilities , while his former teammates credited Cullen as being the primary reason they were in a playoff position at the time the trade happened . After the Penguins won their first Stanley Cup that season , Phil Bourque later said it " broke his heart " that Cullen was not able to share in that championship . 
 In Hartford , Cullen worked to overcome the team 's fans ' disappointment at losing Francis . The Hartford fans initially booed him to show their dissatisfaction with the trade . He scored 16 points in 13 regular season games to finish the season with 110 points combined between the Penguins and Whalers , and was the team 's best player in their first round loss to the Boston Bruins in the 1991 Stanley Cup Playoffs . He initially accepted an invitation to join the Canadian team at the 1991 Canada Cup , but subsequently chose not to participate as his contract had expired , leading to greater insurance concerns . Still without a contract when the 1991 – 92 season began , Cullen missed the first four games before signing a four @-@ year deal with Hartford worth a total of $ 4 million . He returned to score 77 points in 77 games in his first full season with the Whalers and represented the team at the 1992 All @-@ Star Game . 
 Midway through the 1992 – 93 NHL season , the Whalers sent Cullen to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Toronto 's second round selection at the 1993 NHL Entry Draft . Cullen was excited to play for his father 's old team , but injuries reduced his ability to perform . His most significant injury was a herniated disc in his neck that doctors initially feared would end his career . A bulky neck brace allowed Cullen to return and play out his contract in Toronto . When the Leafs chose not to re @-@ sign him following the 1993 – 94 season , he returned to the Penguins for one season before Tony Esposito convinced him to sign with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1995 . 
 Cullen enjoyed immediate success with linemates Shawn Burr and Alexander Selivanov as the trio combined to score 130 points and helped lead the Lightning to the first playoff appearance in franchise history . They were eliminated by the Philadelphia Flyers in five games while Cullen led the team in playoff scoring with three goals and three assists . The Lightning looked to improve in 1996 – 97 ; Cullen was leading the team in scoring , but was suffering flu @-@ like symptoms that he could not shake . As Tampa was fighting for a playoff spot , he played through his condition for weeks . 
 = = = Cancer and comeback = = = 
 After two months of quietly dealing with his symptoms , Cullen 's wife finally called team trainers and asked them to check into his illness . The team took an x @-@ ray and found a large black shadow in his chest . He underwent a CAT scan which revealed Cullen had a baseball @-@ sized tumor ; he was diagnosed as having Non @-@ Hodgkin lymphoma . The diagnosis ended his season , and he immediately began chemotherapy treatments that quickly reduced his cancer . The tumor was gone by September 1997 , but a precautionary test prior to training camp revealed that Cullen still had cancer cells in his body . He missed the entire 1997 – 98 NHL season as he continued to battle the disease , while his teammates wore a uniform patch with his # 12 in support throughout the year . 
 On one day during his treatments , as his wife was wheeling him down a hospital corridor , Cullen went into cardiac arrest , requiring doctors to use a defibrillator to revive him . He underwent a bone marrow transplant that briefly reduced his immune system to the point that he could have very little human contact . Another examination in April 1998 revealed that the cancer was finally gone , and Cullen immediately began training for a comeback . 
 The Lightning signed Cullen to a one @-@ year , $ 500 @,@ 000 contract for the 1998 – 99 season . He played his first game in nearly 18 months on September 18 , 1998 , in an exhibition game between the Lightning and Sabres at Innsbruck , Austria . Cullen scored the game @-@ winning goal in a 3 – 1 victory , after which he said he sat on the bench in disbelief over how he was given a second chance . He was named to the roster and was greeted with a loud standing ovation by the fans in Tampa Bay when he was introduced prior to their season opening game . 
 Cullen appeared in four of the Lightning 's first eight games , but it was evident that he had lost much of his speed and strength . The Lightning assigned him to the IHL 's Cleveland Lumberjacks , but also gave him the option of retiring and taking up a position as an assistant coach . He chose to accept the demotion , giving himself one month to determine if he could continue playing . He appeared in six games for Cleveland , and in one game against the Chicago Wolves tied an IHL record when he scored seven points in a 7 – 3 victory . 
 However , a bout of bronchitis led Cullen to fear that his cancer had returned . Tests came back negative , but after spending time with his family , he realized that neither he nor his family were interested in returning to Cleveland . Cullen announced his retirement on November 28 , 1998 , and accepted the Lightning offer to become an assistant coach . In recognition of his comeback attempt , the NHL named him the 1999 winner of the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for dedication and perseverance , while the IHL renamed its Comeback Player of the Year award the John Cullen Award . 
 Former Lightning head coach Terry Crisp has stated publicly that Cullen was a player that stood out as something special saying “ John Cullen ... beat cancer and came back to play and helped us win . ” 
 = = Off the ice = = 
 Cullen and his wife Valerie have three daughters , Kennedy and twins Karlyn and Kortland . Unwilling to spend so much time away from his family , he left the Lightning in 1999 and settled in the Atlanta area , joining his brother 's car dealership in Jonesboro , Georgia . He had always expected to become a car dealer after his hockey career , as his father , uncles and brother all worked in the industry . After apprenticing under his brother for five years , he bought a Dodge dealership in Newnan , Georgia in 2007 . However , he owned the dealership for less than two years before Chrysler closed him down as part of its recovery plan in response to the Automotive industry crisis of 2008 – 2010 . He has since returned to his brother 's dealership , serving as its general manager . 
 Cullen 's battle with cancer inspired Timm Harmon of the Moffitt Cancer Centre to partner with the Lightning to raise awareness and money for cancer research . The NHL itself joined the cause in the winter of 1998 , creating the Hockey Fights Cancer program to raise money for research . Cullen has spent time promoting the initiative . 
 Prior to marrying his wife Valerie , John dated Carolyn Bessette the future wife of John F. Kennedy , Jr . The two met while attending University in Boston . 
 = = Career statistics = = 
 = = = Regular season and playoffs = = = 
 = = = International = = = 
 = = Awards = = 
 Cullen is the namesake of the John Cullen Award , previously given to key IHL players . 
 = SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max = 
 For the ironclad present at the Battle of Lissa of the same name , see SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max ( 1865 ) . 
 SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max ( German : " His Majesty 's ship Archduke Ferdinand Max " ) was a pre @-@ dreadnought battleship built by the Austro @-@ Hungarian Navy in 1902 . The second ship of the Erzherzog Karl class , she was launched on 3 October 1903 . She was assigned to the III Battleship Division . 
 For most of World War I , Erzherzog Ferdinand Max remained in her home port of Pola , in present @-@ day Croatia , except for four engagements . In 1914 , she formed part of the Austro @-@ Hungarian flotilla sent to protect the escape of the German ships SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau from the British @-@ held Mediterranean ; she advanced as far as Brindisi before being recalled to her home port . Her sole combat engagement occurred in late May 1915 , when she participated in the bombardment of the Italian port city of Ancona . She also took part in suppressing a major mutiny among the crew members of several armored cruisers stationed in Cattaro between 1 – 3 February 1918 . She also attempted to break through the Otranto Barrage in June of that year , but had to retreat when the dreadnought SMS Szent István was sunk . After the war , Erzherzog Ferdinand Max was awarded to the United Kingdom as a war prize in 1920 . 
 = = Design = = 
 Erzherzog Ferdinand Max displaced 10 @,@ 472 long tons ( 10 @,@ 640 t ) . She was 414 feet 2 inches ( 126 @.@ 2 m ) long , had a beam of 71 feet 5 inches ( 21 @.@ 8 m ) and a draft of 24 feet 7 inches ( 7 @.@ 5 m ) . She was manned by 700 men . She and her sisters were the last and largest pre @-@ dreadnought class built by the Austro @-@ Hungarian Navy , surpassing the Habsburg class by approximately 2 @,@ 000 tonnes ( 1 @,@ 968 long tons ) . She was propelled by two two @-@ shaft , four cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines . On trials , they developed 18 @,@ 000 ihp ( 13 @,@ 423 kW ) , which propelled the ship at a speed of 20 @.@ 5 knots ( 38 @.@ 0 km / h ; 23 @.@ 6 mph ) . 
 Erzherzog Ferdinand Max carried a primary armament of four 24 @-@ centimeter ( 9 @.@ 4 in ) / 40 caliber guns in two twin turrets on the centerline . These guns were an Austro @-@ Hungarian replica of the British 24 cm / 40 ( 9 @.@ 4 " ) Krupp C / 94 , which was used on the Habsburgs . Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 19 @-@ centimeter ( 7 @.@ 5 in ) / 42 caliber guns , also made by Škoda , mounted in eight single casemates on either wing of the ship and two twin turrets on the centerline. shell 20 @,@ 000 metres ( 22 @,@ 000 yd ) at maximum elevation with a muzzle velocity of 800 metres per second ( 2 @,@ 600 ft / s ) . The gun weighed 12 @.@ 1 tons and could fire three rounds per minute.The ships had a tertiary armament for protection against torpedo boats in the form of the 6 @.@ 6 centimetres ( 2 @.@ 6 in ) / 45 caliber gun , also manufactured by Škoda . Anti @-@ aircraft and airship protection was covered by the four 37 @-@ millimeter ( 1 @.@ 5 in ) Vickers anti @-@ aircraft guns on the ship bought from Britain in 1910 and mounted onto Erzherzog Karl . Erzherzog Ferdinand Max was also fitted with two above water 45 @-@ centimeter ( 17 @.@ 7 in ) torpedo tubes , although rarely used . 
 = = Service history = = 
 At the outbreak of World War I , Erzherzog Ferdinand Max was in the III division of the Austrian @-@ Hungarian battle @-@ fleet . She was mobilized on the eve of the war along with the remainder of the fleet to support the flight of SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau . The two German ships were attempting to break out of Messina , which was surrounded by British troops , and make their way to Turkey . The breakout succeeded . When the flotilla had advanced as far south as Brindisi in south eastern Italy , the Austro @-@ Hungarian ships were recalled . In company with other units of the Austro Hungarian navy , Erzherzog Ferdinand Max took a minor part in the bombardment of Ancona on 24 May 1915 . There she and her sisters expended 24 rounds of 240 mm armor @-@ piercing shells at signal and semaphore stations as well as 74 rounds of 190 mm shells aimed at Italian gun @-@ batteries and other port installations . 
 A major mutiny among crews of the armored cruisers stationed in Cattaro , including Sankt Georg and Kaiser Karl VI , began on 1 February 1918 . Two days later , Erzherzog Ferdinand Max and her sisters arrived in the port and assisted with the suppression of the mutiny . Following the restoration of order in the naval base , the armored cruisers Sankt Georg and Kaiser Karl VI were decommissioned and Erzherzog Ferdinand Max and her sisters were stationed in Cattaro in their place . On the morning of 11 June , Admiral Miklos Horthy planned a major assault on the Otranto Barrage ; the three Erzherzog Karls and the four Tegetthoff @-@ class battleships were to provide support for the Novara @-@ class cruisers on an assault on the Allied defenses at the Strait of Otranto . The plan was intended to replicate the success of the raid conducted one year earlier . Horthy 's plan was to destroy the blockading fleet by luring Allied ships to the cruisers and lighter ships , which were protected from the heavier guns of the battleships , including the guns of the Erzherzog Karl class . However , on the morning of 10 June , the dreadnought Szent István was torpedoed and sunk by an Italian torpedo boat . Horthy felt that the element of surprise had been compromised , and therefore called off the operation . This was to be the last military action Erzherzog Ferdinand Max was to take part in , and she and her sisters spent the rest of their career in port . 
 Near the end of World War I , the Erzherzog Karl @-@ class battleships were handed over to the newly formed State of Slovenes , Croats and Serbs but Erzherzog Ferdinand Max was later transferred to Great Britain as a war reparation . She was later broken up for scrap in 1921 . 
 = Ancient Egyptian deities = 
 Ancient Egyptian deities are the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Egypt . The beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion , which emerged sometime in prehistory . Deities represented natural forces and phenomena , and the Egyptians supported and appeased them through offerings and rituals so that these forces would continue to function according to maat , or divine order . After the founding of the Egyptian state around 3100 BC , the authority to perform these tasks was controlled by the pharaoh , who claimed to be the gods ' representative and managed the temples where the rituals were carried out . 
 The gods ' complex characteristics were expressed in myths and in intricate relationships between deities : family ties , loose groups and hierarchies , and combinations of separate gods into one . Deities ' diverse appearances in art — as animals , humans , objects , and combinations of different forms — also alluded , through symbolism , to their essential features . 
 In different eras , various gods were said to hold the highest position in divine society , including the solar deity Ra , the mysterious god Amun , and the mother goddess Isis . The highest deity was usually credited with the creation of the world and often connected with the life @-@ giving power of the sun . Some scholars have argued , based in part on Egyptian writings , that the Egyptians came to recognize a single divine power that lay behind all things and was present in all the other deities . Yet they never abandoned their original polytheistic view of the world , except possibly during the era of Atenism in the 14th century BC , when official religion focused exclusively on the impersonal sun god Aten . 
 Gods were assumed to be present throughout the world , capable of influencing natural events and the course of human lives . People interacted with them in temples and unofficial shrines , for personal reasons as well as for larger goals of state rites . Egyptians prayed for divine help , used rituals to compel deities to act , and called upon them for advice . Humans ' relations with their gods were a fundamental part of Egyptian society . 
 = = Definition = = 
 The beings in ancient Egyptian tradition who might be labeled as deities are difficult to count . Egyptian texts list the names of many deities whose nature is unknown and make vague , indirect references to other gods who are not even named . The Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1 @,@ 400 deities are named in Egyptian texts , whereas his colleague Christian Leitz says there are " thousands upon thousands " of gods . 
 The Egyptian language 's terms for these beings were nṯr , " god " , and its feminine form nṯrt , " goddess " . Scholars have tried to discern the original nature of the gods by proposing etymologies for these words , but none of these suggestions has gained acceptance , and the terms ' origin remains obscure . The hieroglyphs that were used as ideograms and determinatives in writing these words show some of the traits that the Egyptians connected with divinity . The most common of these signs is a flag flying from a pole . Similar objects were placed at the entrances of temples , representing the presence of a deity , throughout ancient Egyptian history . Other such hieroglyphs include a falcon , reminiscent of several early gods who were depicted as falcons , and a seated male or female deity . The feminine form could also be written with an egg as determinative , connecting goddesses with creation and birth , or with a cobra , reflecting the use of the cobra to depict many female deities . 
 The Egyptians distinguished nṯrw , " gods " , from rmṯ , " people " , but the meanings of the Egyptian and the English terms do not match perfectly . The term nṯr may have applied to any being that was in some way outside the sphere of everyday life . Deceased humans were called nṯr because they were considered to be like the gods , whereas the term was rarely applied to many of Egypt 's lesser supernatural beings , which modern scholars often call " demons " . Egyptian religious art also depicts places , objects , and concepts in human form . These personified ideas range from deities that were important in myth and ritual to obscure beings , only mentioned once or twice , that may be little more than metaphors . 
 Confronting these blurred distinctions between gods and other beings , scholars have proposed various definitions of a " deity " . One widely accepted definition , suggested by Jan Assmann , says that a deity has a cult , is involved in some aspect of the universe , and is described in mythology or other forms of written tradition . According to a different definition , by Dimitri Meeks , nṯr applied to any being that was the focus of ritual . From this perspective , " gods " included the king , who was called a god after his coronation rites , and deceased souls , who entered the divine realm through funeral ceremonies . Likewise , the preeminence of the great gods was maintained by the ritual devotion that was performed for them across Egypt . 
 = = Origins = = 
 The first written evidence of deities in Egypt comes from the Early Dynastic Period ( c . 3100 – 2686 BC ) . Deities must have emerged sometime in the preceding Predynastic Period ( before 3100 BC ) and grown out of prehistoric religious beliefs . Predynastic artwork depicts a variety of animal and human figures . Some of these images , such as stars and cattle , are reminiscent of important features of Egyptian religion in later times , but in most cases there is not enough evidence to say whether the images are connected with deities . As Egyptian society grew more sophisticated , clearer signs of religious activity appeared . The earliest known temples appeared in the last centuries of the predynastic era , along with images that resemble the iconographies of known deities : the falcon that represents Horus and several other gods , the crossed arrows that stand for Neith , and the enigmatic " Set animal " that represents Set . 
 Many Egyptologists and anthropologists have suggested theories about how the gods developed in these early times . Gustave Jéquier , for instance , thought the Egyptians first revered primitive fetishes , then deities in animal form , and finally deities in human form , whereas Henri Frankfort argued that the gods must have been envisioned in human form from the beginning . Some of these theories are now regarded as too simplistic , and more current ones , such as Siegfried Morenz ' hypothesis that deities emerged as humans began to distinguish themselves from and personify their environment , are difficult to prove . 
 Predynastic Egypt originally consisted of small , independent villages . Because many deities in later times were strongly tied to particular towns and regions , many scholars have suggested that the pantheon formed as disparate communities coalesced into larger states , spreading and intermingling the worship of the old local deities . But others have argued that the most important predynastic gods were , like other elements of Egyptian culture , present all across the country despite the political divisions within it . 
 The final step in the formation of Egyptian religion was the unification of Egypt , in which rulers from Upper Egypt made themselves pharaohs of the entire country . These sacred kings and their subordinates assumed the exclusive right to interact with the gods , and kingship became the unifying focus of the religion . 
 New gods continued to emerge after this transformation . Some important deities like Isis and Amun are not known to have appeared until the Old Kingdom ( c . 2686 – 2181 BC ) . Places and concepts could suddenly inspire the creation of a deity to represent them , and deities were sometimes created to serve as opposite @-@ sex counterparts to established gods or goddesses . Kings were said to be divine , although only a few continued to be worshipped long after their deaths . Some non @-@ royal humans were said to have the favor of the gods and were venerated accordingly . This veneration was usually short @-@ lived , but the court architects Imhotep and Amenhotep son of Hapu were regarded as gods centuries after their lifetimes , as were some other officials . 
 Through contact with neighboring civilizations , the Egyptians also adopted foreign deities . Dedun , who is first mentioned in the Old Kingdom , may have come from Nubia , and Baal , Anat , and Astarte , among others , were adopted from Canaanite religion during the New Kingdom ( c . 1550 – 1070 BC ) . In Greek and Roman times , from 332 BC to the early centuries AD , deities from across the Mediterranean world were revered in Egypt , but the native gods remained , and they often absorbed the cults of these newcomers into their own worship . 
 = = Characteristics = = 
 Modern knowledge of Egyptian beliefs about the gods is mostly drawn from religious writings produced by the nation 's scribes and priests . These people were the elite of Egyptian society and were very distinct from the general populace , most of whom were illiterate . Little is known about how well this broader population knew or understood the sophisticated ideas that the elite developed . Commoners ' perceptions of the divine may have differed from those of the priests . The populace may , for example , have mistaken the religion 's symbolic statements about the gods and their actions for literal truth . But overall , what little is known about popular religious belief is consistent with the elite tradition . The two traditions form a largely cohesive vision of the gods and their nature . 
 = = = Roles = = = 
 Most Egyptian deities represent natural or social phenomena . The gods were generally said to be immanent in these phenomena — to be present within nature . The types of phenomena they represented include physical places and objects as well as abstract concepts and forces . The god Shu was the deification of all the world 's air ; the goddess Meretseger oversaw a limited region of the earth , the Theban Necropolis ; and the god Sia personified the abstract notion of perception . Major gods often had many roles and were involved in several types of phenomena . For instance , Khnum was the god of Elephantine Island in the midst of the Nile , the river that was essential to Egyptian civilization . He was credited with producing the annual Nile flood that fertilized the nation 's farmland . Perhaps as an outgrowth of this life @-@ giving function , he was said to create all living things , fashioning their bodies on a potter 's wheel . Gods could share the same role in nature ; Ra , Atum , Khepri , Horus , and other deities acted as sun gods . Despite their diverse functions , most gods had an overarching role in common : maintaining maat , the universal order that was a central principle of Egyptian religion and was itself personified as a goddess . But some deities represented disruption to maat . Most prominently , Apep was the force of chaos , constantly threatening to annihilate the order of the universe , and Set was an ambivalent member of divine society who could both fight disorder and foment it . 
 Not all aspects of existence were seen as deities . Although many deities were connected with the Nile , no god personified it in the way that Ra personified the sun . Short @-@ lived phenomena , like rainbows or eclipses , were not represented by gods ; neither were elements like fire and water or many other components of the world . 
 The roles of each deity were fluid , and each god could expand its nature to take on new characteristics . As a result , gods ' roles are difficult to categorize or define . But despite their flexibility , the gods had limited abilities and spheres of influence . Not even the creator god could reach beyond the boundaries of the cosmos that he created , and even Isis , though she was said to be the cleverest of the gods , was not omniscient . Richard H. Wilkinson , however , argues that some texts from the late New Kingdom suggest that , as beliefs about the god Amun evolved , he was thought to approach omniscience and omnipresence and to transcend the limits of the world in a way that other deities did not . 
 The deities with the most limited and specialized domains are often called " minor divinities " or " demons " in modern writing , although there is no firm definition for these terms . Among these lesser deities , Egyptologist Claude Traunecker draws a distinction between " genies " — specialized patron spirits of certain places , objects , or activities , such as the sea or marsh god Wadj @-@ Wer and the harvest goddess Renenutet — and demons , who have a more dangerous character . Many demons are hostile , causing illness and other troubles among humans . Their power can also be protective ; they may guard certain places in the Duat , the realm of the dead , or advise and watch over humans . Egyptians believed the landscape was full of these unpredictable divine powers . Demons often act as servants and messengers to the greater gods , but their position in the hierarchy is not fixed . The protective deities Bes and Taweret originally had minor , demon @-@ like roles , but over time they came to be credited with great influence . 
 = = = Behavior = = = 
 Divine behavior was believed to govern all of nature . Except for the few deities who disrupted the divine order , the gods ' actions maintained maat and created and sustained all living things . They did this work using a force the Egyptians called heka , a term usually translated as " magic " . Heka was a fundamental power that the creator god used to form the world and the gods themselves . 
 The gods ' actions in the present are described and praised in hymns and funerary texts . In contrast , mythology mainly concerns the gods ' actions during a vaguely imagined past in which the gods were present on earth and interacted directly with humans . The events of this past time set the pattern for the events of the present . Periodic occurrences were tied to events in the mythic past ; the succession of each new pharaoh , for instance , reenacted Horus ' accession to the throne of his father Osiris . Myths are metaphors for the gods ' actions , which humans cannot fully understand . They contain seemingly contradictory ideas , each expressing a particular perspective on divine events . The contradictions in myth are part of the Egyptians ' many @-@ faceted approach to religious belief — what Henri Frankfort called a " multiplicity of approaches " to understanding the gods . 
 In myth , the gods behave much like humans . They feel emotion ; they can eat , drink , fight , weep , sicken , and die . Some have unique character traits . Set is aggressive and impulsive , and Thoth , patron of writing and knowledge , is prone to long @-@ winded speeches . Yet overall , the gods are more like archetypes than well drawn characters . Their behavior is inconsistent , and their thoughts and motivations are rarely stated . Most myths about them lack highly developed characters and plots , because the symbolic meaning of the myths was more important than elaborate storytelling . 
 The first divine act is the creation of the cosmos , described in several creation myths . They focus on different gods , each of which may act as creator deities . The eight gods of the Ogdoad , who represent the chaos that precedes creation , give birth to the sun god , who establishes order in the newly formed world ; Ptah , who embodies thought and creativity , gives form to all things by envisioning and naming them ; Atum produces all things as emanations of himself ; and Amun , according to the myths promoted by his priesthood , preceded and created the other creator gods . These and other versions of the events of creation were not seen as contradictory . Each gives a different perspective on the complex process by which the organized universe and its many deities emerged from undifferentiated chaos . The period following creation , in which a series of gods rule as kings over the divine society , is the setting for most myths . The gods struggle against the forces of chaos and among each other before withdrawing from the human world and installing the historical kings of Egypt to rule in their place . 
 A recurring theme in these myths is the effort of the gods to maintain maat against the forces of disorder . They fight vicious battles with the forces of chaos at the start of creation . Ra and Apep , battling each other each night , continue this struggle into the present . Another prominent theme is the gods ' death and revival . The clearest instance where a god dies is the myth of Osiris ' murder , in which that god is resurrected as ruler of the Duat . The sun god is also said to grow old during his daily journey across the sky , sink into the Duat at night , and emerge as a young child at dawn . In the process he comes into contact with the rejuvenating water of primordial chaos . Funerary texts that depict Ra 's journey through the Duat also show the corpses of gods who are enlivened along with him . Instead of being changelessly immortal , the gods periodically died and were reborn by repeating the events of creation , thus renewing the whole world . But it was always possible for this cycle to be disrupted and for chaos to return . Some poorly understood Egyptian texts even suggest that this calamity is destined to happen — that the creator god will one day dissolve the order of the world , leaving only himself and Osiris amid the primordial chaos . 
 = = = Locations = = = 
 Gods were linked with specific regions of the universe . In Egyptian tradition , the world includes the earth , the sky , and the Duat . Surrounding them is the dark formlessness that existed before creation . The gods in general were said to dwell in the sky , although gods whose roles were linked with other parts of the universe were said to live in those places instead . Most events of mythology , set in a time before the gods ' withdrawal from the human realm , take place in an earthly setting . The deities there sometimes interact with those in the sky . The Duat , in contrast , is treated as a remote and inaccessible place , and the gods who dwell there have difficulty communicating with those in the world of the living . The space outside the cosmos is also said to be very distant . It too is inhabited by deities , some hostile and some beneficial to the other gods and their orderly world . 
 In the time after myth , most gods were said to be either in the sky or invisibly present within the world . Temples were their main means of contact with humanity . Each day , it was believed , the gods moved from the divine realm to their temples , their homes in the human world . There they inhabited the cult images , the statues that depicted deities and allowed humans to interact with them in temple rituals . This movement between realms was sometimes described as a journey between the sky and the earth . As temples were the focal points of Egyptian cities , the god in a city 's main temple was the patron god for the city and the surrounding region . Deities ' spheres of influence on earth centered on the towns and regions they presided over . Many gods had more than one cult center , and their local ties changed over time . They could establish themselves in new cities , or their range of influence could contract . Therefore , a given deity 's main cult center in historical times is not necessarily his or her place of origin . The political influence of a city could affect the importance of its patron deity . When kings from Thebes took control of the country at start of the Middle Kingdom ( c . 2055 – 1650 BC ) , they elevated Thebes ' patron gods — first the war god Montu and then Amun — to national prominence . 
 = = = Names and epithets = = = 
 In Egyptian belief , names express the fundamental nature of the things to which they refer . In keeping with this belief , the names of deities often relate to their roles or origins . The name of the predatory goddess Sekhmet means " powerful one " , the name of the mysterious god Amun means " hidden one " , and the name of the goddess Nekhbet , who was worshipped in the city of Nekheb , means " she of Nekheb " . But many other names have no certain meaning , even when the gods who bear them are closely tied to a single role . The names of the sky goddess Nut and the earth god Geb do not resemble the Egyptian terms for sky and earth . 
 The Egyptians also devised false etymologies giving more meanings to divine names . A passage in the Coffin Texts renders the name of the funerary god Sokar as sk r , meaning " cleaning of the mouth " , to link his name with his role in the Opening of the Mouth ritual , while one in the Pyramid Texts says the name is based on words shouted by Osiris , connecting Sokar with the most important funerary deity . 
 The gods were believed to have many names . Among them were secret names that conveyed their true natures more profoundly than others . To know the true name of a deity was to have power over it . The importance of names is demonstrated by a myth in which Isis poisons the superior god Ra and refuses to cure him unless he reveals his secret name to her . Upon learning the name , she tells it to her son , Horus , and by learning it they gain greater knowledge and power . 
 In addition to their names , gods were given epithets , like " possessor of splendor " , " ruler of Abydos " , or " lord of the sky " , that describe some aspect of their roles or their worship . Because of the gods ' multiple and overlapping roles , deities can have many epithets — with more important gods accumulating more titles — and the same epithet can apply to many deities . Some epithets eventually became separate deities , as with Werethekau , an epithet applied to several goddesses meaning " great enchantress " , which came to be treated as an independent goddess . The host of divine names and titles expresses the gods ' multifarious nature . 
 = = = Relationships = = = 
 Egyptian deities are connected in a complex and shifting array of relationships . A god 's connections and interactions with other deities helped define its character . Thus Isis , as the mother and protector of Horus , was a great healer as well as the patroness of kings . Such relationships were the base material from which myths were formed . 
 Family relationships are a common type of connection between gods . Deities often form male and female pairs , reflecting the importance of procreation in Egyptian religious thought . Families of three deities , with a father , mother , and child , represent the creation of new life and the succession of the father by the child , a pattern that connects divine families with royal succession . Osiris , Isis , and Horus formed the quintessential family of this type . The pattern they set grew more widespread over time , so that many deities in local cult centers , like Ptah , Sekhmet , and their child Nefertum at Memphis and Amun , Mut , and Khonsu at Thebes , were assembled into family triads . Genealogical connections like these are changeable , in keeping with the multiple perspectives in Egyptian belief . Hathor , as a fertility goddess , could act as mother to any child god , including the child form of the sun god , although in other circumstances she was the sun god 's daughter . 
 Other divine groups were composed of deities with interrelated roles , or who together represented a region of the Egyptian mythological cosmos . There were sets of gods for the hours of the day and night and for each nome ( province ) of Egypt . Some of these groups contain a specific , symbolically important number of deities . Paired gods can stand for opposite but interrelated concepts that are part of a greater unity . Ra , who is dynamic and light @-@ producing , and Osiris , who is static and shrouded in darkness , merge into a single god each night . Groups of three are linked with plurality in ancient Egyptian thought , and groups of four connote completeness . Rulers in the late New Kingdom promoted a particularly important group of three gods above all others : Amun , Ra , and Ptah . These deities stood for the plurality of all gods , as well as for their own cult centers ( the major cities of Thebes , Heliopolis , and Memphis ) and for many threefold sets of concepts in Egyptian religious thought . Sometimes Set , the patron god of the Nineteenth Dynasty kings and the embodiment of disorder within the world , was added to this group , which emphasized a single coherent vision of the pantheon . 
 Nine , the product of three and three , represents a multitude , so the Egyptians called several large groups " enneads " , or sets of nine , even if they had more than nine members . The most prominent ennead was the Ennead of Heliopolis , an extended family of deities descended from the creator god Atum , which incorporates many important gods . The term " ennead " was often extended to include all of Egypt 's deities . 
 This divine assemblage had a vague and changeable hierarchy . Gods with broad influence in the cosmos or who were mythologically older than others had higher positions in divine society . At the apex of this society was the king of the gods , who was usually identified with the creator deity . In different periods of Egyptian history , different gods were most frequently said to hold this exalted position . Horus was the most important god in the Early Dynastic Period , Ra rose to preeminence in the Old Kingdom , Amun was supreme in the New , and in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods , Isis was the divine queen and creator goddess . Newly prominent gods tended to adopt characteristics from their predecessors . Isis absorbed the traits of many other goddesses during her rise , and when Amun became the ruler of the pantheon , he was conjoined with Ra , the traditional king of the gods , to become a solar deity . 
 = = = Manifestations and combinations = = = 
 The gods were believed to manifest in many forms . The Egyptians had complex conception of the human soul , consisting of several parts . The spirits of the gods were composed of many of these same elements . The ba was the component of the human or divine soul that affected the world around it . Any visible manifestation of a god 's power could be called its ba ; thus , the sun was called the ba of Ra . A depiction of a deity was considered a ka , another component of its being , which acted as a vessel for that deity 's ba to inhabit . The cult images of gods that were the focus of temple rituals , as well as the sacred animals that represented certain deities , were believed to house divine bas in this way . Gods could be ascribed many bas and kas , which were sometimes given names representing different aspects of the god 's nature . Everything in existence was said to be one of the kas of Atum the creator god , who originally contained all things within himself , and one deity could be called the ba of another , meaning that the first god is a manifestation of the other 's power . Divine body parts could act as separate deities , like the Eye of Ra and Hand of Atum , both of which were personified as goddesses . 
 Nationally important deities gave rise to local manifestations , which sometimes absorbed the characteristics of older regional gods . Horus had many forms tied to particular places , including Horus of Nekhen , Horus of Buhen , and Horus of Edfu . Such local manifestations could be treated almost as separate beings . During the New Kingdom , one man was accused of stealing clothes by an oracle supposed to communicate messages from Amun of Pe @-@ Khenty . He consulted two other local oracles of Amun hoping for a different judgment . Gods ' manifestations also differed according to their roles . Horus could be a powerful sky god or vulnerable child , and these forms were sometimes counted as independent deities . 
 Gods were combined with each other as easily as they were divided . A god could be called the ba of another , or two or more deities could be joined into one god with a combined name and iconography . Local gods were linked with greater ones , and deities with similar functions were combined . Ra was connected with the local deity Sobek to form Sobek @-@ Ra ; with his fellow ruling god , Amun , to form Amun @-@ Ra ; with the solar form of Horus to form Ra @-@ Horakhty ; and with several solar deities as Horemakhet @-@ Khepri @-@ Ra @-@ Atum . On rare occasion , even deities of different sexes were joined in this way , producing combinations like Osiris @-@ Neith and Mut @-@ Min . This linking of deities is called syncretism . Unlike other situations for which this term is used , the Egyptian practice was not meant to fuse competing belief systems , although foreign deities could be syncretized with native ones . Instead , syncretism acknowledged the overlap between their roles , and extended the sphere of influence for each of them . Syncretic combinations were not permanent ; a god who was involved in one combination continued to appear separately and to form new combinations with other deities . But closely connected deities did sometimes merge . Horus absorbed several falcon gods from various regions , such as Khenty @-@ irty and Khenty @-@ khety , who became little more than local manifestations of him ; Hathor subsumed a similar cow goddess , Bat ; and an early funerary god , Khenti @-@ Amentiu , was supplanted by Osiris and Anubis . 
 = = = The Aten and possible monotheism = = = 
 In the reign of Akhenaten ( c . 1353 – 1336 BC ) in the mid @-@ New Kingdom , a single solar deity , the Aten , became the sole focus of the state religion . Akhenaten ceased to fund the temples of other deities and erased the gods ' names and images on monuments , targeting Amun in particular . This new religious system , sometimes called Atenism , differed dramatically from the polytheistic worship of many gods in all other periods . Whereas , in earlier times , newly important gods were integrated into existing religious beliefs , Atenism insisted on a single understanding of the divine that excluded the traditional multiplicity of perspectives . Yet Atenism may not have been full monotheism , which totally excludes belief in other deities . There is evidence suggesting that the general populace was still allowed to worship other gods in private . The picture is further complicated by Atenism 's apparent tolerance for some other deities , like Shu . For these reasons , the Egyptologist Dominic Montserrat suggested that Akhenaten may have been monolatrous , worshipping a single deity while acknowledging the existence of others . In any case , Atenism 's aberrant theology did not take root among the Egyptian populace , and Akhenaten 's successors returned to traditional beliefs . 
 = = = Unity of the divine in traditional religion = = = 
 Scholars have long debated whether traditional Egyptian religion ever asserted that the multiple gods were , on a deeper level , unified . Reasons for this debate include the practice of syncretism , which might suggest that all the separate gods could ultimately merge into one , and the tendency of Egyptian texts to credit a particular god with power that surpasses all other deities . Another point of contention is the appearance of the word " god " in wisdom literature , where the term does not refer to a specific deity or group of deities . In the early 20th century , for instance , E. A. Wallis Budge believed that Egyptian commoners were polytheistic , but knowledge of the true monotheistic nature of the religion was reserved for the elite , who wrote the wisdom literature . His contemporary James Henry Breasted thought Egyptian religion was instead pantheistic , with the power of the sun god present in all other gods , while Hermann Junker argued that Egyptian civilization had been originally monotheistic and became polytheistic in the course of its history . 
 In 1971 , Erik Hornung published a study rebutting these views . He points out that in any given period many deities , even minor ones , were described as superior to all others . He also argues that the unspecified " god " in the wisdom texts is a generic term for whichever deity the reader chooses to revere . Although the combinations , manifestations , and iconographies of each god were constantly shifting , they were always restricted to a finite number of forms , never becoming fully interchangeable in a monotheistic or pantheistic way . Henotheism , Hornung says , describes Egyptian religion better than other labels . An Egyptian could worship any deity at a particular time and credit it with supreme power in that moment , without denying the other gods or merging them all with the god that he or she focused on . Hornung concludes that the gods were fully unified only in myth , at the time before creation , after which the multitude of gods emerged from a uniform nonexistence . 
 Hornung 's arguments have greatly influenced other scholars of Egyptian religion , but some still believe that at times the gods were more unified than he allows . Jan Assmann maintains that the notion of a single deity developed slowly through the New Kingdom , beginning with a focus on Amun @-@ Ra as the all @-@ important sun god . In his view , Atenism was an extreme outgrowth of this trend . It equated the single deity with the sun and dismissed all other gods . Then , in the backlash against Atenism , priestly theologians described the universal god in a different way , one that coexisted with traditional polytheism . The one god was believed to transcend the world and all the other deities , while at the same time , the multiple gods were aspects of the one . According to Assmann , this one god was especially equated with Amun , the dominant god in the late New Kingdom , whereas for the rest of Egyptian history the universal deity could be identified with many other gods . James P. Allen says that coexisting notions of one god and many gods would fit well with the " multiplicity of approaches " in Egyptian thought , as well as with the henotheistic practice of ordinary worshippers . He says that the Egyptians may have recognized the unity of the divine by " identifying their uniform notion of ' god ' with a particular god , depending on the particular situation . " 
 = = Descriptions and depictions = = 
 Egyptian writings describe the gods ' bodies in detail . They are made of precious materials ; their flesh is gold , their bones are silver , and their hair is lapis lazuli . They give off a scent that the Egyptians likened to the incense used in rituals . Some texts give precise descriptions of particular deities , including their height and eye color . Yet these characteristics are not fixed ; in myths , gods change their appearances to suit their own purposes . Egyptian texts often refer to deities ' true , underlying forms as " mysterious " . The Egyptians ' visual representations of their gods are therefore not literal . They symbolize specific aspects of each deity 's character , functioning much like the ideograms in hieroglyphic writing . For this reason , the funerary god Anubis is commonly shown in Egyptian art as a dog or jackal , a creature whose scavenging habits threaten the preservation of buried mummies , in an effort to counter this threat and employ it for protection . His black coloring alludes to the color of mummified flesh and to the fertile black soil that Egyptians saw as a symbol of resurrection . 
 Most gods were depicted in several ways . Hathor could be a cow , cobra , lioness , or a woman with bovine horns or ears . By depicting a given god in different ways , the Egyptians expressed different aspects of its essential nature . The gods are depicted in a finite number of these symbolic forms , so that deities can often be distinguished from one another by their iconographies . These forms include men and women ( anthropomorphism ) , animals ( zoomorphism ) , and , more rarely , inanimate objects . Combinations of forms , such as gods with human bodies and animal heads , are common . New forms and increasingly complex combinations arose in the course of history . Some gods can only be distinguished from others if they are labeled in writing , as with Isis and Hathor . Because of the close connection between these goddesses , they could both wear the cow @-@ horn headdress that was originally Hathor 's alone . 
 Certain features of divine images are more useful than others in determining a god 's identity . The head of a given divine image is particularly significant . In a hybrid image , the head represents the original form of the being depicted , so that , as the Egyptologist Henry Fischer put it , " a lion @-@ headed goddess is a lion @-@ goddess in human form , while a royal sphinx , conversely , is a man who has assumed the form of a lion . " Divine headdresses , which range from the same types of crowns used by human kings to large hieroglyphs worn on gods ' heads , are another important indicator . In contrast , the objects held in gods ' hands tend to be generic . Male deities hold was staffs , goddesses hold stalks of papyrus , and both sexes carry ankh signs , representing the Egyptian word for " life " , to symbolize their life @-@ giving power . 
 The forms in which the gods are shown , although diverse , are limited in many ways . Many creatures that are widespread in Egypt were never used in divine iconography , whereas a few , such as falcons , cobras , and cattle , can each represent many deities . Animals that were absent from Egypt in the early stages of its history were not used as divine images . For instance , the horse , which was only introduced in the Second Intermediate Period ( c . 1650 – 1550 BC ) , never represented a god . Similarly , the clothes worn by anthropomorphic deities in all periods changed little from the styles used in the Old Kingdom : a kilt , false beard , and often a shirt for male gods and a long , tight @-@ fitting dress for goddesses . 
 The basic anthropomorphic form varies . Child gods are depicted nude , as are some adult gods when their procreative powers are emphasized . Certain male deities are given heavy bellies and breasts , signifying either androgyny or prosperity and abundance . Whereas most male gods have red skin and most goddesses are yellow — the same colors used to depict Egyptian men and women — some are given unusual , symbolic skin colors . Thus the blue skin and paunchy figure of the god Hapi alludes to the Nile flood he represents and the nourishing fertility it brought . A few deities , such as Osiris , Ptah , and Min , have a " mummiform " appearance , with their limbs tightly swathed in cloth . Although these gods resemble mummies , the earliest examples predate the cloth @-@ wrapped style of mummification , and this form may instead hark back to the earliest , limbless depictions of deities . 
 = = Interactions with humans = = 
 = = = Relationship with the pharaoh = = = 
 In official writings , pharaohs are said to be divine , and they are constantly depicted in the company of the deities of the pantheon . Each pharaoh and his predecessors were considered the successors of the gods who had ruled Egypt in mythic prehistory . Living kings were equated with Horus and called the " son " of many deities , particularly Osiris and Ra ; deceased kings were equated with these elder gods . Pharaohs had their own mortuary temples where rituals were performed for them during their lives and after their deaths . But few pharaohs were worshipped as gods long after their lifetimes , and non @-@ official texts portray kings in a human light . For these reasons , scholars disagree about how genuinely most Egyptians believed the king to be a god . He may only have been considered divine when he was performing ceremonies . 
 However much it was believed , the king 's divine status was the rationale for his role as Egypt 's representative to the gods , as he formed a link between the divine and human realms . The Egyptians believed the gods needed temples to dwell in , as well as the periodic performance of rituals and presentation of offerings to nourish them . These things were provided by the cults that the king oversaw , with their priests and laborers . Yet , according to royal ideology , temple @-@ building was exclusively the pharaoh 's work , as were the rituals that priests usually performed in his stead . These acts were a part of the king 's fundamental role : maintaining maat . The king and the nation he represented provided the gods with maat so they could continue to perform their functions , which maintained maat in the cosmos so humans could continue to live . 
 = = = Presence in the human world = = = 
 Although the Egyptians believed their gods to be present in the world around them , contact between the human and divine realms was mostly limited to specific circumstances . In literature , gods may appear to humans in a physical form , but in real life the Egyptians were limited to more indirect means of communication . 
 The ba of a god was said to periodically leave the divine realm to dwell in the images of that god . By inhabiting these images , the gods left their concealed state and took on a physical form . To the Egyptians , a place or object that was ḏsr — " sacred " — was isolated and ritually pure , and thus fit for a god to inhabit . Temple statues and reliefs , as well as particular sacred animals , like the Apis bull , served as divine intermediaries in this way . Dreams and trances provided a very different venue for interaction . In these states , it was believed , people could come close to the gods and sometimes receive messages from them . Finally , according to Egyptian afterlife beliefs , human souls pass into the divine realm after death . The Egyptians therefore believed that in death they would exist on the same level as the gods and fully understand their mysterious nature . 
 Temples , where the state rituals were carried out , were filled with images of the gods . The most important temple image was the cult statue in the inner sanctuary . These statues were usually less than life @-@ size , and made of the same precious materials that were said to form the gods ' bodies . Many temples had several sanctuaries , each with a cult statue representing one of the gods in a group such as a family triad . The city 's primary god was envisioned as its lord , employing many of the residents as servants in the divine household that the temple represented . The gods residing in the temples of Egypt collectively represented the entire pantheon . But many deities — including some important gods as well as those that were minor or hostile — were never given temples of their own , although some were represented in the temples of other gods . 
 To insulate the sacred power in the sanctuary from the impurities of the outside world , the Egyptians enclosed temple sanctuaries and greatly restricted access to them . People other than kings and high priests were thus denied contact with cult statues . The only exception was during festival processions , when the statue was carried out of the temple but still enclosed in a portable shrine . People did have less direct means of interaction . The more public parts of temples often incorporated small places for prayer , from doorways to freestanding chapels near the back of the temple building . Communities also built and managed small chapels for their own use , and some families had shrines inside their homes . Despite the gulf that separated humanity from the divine , the Egyptians were surrounded by opportunities to approach their gods . 
 = = = Intervention in human lives = = = 
 Egyptian gods were involved in human lives as well as in the overarching order of nature . This divine influence applied mainly to Egypt , as foreign peoples were traditionally believed to be outside the divine order . But in the New Kingdom , when other nations were under Egyptian control , foreigners were said to be under the sun god 's benign rule in the same way that Egyptians were . 
 Thoth , as the overseer of time , was said to allot fixed lifespans to both humans and gods . Other gods were also said to govern the length of human lives , including Meskhenet , who presided over birth , and Shai , the personification of fate . Thus the time and manner of death was the main meaning of the Egyptian concept of fate , although to some extent these deities governed other events in life as well . Several texts refer to gods influencing or inspiring human decisions , working through a person 's " heart " — the seat of emotion and intellect in Egyptian belief . Deities were also believed to give commands , instructing the king in the governance of his realm and regulating the management of their temples . Egyptian texts rarely mention direct commands given to private persons , and these commands never evolved into a set of divinely enforced moral codes . Morality in ancient Egypt was based on the concept of maat , which , when applied to human society , meant that everyone should live in an orderly way that did not interfere with the well @-@ being of other people . Because deities were the upholders of maat , morality was connected with them . For example , the gods judged humans ' moral righteousness after death , and by the New Kingdom , a verdict of innocence in this judgment was believed to be necessary for admittance into the afterlife . But in general , morality was based on practical ways to uphold maat in daily life , rather than on strict rules that the gods laid out . 
 Humans had free will to ignore divine guidance and the behavior required by maat , but by doing so they could bring divine punishment upon themselves . A deity carried out this punishment using its ba , the force that manifested the god 's power in the human world . Natural disasters and human ailments were seen as the work of angry divine bas . Conversely , the gods could cure righteous people of illness or even extend their lifespans . Both these types of intervention were eventually represented by deities : Shed , who emerged in the New Kingdom to represent divine rescue from harm , and Petbe , an apotropaic god from the late eras of Egyptian history who was believed to avenge wrongdoing . 
 Egyptian texts take different views on whether the gods are responsible when humans suffer unjustly . Misfortune was often seen as a product of isfet , the cosmic disorder that was the opposite of maat , and therefore the gods were not guilty of causing evil events . Some deities who were closely connected with isfet , such as Set , could be blamed for disorder within the world without placing guilt on the other gods . But some writings do accuse the deities of causing human misery , while others give theodicies in the gods ' defense . Beginning in the Middle Kingdom , several texts connected the issue of evil in the world with a myth in which the creator god fights a human rebellion against his rule and then withdraws from the earth . Because of this human misbehavior , the creator is distant from his creation , allowing suffering to exist . New Kingdom writings do not question the just nature of the gods as strongly as those of the Middle Kingdom . They emphasize humans ' direct , personal relationships with deities and the gods ' power to intervene in human events . People in this era put faith in specific gods who they hoped would help and protect them through their lives . As a result , upholding the ideals of maat grew less important than gaining the gods ' favor as a way to guarantee a good life . Even the pharaohs were regarded as dependent on divine aid , and after the New Kingdom came to an end , government was increasingly influenced by oracles communicating the gods ' will . 
 = = = Worship = = = 
 Official religious practices , which maintained maat for the benefit of all Egypt , were related to , but distinct from , the religious practices of ordinary people , who sought the gods ' help for their personal problems . 
 Official religion involved a variety of rituals , based in temples . Some rites were performed every day , whereas others were festivals , taking place at longer intervals and often limited to a particular temple or deity . The gods received their offerings in daily ceremonies , in which their statues were clothed , anointed , and presented with food as hymns were recited in their honor . These offerings , in addition to maintaining maat for the gods , celebrated deities ' life @-@ giving generosity and encouraged them to remain benevolent rather than vengeful . 
 Festivals often involved a ceremonial procession in which a cult image was carried out of the temple in a barque @-@ shaped shrine . These processions served various purposes . In Roman times , when local deities of all kinds were believed to have power over the Nile inundation , processions in many communities carried temple images to the riverbanks so the gods could invoke a large and fruitful flood . Processions also traveled between temples , as when the image of Hathor from Dendera Temple visited her consort Horus at the Temple of Edfu . Rituals for a god were often based in that deity 's mythology . Such rituals were meant to be repetitions of the events of the mythic past , renewing the beneficial effects of the original events . In the Khoiak festival in honor of Osiris , his death and resurrection were ritually reenacted at a time when crops were beginning to sprout . The returning greenery symbolized the renewal of the god 's own life . 
 Personal interaction with the gods took many forms . People who wanted information or advice consulted oracles , run by temples , that were supposed to convey gods ' answers to questions . Amulets and other images of protective deities were used to ward off the demons that might threaten human well @-@ being or to impart the god 's positive characteristics to the wearer . Private rituals invoked the gods ' power to accomplish personal goals , from healing sickness to cursing enemies . These practices used heka , the same force of magic that the gods used , which the creator was said to have given to humans so they could fend off misfortune . The performer of a private rite often took on the role of a god in a myth , or even threatened a deity , to involve the gods in accomplishing the goal . Such rituals coexisted with private offerings and prayers , and all three were accepted means of obtaining divine help . 
 Prayer and private offerings are generally called " personal piety " : acts that reflect a close relationship between an individual and a god . Evidence of personal piety is scant before the New Kingdom . Votive offerings and personal names , many of which are theophoric , suggest that commoners felt some connection between themselves and their gods . But firm evidence of devotion to deities became visible only in the New Kingdom , reaching a peak late in that era . Scholars disagree about the meaning of this change — whether direct interaction with the gods was a new development or an outgrowth of older traditions . Egyptians now expressed their devotion through a new variety of activities in and around temples . They recorded their prayers and their thanks for divine help on stelae . They gave offerings of figurines that represented the gods they were praying to , or that symbolized the result they desired ; thus a relief image of Hathor and a statuette of a woman could both represent a prayer for fertility . Occasionally , a person took a particular god as a patron , dedicating his or her property or labor to the god 's cult . These practices continued into the latest periods of Egyptian history . These later eras saw more religious innovations , including the practice of giving animal mummies as offerings to deities depicted in animal form , such as the cat mummies given to the feline goddess Bastet . Some of the major deities from myth and official religion were rarely invoked in popular worship , but many of the great state gods were important in popular tradition . 
 The worship of some Egyptian gods spread to neighboring lands , especially to Canaan and Nubia during the New Kingdom , when those regions were under pharaonic control . In Canaan , the exported deities , including Hathor , Amun , and Set , were often syncretized with native gods , who in turn spread to Egypt . The Egyptian deities may not have had permanent temples in Canaan , and their importance there waned after Egypt lost control of the region . In contrast , many temples to the major Egyptian gods and deified pharaohs were built in Nubia . After the end of Egyptian rule there , the imported gods , particularly Amun and Isis , were syncretized with local deities and remained part of the religion of Nubia 's independent Kingdom of Kush . These gods were incorporated into the Nubian ideology of kingship much as they were in Egypt , so that Amun was considered the divine father of the king and Isis and other goddesses were linked with the Nubian queen , the kandake . Some deities reached farther . Taweret became a goddess in Minoan Crete , and Amun 's oracle at Siwa Oasis was known to and consulted by people across the Mediterranean region . 
 Under the Greek Ptolemaic Dynasty and then Roman rule , Greeks and Romans introduced their own deities to Egypt . These newcomers equated the Egyptian gods with their own , as part of the Greco @-@ Roman tradition of interpretatio graeca . But the worship of the native gods was not swallowed up by that of foreign ones . Instead , Greek and Roman gods were adopted as manifestations of Egyptian ones . Egyptian cults sometimes incorporated Greek language , philosophy , iconography , and even temple architecture . Meanwhile , the cults of several Egyptian deities — particularly Isis , Osiris , Anubis , the form of Horus named Harpocrates , and the fused Greco @-@ Egyptian god Serapis — were adopted into Roman religion and spread across the Roman Empire . Roman emperors , like Ptolemaic kings before them , invoked Isis and Serapis to endorse their authority , inside and outside Egypt . In the empire 's complex mix of religious traditions , Thoth was transmuted into the legendary esoteric teacher Hermes Trismegistus , and Isis , who was venerated from Britain to Mesopotamia , became the focus of a Greek @-@ style mystery cult . Isis and Hermes Trismegistus were both prominent in the Western esoteric tradition that grew from the Roman religious world . 
 Temples and cults in Egypt itself declined as the Roman economy deteriorated in the third century AD , and beginning in the fourth century , Christians suppressed the veneration of Egyptian deities . The last formal cults , at Philae , died out in the fifth or sixth century . Most beliefs surrounding the gods themselves disappeared within a few hundred years , remaining in magical texts into the seventh and eighth centuries . But many of the practices involved in their worship , such as processions and oracles , were adapted to fit Christian ideology and persisted as part of the Coptic Church . Given the great changes and diverse influences in Egyptian culture since that time , scholars disagree about whether any modern Coptic practices are descended from those of pharaonic religion . But many festivals and other traditions of modern Egyptians , both Christian and Muslim , resemble the worship of their ancestors ' gods . 
 = South of Heaven = 
 South of Heaven is the fourth studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer . Released on July 5 , 1988 , the album was the band 's second collaboration with record producer Rick Rubin , whose production skills on Slayer 's previous album Reign in Blood had helped the band 's sound evolve . 
 South of Heaven was Slayer 's second album to enter the Billboard 200 , and its last to be released by Def Jam Recordings , although the album became an American Recordings album after Rick Rubin ended his partnership with Russell Simmons . It was one of only two Def Jam titles to be distributed by Geffen Records through Warner Bros. Records because of original distributor Columbia Records ' refusal to release work by the band . The release peaked at number 57 and in 1992 was awarded a gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America . 
 In order to offset the pace of the group 's previous album , Slayer deliberately slowed down the album 's tempo . In contrast to their previous albums , the band utilized undistorted guitars and toned @-@ down vocals . While some critics praised this musical change , others — more accustomed to the style of earlier releases — were disappointed . The songs " Mandatory Suicide " and the title track , however , have become permanent features of the band 's live setlist . 
 = = Background = = 
 South of Heaven was recorded in Los Angeles , California with Reign in Blood producer Rick Rubin . PopMatters reviewer Adrien Begrand observed that Rubin 's production " shoves [ Dave ] Lombardo 's drumming right up front in the mix . " Guitarist Jeff Hanneman has since said that South of Heaven was the only album the band members discussed before writing the music . Aware that they " couldn 't top Reign in Blood " , and that whatever they recorded would be " compared to that album " , he believed they " had to slow down " , something Slayer had never done on albums before , or since . Guitarist Kerry King cited the need to " keep people guessing " as another reason for the musical shift . " In order to contrast the aggressive assault put forth on Reign in Blood , Slayer consciously slowed down the tempo of the album as a whole " , according to Slayer 's official biography . " They also added elements like undistorted guitars and toned @-@ down vocal styles not heard on previous albums . " 
 King has since been critical of his performance , which he describes as his " most lackluster . " King attributes this to the fact he had recently married , and moved to Phoenix , Arizona . Describing himself as " probably the odd man out at that point " , he admitted he " didn ’ t participate as much because of that . " Hanneman said : " We go through dry spells sometimes , but the good thing about having two guitar players that can write music is that you are never gonna go without . I guess at that time , Kerry was hitting a dry spell . " King has also been critical of the album in general , describing it as one of his least favorite Slayer albums . He feels vocalist Tom Araya moved too far away from his regular vocal style , and " added too much singing . " Drummer Dave Lombardo has since observed : " There was fire on all the records , but it started dimming when South of Heaven came into the picture . And that 's me personally . Again , I was probably wanting something else . " 
 Judas Priest 's " Dissident Aggressor " is the only cover version to appear on a Slayer studio album . The song was chosen due to its war @-@ themed lyrics . Hanneman described the track as " more just like one of those odd songs that a lot of people didn 't know , but it was a favorite of Kerry and I , so we just picked that one . " Meanwhile , " Cleanse the Soul " has been heavily criticized by King who said that he hates the track : " That 's one of the black marks in our history , in my book . I just fucking think it 's horrible . [ Laughs ] I hate the opening riff . It 's what we call a ' happy riff . ' It 's just like ' la @-@ lala @-@ la @-@ la @-@ la . ' I can 't see myself playing it , but after that , where it gets heavier , I like that section . If we ever did a medley , I 'd put part of that in there . " The Slayer boxset Soundtrack to the Apocalypse featured , along with four songs of the album , an early version of the title track , recorded at Hanneman 's home . 
 = = Photography and illustration = = 
 Artist Larry Carroll and Illustrator Howard Schwartzberg designed the cover artwork for South of Heaven , having designed the artwork for Slayer 's previous album Reign in Blood . Photographer Glen E. Friedman took the promotional shot which surfaced as the back cover of South of Heaven around the time of 1986 's Reign in Blood . Lombardo felt it made Slayer seem as though they " had matured a little bit " , while Friedman himself deemed it " a really cool back cover " and " one of the most classic shots of them [ Slayer ] ever . " 
 = = Critical reception = = 
 South of Heaven was released on July 5 , 1988 , and was the final Slayer album distributed via Def Jam Records . When label co @-@ founders Russell Simmons and Rubin parted ways , Slayer signed to Rubin 's newly founded Def American Recordings label . The album peaked at number 57 on the Billboard 200 album chart , and on November 20 , 1992 , became Slayer 's second album to be certified gold in the United States . South of Heaven was awarded silver certification in the United Kingdom on January 1 , 1993 , Slayer 's first record to do so in that country . Slayer 's official biography states that " some critics praised the album as demonstrating Slayer 's desire to grow musically and avoid repeating themselves . " Alex Henderson of AllMusic described the record as " disturbing and powerful , " while Joe Matera of Ultimate Guitar deemed the album a slight departure ; he wrote that while the pace was slowed down , it " didn 't sacrifice any of the heaviness inherent in Slayer 's music . " 
 Reviewing the 2003 Slayer box set Soundtrack to the Apocalypse , Adrien Begrand of PopMatters described the album as " their most underrated , and on this set , its five selections show how highly the band thinks of the record . " KNAC.com 's Peter Atkinson was also positive , saying the album has a " grandiosity and imposing presence " which makes the record " so magnificent . " Grave 's Ola Lindgren and Bolt Thrower 's Karl Willetts both rate South of Heaven as amongst the top five albums of all time , while Max Kolesne of Brazilian death metal group Krisiun remembers hearing the song " Silent Scream " for the first time : " It just blew me away . It was like fast double @-@ bass , fast kicks during the whole song . That was very inspiring for me . " When discussing Slayer in an October 2007 interview , Evile frontman Matt Drake stated that while Reign in Blood " was just speed " , South of Heaven proved that the group could write " slow material as well . " Metal Forces reviewer gives " the band credit for at least making an effort to try something new and not being afraid to experiment at such a crucial stage of their career " , creating " one of the more original sounding thrash / speed metal albums he heard in a long while " . He remarks , however , that " if you ’ re expecting to hear Reign in Blood Part Two , you ’ ll be in for a major disappointment " . 
 Kim Neely of Rolling Stone dismissed the album as " genuinely offensive satanic drivel . " Slayer 's official biography states : " The new sounds disappointed some of the band 's fans who were more accustomed to the style of earlier releases . " Michael Roberts of Westworld Online said this was due to some of the numbers moving " at the sludgier speed of Black Sabbath . " Araya commented that the " album was a late bloomer — it wasn 't really received well , but it kind of grew on everybody later . " 
 = = Cover versions = = 
 The title track and the song " Mandatory Suicide " have received various cover interpretations , particularly on Slayer tribute albums . Toni Ferguson recorded string quartet adaptations of both tracks on the album The String Quartet Tribute to Slayer : The Evil You Dread , with the former cover being described as having " menacing chord shifts " by AllMusic 's Johnny Loftus . 
 1995 Slayer tribute album Slatanic Slaughter featured three tracks which originally appeared on South of Heaven , with the title track , " Mandatory Suicide " and " Spill the Blood " interpreted by Cemetary , Crown of Thorns and Grope respectively . Its 1998 follow up Slatanic Slaughter , Vol . 2 only featured two tracks originally from the album ; namely " Silent Scream " arranged by Vader and " Read Between the Lies " interpreted by Anathema . 1999 's Straight to Hell : A Tribute to Slayer collected four Slayer renditions which originated on the album , with versions of South of Heaven performed by Abaddon ( Venom ) and Electric Hellfire Club , " Mandatory Suicide " cut by Chapter 7 and " Behind the Crooked Cross " adapted by Gigantor . 2006 Argentine tribute album Al Sur Del Abismo ( Tributo Argentino A Slayer ) saw Nafak and Climatic Terra also respectively cover " South of Heaven " and " Mandatory Suicide " . Hatebreed covered the song " Ghosts of War " for their 2009 cover album For the Lions . They released a music video for it also . Korn has covered the title track at least twice live , once with Kid Rock on vocals and another using the intro to follow into one of their songs live . 
 The title track itself has also been covered by Integrity 2000 , Modest Mouse and Califone , Pro @-@ Pain , and Universe Eye . Polish death metal band Decapitated covered the song " Mandatory Suicide " on their first full @-@ length album Winds of Creation . In 2003 , " Silent Scream " was covered by Children of Bodom for their album Hate Crew Deathroll in his UK version . Hardcore Punk band , The Mongoloids opened their set with the beginning of " South of Heaven " at Heartfest 7 on May 4 , 2013 
 = = Live performances = = 
 Two songs taken from the album ( " Mandatory Suicide " and " South of Heaven " ) have become near constant fixtures in the band 's live setlist , notching up appearances on the following : the live DVDs Live Intrusion , War at the Warfield , Still Reigning , Soundtrack to the Apocalypse 's deluxe edition 's bonus live disc , and the live double album Decade of Aggression . Lombardo guested with Finnish cellist group Apocalyptica on a live medley of the two tracks at 1998 's Headbanger 's Heaven festival in the Netherlands . Adrien Begrand of PopMatters described " South of Heaven " as " an unorthodox set opener in theory " , noting " the song went over like a megaton bomb detonating the place : dozens of inverted crosses projected behind the high drum riser , the sinewy opening notes kicked in , followed by an overture of bass , cymbal crashes , and tom fills , leading up to the slowly building crescendo " in a concert review . Lombardo remembers listening to a live rendition of " South of Heaven " and thinking " ‘ Man ! There 's just so much groove in that song . ’ To my kids I was saying , ‘ Listen to that ! Listen to how groovy that is ! ’ And it 's heavy . " A rare live version of the track featured on the JÄGERMUSIC Rarities 2004 promotional CD , given away to attendees at the Spring 2004 Jägermeister Music Tour . A live rendition of " South of Heaven " was also included on a bonus DVD which came with the group 's 2007 re @-@ release of ninth studio album Christ Illusion , shot in Vancouver , British Columbia during 2006 's Unholy Alliance tour . 
 " Behind the Crooked Cross " is rarely played live as Hanneman hates the track , though King has always wanted to play it " because it 's got a cool intro " despite it not being his favorite song . King said " that 's fine " when speaking of the situation , noting " there are songs that he wants to play that I always shoot down . " " Ghosts of War " isn 't King 's favorite song either , which he attests " everybody always wants to hear " performed live . He confessed ; " I like the ending , you know , I like the big heavy part and I always say , ‘ Let 's put the heavy ending at the end of " Chemical Warfare " and just do the last half . ’ But I could never make that fly . " 
 Slayer has toyed with the idea of creating a live set mixed with selections from the album and 1990 's Seasons in the Abyss , though Hanneman said it 's something which hasn 't been " seriously considered . " Metal Maniacs asked Slayer in a 2006 interview whether they would consider playing South of Heaven in the footsteps of the Still Reigning tour , to which Araya replied , " It 's becoming a trendy thing now . I don 't know . We have some really cool albums , but I don 't think we 'll ever do that again . " King was equally unsure , commenting , " Probably not . And I just don 't like enough songs off South of Heaven . " 
 = = Track listing = = 
 = = Personnel = = 
 = = = Slayer = = = 
 Tom Araya – bass , lead vocals 
 Jeff Hanneman – lead and rhythm guitar 
 Kerry King – lead and rhythm guitar , backing vocals 
 Dave Lombardo – drums 
 = = Charts and certifications = = 
 = General aviation in the United Kingdom = 
 General aviation in the United Kingdom has been defined as a civil aircraft operation other than a commercial air transport flight operating to a schedule or military aviation . Although the International Civil Aviation Organization ( ICAO ) excludes any form of remunerated aviation from its definition , some commercial operations are often included within the scope of general aviation ( GA ) in the UK . The sector operates business jets , rotorcraft , piston and jet @-@ engined fixed @-@ wing aircraft , gliders of all descriptions , and lighter than air craft . Public transport operations include business ( or corporate ) aviation and air taxi services , and account for nearly half of the economic contribution made by the sector . Other commercial GA activities are aerial work , such as surveying and air ambulances , and flight training , which plays an important role in the supply of pilots to the commercial air transport ( CAT ) industry . Private flying is conducted for personal transport and recreation . It includes a strong vintage aircraft movement , and encompasses a range of air sports , such as racing , aerobatics , and parachuting , at which British teams and individuals have succeeded in international competition . 
 Of the 21 @,@ 000 civil aircraft registered in the UK , 96 per cent are engaged in GA operations , and annually the GA fleet accounts for between 1 @.@ 25 and 1 @.@ 35 million hours flown . The single most common class of aircraft is the fixed @-@ wing light aircraft associated with traditional GA , but the main area of growth over the last 20 years has been in the use of more affordable aircraft , such as microlights , amateur built aeroplanes , and smaller helicopters . There are 28 @,@ 000 Private Pilot Licence holders , and 10 @,@ 000 certified glider pilots . Some of the 19 @,@ 000 pilots who hold professional licences are also engaged in GA activities . Although GA operates from more than 1 @,@ 800 aerodromes and landing sites , ranging in size from large regional airports to farm strips , over 80 per cent of GA activity is conducted at 134 of the larger aerodromes . The GA industry , which is around 7 per cent the size of its CAT cousin , employs 12 @,@ 000 people , and contributes £ 1 @.@ 4 billion to the UK economy . 
 GA is regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority ( CAA ) , although regulatory powers are being increasingly transferred to the European Aviation Safety Agency ( EASA ) . The main focus is on standards of airworthiness and pilot licensing , and the objective is to promote high standards of safety . At the lighter end of the GA spectrum some regulatory authority is devolved to representative bodies , and gliding is in transition from a self @-@ regulatory model to more formal governance by EASA . Airspace regulation necessary to protect an increasing number of CAT operations has reduced the area in which GA flights can be freely conducted . The growth in CAT is also making access to larger airports more difficult for the GA sector , and smaller aerodromes are vulnerable to closure and re @-@ development for more profitable uses . The UK planning system has no remit to consider the national significance of GA public transport operations , and generally does not favour the development of smaller aerodromes catering to the GA market . The planning process has become a mechanism for addressing local aerodrome @-@ related environmental issues which , particularly regarding noise , are the main subjects of public criticism levelled at GA . 
 = = Definitions = = 
 The International Civil Aviation Organization ( ICAO ) defines general aviation ( GA ) as " an aircraft operation other than a commercial air transport operation or an aerial work operation . " It defines commercial air transport ( CAT ) as " an aircraft operation involving the transport of passengers , cargo or mail for remuneration or hire " , and aerial work as " an aircraft operation in which an aircraft is used for specialized services such as agriculture , construction , photography , surveying , observation and patrol , search and rescue , aerial advertisement , etc . " 
 Organisations in the United Kingdom ( UK ) describe GA in less restrictive terms that include elements of commercial aviation . The British Business and General Aviation Association interprets it to be " all aeroplane and helicopter flying except that performed by the major airlines and the Armed Services " . The General Aviation Awareness Council applies the description " all Civil Aviation operations other than scheduled air services and non @-@ scheduled air transport operations for remuneration or hire " . For the purposes of a strategic review of GA in the UK , the Civil Aviation Authority ( CAA ) defined the scope of GA as " a civil aircraft operation other than a commercial air transport flight operating to a schedule " , and considered it necessary to depart from the ICAO definition and include aerial work and minor CAT operations . 
 = = History = = 
 The first aerodrome in the UK was established by the Aero Club at Muswell Manor on the Isle of Sheppey , and in May 1909 it was the venue of the first flight conducted in the country by a British pilot , John Moore @-@ Brabazon . In 1910 the Aero Club was granted the Royal prefix , took responsibility for controlling all private flying in the UK , and started issuing the first British pilot licences . The introduction of the de Havilland DH.60 Moth in 1925 revolutionised light aviation , and the Royal Aero Club , recognising the " vital necessity of promoting civil flying " , formed the Light Aeroplane Club scheme . Between 1925 and 1939 around 60 flying clubs were started , and more than 5 @,@ 000 pilots were trained . 
 During World War II civil aerodromes were taken over for military use , existing military airfields were expanded , and new ones were built . This resulted in a significant inventory of facilities becoming available after the war . Pre @-@ war civil aerodromes , for example Sywell , were returned to civilian use . Surplus military airfields were closed , and in some cases , for example Beccles , subsequently re @-@ opened as civil aerodromes . The Ministry of Civil Aviation was created to regulate all civil aviation in the UK , and this task remained the responsibility of government departments until the establishment of the independent CAA in 1972 . 
 With an expanded infrastructure in place , GA became established after the war when manufacturers such as Cessna and Piper introduced light aircraft designed for the private market . The Cessna 172 , developed from the late 1940s Cessna 170 , was introduced in 1956 , and became the world 's best selling single @-@ engine aeroplane . Single piston @-@ engine aircraft are still the most common class of aircraft in the UK GA fleet . The development of the Rogallo wing in the 1950s fostered the development of hang @-@ gliding during the 1960s and 1970s . The 1960s also saw experiments with motorised hang gliders , but it was not until the 1970s that this blend of technologies started to mature , resulting in the birth of the microlight movement . Another milestone in the development of GA was the 1964 introduction of the Learjet 23 . Although it was not the first business jet , it popularised corporate aviation , and established the personal jet as a " whole new class of aircraft " . 
 = = Activities = = 
 The GA sector operates a range of aircraft , including balloons and airships , gliders , hang gliders , paragliders , microlights , gyrocopters , helicopters , amateur built and mass @-@ produced light aircraft , ex @-@ military aircraft , and business jets . Flights can be broadly categorised as public transport , aerial work , and private flying , the first two of which are commercial activities . 
 = = = Commercial operations = = = 
 Commercial operations are remunerated activities which fall within the ICAO definition of CAT . Some are , however , closely aligned to , and considered part of , the GA sector . Public transport operations are non @-@ scheduled , on @-@ demand services flying between points specified by the customer , providing a more flexible service than airline travel . Air taxi operations offer charter services for third parties , and business or corporate aviation uses company @-@ owned aircraft to transport employees and clients . Aircraft used in these operations include business jets , helicopters , and twin piston @-@ engine aeroplanes carrying between six and ten people . An example of this type of operation is the transport by helicopter of spectators to the British Formula One grand prix at Silverstone . This involves so many flights that , according to Cranfield Aviation Services , on race day the heliport is temporarily the world 's busiest airport . Aerial work is a small but important component of the commercial GA sector , characterised in its simplest form as remunerated non @-@ transport activities , such as surveying , crop spraying , and emergency services work ( air ambulance and police ) . 
 = = = Flying schools = = = 
 Flying schools are commercial businesses engaged in the training of pilots , both for recreational purposes and for those intending to fly professionally . They make widespread use of fixed @-@ wing light aircraft associated with traditional GA , not only for flying lessons but also as club aircraft rented out to qualified pilots for recreational flights . School @-@ owned aircraft account for a significant amount of GA activity , both in terms of hours flown and aircraft movements . The pilot training element is regarded by the GA community as a key benefit that is critical to the supply of pilots for the airline industry . It is claimed by the General Aviation Awareness Council that 60 – 70 per cent of professional pilots have self @-@ financed their flight training at GA schools , and one UK airline operator has stated that the industry must rely on 70 – 80 per cent of new pilots coming from the GA sector . The CAA estimates that between 1996 and 2006 the number of new professional pilots following the unsponsored training route rose from 48 per cent to 59 per cent . The counter argument to this claim is that pilots can be trained outside of the UK , and that the airline industry is not therefore dependent on a healthy GA sector in the UK for its supply of pilots . The CAA concludes that a severe reduction in GA would give " some merit to the argument that pilot recruitment would be threatened " , but that the data on flying hours " does not support such a gloomy outlook . " Of course , reliance on other countries for pilot training means that the UK foregoes the economic benefit of the training activity . 
 = = = Private flying = = = 
 Private flying can be for both recreational purposes and personal transport , using aircraft that are owned individually , collectively as part of a syndicate , or rented from a flying club . A survey of pilots conducted between 2001 and 2002 indicated that the most common purposes of recreational flights were local flights near the base aerodrome , visits to other aerodromes , and day trips away . Half of all flights landed at the same aerodrome they departed from , and only 9 per cent involved an overnight stay away from home . 
 Private flying is most associated with the traditional form of factory @-@ produced two and four @-@ seater , single piston @-@ engine training and touring aircraft . Examples of these are the Cessna 152 , Cessna 172 , and Piper PA28 Cherokee , all with their origins in the 1950s , and the more modern designs of Cirrus . The average cost per hour to fly such aircraft has been estimated to be £ 133 , compared to an estimated £ 77 per hour for gliders , and a reported £ 35 per hour for microlights . Recent trends have seen an increase in the use of microlights , and also in recreational helicopter flying following the introduction of smaller and cheaper machines such as the Robinson R22 and R44 . Another growth area in private flying in recent years has been in the use of amateur built aircraft , such as the Van 's Aircraft RV @-@ 4 and the Europa . 
 There is a strong vintage aircraft movement in the UK , with two @-@ thirds of the 500 registered historic aircraft active . These cover the whole spectrum of civil and military aviation , examples being the de Havilland Dragon Rapide airliner of the 1930s , and the World War II ( WWII ) Spitfire fighter . There are many post @-@ WWII aircraft which could also be considered historic under a looser definition , including for example 60 ex @-@ military jets such as the Hawker Hunter . Historic aircraft are regular exhibits at air displays , which are claimed to be the second most popular spectator activity after football in the UK . 
 = = = Sports = = = 
 Competitive gliding in the UK takes place between May and September . Regionals are local competitions , organised and run by one of the bigger gliding clubs in the region , and represent the entry level to glider racing . Races are handicapped according to glider performance , and normally take place over nine days . Success in the regionals allows pilots to progress to the nationals , where there are five classes of competition . These are based on glider performance , the lowest being club class , and then progressing through standard ( maximum 15 metres ( 49 ft ) wingspan , and flaps not permitted ) , 15 metres ( 49 ft ) ( as standard , but flaps are permitted ) , 18 metres ( 59 ft ) ( maximum 18 metres ( 59 ft ) wingspan ) , and finally open @-@ class ( no restrictions ) . Success at national level can lead to a place in the national team and competition at international level . In 2007 the British gliding team was ranked number one , and British pilots took two women 's world championships and the open class European championship . 
 Handicapped air racing is open to any propeller @-@ driven aircraft capable of maintaining a minimum speed of 100 miles ( 160 km ) per hour in level flight . Races are a case of " fly low , fly fast , turn left " , consisting of 4 – 5 laps round a 20 – 25 mile ( 32 – 40 km ) circuit . Faster aircraft are handicapped by starting after slower aircraft , the intention being that the race concludes with all aircraft diving for the finish line together . There are up to 16 races per year , conducted at airfields in the UK , France and the Channel Islands , for prizes that include the Schneider Trophy and King 's Cup , and the season culminates with the British Air Racing and European Air Racing Championships . 
 Aerobatic competitions take place for both powered aircraft and gliders , with up to 30 events each year in the UK and Ireland . Starting at the Beginner level , pilots can move up to Standard ( powered aircraft ) or Sports ( glider ) levels , and then on to Intermediate , Advanced , and finally Unlimited classes . Each step up requires a wider repertoire of aerobatic figures and progressively more performance from the aircraft . National championships are awarded annually at Standard / Sports , Intermediate , Advanced ( powered aircraft only ) , and Unlimited levels , and pilots who have reached Advanced and Unlimited levels are eligible for selection to represent the UK in international competition . 
 Parachute competitions are held at club , regional , national and international levels , and include the disciplines of accuracy landings , freefall gymnastics , formation skydiving , canopy formation , freestyle and freeflying , and skysurfing . British teams consistently win medals in canopy formation world championships , and a British team took the 2006 world championship in women 's 4 @-@ way formation skydiving . 
 = = Aerodromes = = 
 Aerodrome is a collective term for any location from which flying operations take place , although more specific terminology can be used to characterise its purpose . The CAA strategic review of GA applies the term airport to locations which predominantly support large scale commercial operations , and airfield to locations which predominantly support GA operations . The General Aviation Small Aerodrome Research Study ( GASAR ) analysed 687 aerodromes in England which come under the scope of GA , classifying 374 into six types . These range in size from regional airports to the smallest farm strip , although 84 per cent of GA flights operate from 134 of the larger aerodromes in the first four categories . 
 = = = GASAR aerodrome classification = = = 
 The factors used in determining how an individual aerodrome is categorised by the GASAR study are based broadly on size and facilities . The six types of aerodrome are described , in size order , as : regional airports ( e.g. East Midlands ) ; major GA airports ( e.g. Oxford ) ; developed GA airfields ( e.g. Andrewsfield ) ; basic GA airfields ( e.g. Rufforth ) ; developed airstrips ( e.g. Tilstock ) ; and basic airstrips ( e.g. Chilbolton in Hampshire ) . The actual criteria used to categorise aerodromes were complex , using 28 different parameters , backed up with a peer review by experienced GA pilots . 
 Airports generally have long , fully lit , hard @-@ surfaced runways , full air traffic control , and navigation and landing aids . They are usually located on urban fringes , support commercial and business operations , and often exclude certain types of light aircraft . At the more rurally located airfields , the lighter end of aviation , such as microlight and gliding activities , becomes increasingly prevalent , and there are few or no commercial operations other than flying schools . At this level runways are generally shorter , and grass surfaces are increasingly common . Navigation aids are increasingly scarce , being more basic where they are available , and informal ground to air radio communication replaces air traffic control . The smallest airfields are too small to feature on general purpose Ordnance Survey ( OS ) maps , and lack basic facilities such as fuel and maintenance . The majority of airstrips are basically single short grass runways with no supporting facilities , although the presence of a hangar is not uncommon at the larger examples . They do not feature on OS maps , and are owned by private clubs or , more commonly , individuals . 
 = = = Aerodrome licensing = = = 
 Most aerodromes used for public transport operations are required to be licensed by the CAA . To be granted a licence an aerodrome operator must satisfy the CAA that : the physical conditions at the aerodrome , and its environs , are acceptable ; the scale of equipment , and facilities provided , are adequate for the flying activities which are expected to take place ; an effective safety management system is in place ; and that staff are competent and , where necessary , suitably qualified . Aerodromes classified as developed GA airfields or larger by the GASAR study are , with few exceptions , licensed . Only two basic GA airfields , Silverstone and Duxford , are licensed , and all airstrips are unlicensed . The Light Aviation Airports Study Group , a joint CAA @-@ industry initiative , was established in 2005 to review the regulation of light aviation aerodromes . A particular focus of this group was a review of the restrictions placed on unlicensed aerodromes . The group concluded that the requirement for public transport operations to be conducted only from licensed aerodromes should be further reviewed in the context of corresponding international and European requirements . It also recommended that restrictions on flight training at unlicensed aerodromes should be lifted , and this was permitted from April 2010 
 = = Scale of the sector = = 
 There are an estimated 27 @,@ 000 civil aircraft registered in the UK , 96 per cent of which are engaged in GA activities . In 2005 the GA fleet comprised 9 @,@ 000 fixed @-@ wing aircraft , 4 @,@ 100 microlights , 1 @,@ 300 helicopters , 1 @,@ 800 airships / balloons , 2 @,@ 500 gliders and some 7 @,@ 000 hang gliders . Estimates put the number of foreign @-@ registered GA aircraft based in the UK at 900 . 
 The number of pilots licensed by the CAA to fly powered aircraft in 2005 was 47 @,@ 000 , of whom 28 @,@ 000 held a Private Pilot Licence . The remainder held professional pilot licences , either a Commercial Pilot Licence or an Airline Transport Pilot Licence , although not all of these would be engaged in GA activities . In addition , there are 10 @,@ 000 active glider pilots , and estimates put the membership of aviation @-@ related sport and recreational associations at 36 @,@ 000 . 
 The number of aerodromes that support GA in the UK is difficult to establish with certainty . Pooleys 2008 United Kingdom Flight Guide lists 355 , and the Airplan Flight Equipment UK VFR Flight Guide 2008 lists nearly 500 . Lockyears Farm ' Strips ' and Private Airfields Flight Guide lists more than 300 landing sites . The GASAR study estimates 1 @,@ 100 formal flying sites in England alone , a figure which includes 400 sites known to planning authorities but not included in flight guides . It estimates another 759 informal sites known only to land owners , customs , and members of the enthusiast group Air @-@ Britain . 
 The sector was estimated to employ nearly 12 @,@ 000 people and directly contribute £ 1 @.@ 4 billion to the UK economy in 2005 , making it roughly seven per cent of the size of the CAT industry . Nearly half of the economic contribution was generated by business aviation . 
 = = Trends = = 
 Most sectors of GA for which data are available have experienced growth in aircraft numbers and hours flown over the last two decades . The lighter end of the GA spectrum : microlights , amateur built , and airships and balloons , have in particular shown strong growth , although the last of these activities was severely curtailed during the foot @-@ and @-@ mouth outbreak in 2001 , when access to farmland was denied . After strong growth in the late 1980s , traditional flying has shown a slight decline recently , reflecting a move amongst recreational flyers towards microlight aircraft , and increased numbers of foreign @-@ registered aircraft . Recreational helicopter usage has grown primarily due to the introduction of smaller and cheaper aircraft . Glider activity has remained relatively static , although there has been a gradual increase in the number of self @-@ launching motor gliders . 
 Business aviation has shown strong growth , although the numbers of aircraft on the UK register have declined . This reflects a shift away from turboprop aircraft towards foreign @-@ registered business jets based in the UK , which are estimated to be growing in numbers . However , twin piston @-@ engined aircraft numbers have declined significantly , reflecting pressures on the light air @-@ taxi segment from increasingly flexible and cheaper scheduled services , and a more sophisticated corporate charter business . The amount of flight training conducted by UK schools has declined , largely at the hands of competition from foreign schools , which benefit from lower costs and better weather . 
 Since 1990 the total number of hours flown annually by the GA sector has remained in the range 1 @.@ 25 – 1 @.@ 35 million , the dominant sector being traditional GA flying , which accounts for 0 @.@ 6 million per year . An overall increase in aircraft numbers combined with nil growth in hours flown has brought the annual average utilisation per aircraft down from 157 hours in 1984 to 103 hours in 2002 . The decline in asset utilisation has led to speculation that the economic health of the GA industry is weakening , though the lack of data on profitability makes this difficult to confirm . 
 = = Regulation = = 
 The objective of regulation is to " promote high standards of safety in all aspects of aviation " , and this is the main area of interaction between the CAA and the GA sector . Efforts focus on assuring appropriate standards of airworthiness , pilot qualification , the rules for the movement of aircraft , and equipment to be carried . The CAA was established as the primary regulatory body for all aviation in the UK in 1972 . In 1991 it started working within the Joint Aviation Authorities ( JAA ) framework to implement agreed common standards , known as the Joint Aviation Requirements ( JAR ) , throughout the European Union ( EU ) . In 2003 this was taken a step further when the European Aviation Safety Agency ( EASA ) was established as the central EU regulator , taking over responsibility for legislating airworthiness and environmental regulation from the national authorities . The CAA acts as an agency of EASA on these issues , retaining its original regulatory powers in areas not yet transferred to EASA . Proposed developments seek to establish EASA as the single authority throughout the EU , taking over from individual member states the power to regulate all aviation other than that specifically excluded from the scope of EASA . 
 = = = Devolved and self @-@ regulation = = = 
 Within this framework certain sectors of GA are governed on a devolved basis . In all cases the CAA / EASA retains responsibility for safety regulation , but representative bodies , particularly of sectors that are not included in the scope of EASA , are granted greater oversight of their activities . The majority of microlight aircraft are regulated by the British Microlight Aircraft Association ( BMAA ) , although a significant number are regulated by the Light Aircraft Association ( LAA ) , formerly known as the Popular Flying Association . The LAA is the primary regulator for amateur built aircraft , as well as vintage and classic aircraft . Parachuting is governed by the British Parachute Association , although the aircraft used in this activity are generally CAA @-@ regulated . Balloon and airship flying is overseen by the British Balloon and Airship Club . The UK @-@ specific National Private Pilot Licence ( NPPL ) is administered by the National Pilots Licensing Group Ltd . , supported by the LAA , the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association UK , the British Gliding Association , and the British Microlight Aircraft Association . Separate from these devolved groups , gliding in the UK is self @-@ regulated . The British Gliding Association was until recently responsible for glider airworthiness , now formally regulated as a result of EASA legislation , and still retains control of pilot certification . Hang gliding and paragliding activities ( i.e. foot @-@ launched gliders ) are governed by the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association . 
 = = = Airworthiness = = = 
 Under CAA and EASA rules , all aircraft are required to meet certain standards of airworthiness to fly safely and legally . Aircraft that meet these standards are issued with a Certificate of Airworthiness . However , British @-@ registered aircraft which are excluded from the scope of EASA , and which cannot satisfy the requirements for the issue of a Certificate of Airworthiness , may be issued with a Permit to Fly . This allows them to fly in UK airspace subject to certain limitations , for example being restricted to day @-@ time flights under visual flight rules only . A number of organisations ( e.g. the British Microlight Aircraft Association and the Light Aircraft Association ) have obtained a standing over @-@ flight permission for Permit to Fly aircraft within their area of interest with some European countries , notably France . Permits are typically issued to vintage and historic aircraft , amateur built aircraft , and microlights . 
 = = = Pilot licensing = = = 
 The pilot qualification most relevant to GA is the Private Pilot Licence ( PPL ) , which permits the holder to fly for recreational purposes without remuneration . In addition to the European @-@ wide Joint Aviation Regulations Flight Crew Licensing ( JAR @-@ FCL ) standard , the CAA also issues UK @-@ specific national licences . In the absence of European standards for gyroplane , balloon , and airship pilots , the CAA licenses these according to the original UK PPL standard . As a response to the perception that JAR pilot licensing standards are excessively bureaucratic and expensive for the purposes of recreational pilots , the National Private Pilot Licence ( NPPL ) was introduced in 2002 . The NPPL is easier to obtain than the JAR @-@ FCL licence , has less stringent medical requirements , is more restrictive in the privileges it grants , and is valid only for flights in British @-@ registered aircraft flying in UK and French airspace . Although there are plans to bring glider pilot licensing within the regulatory framework of EASA , the gliding sector is currently self @-@ regulating in this respect . The British Gliding Association is responsible for defining the standards of initial training , and certifying , via a badge system , pilots who meet those standards . Pilots working in sectors of GA that are commercial operations , such as aerial work and business aviation , are required to hold a professional pilot licence which , at a minimum , is the Commercial Pilot Licence . 
 = = Safety = = 
 Between 1995 and 2004 there were 2 @,@ 630 accidents involving GA aircraft , of which 139 were fatal , resulting in the loss of 317 lives . The majority of accidents involved small fixed @-@ wing aircraft engaged in private flights , and analysis attributes the most common causes of these to : flight handling skills ; poor judgement or airmanship ; lack of training or experience ; and omission of , or inappropriate , action . 
 There were 27 fatal accidents involving GA aircraft in 2007 , resulting in the loss of 48 lives . These compare with 16 accidents claiming a total of 19 lives the previous year , and although the 2007 statistics are higher than average , they are not exceptional . 
 = = Issues = = 
 The growth in Commercial Air Transport ( CAT ) has eroded the operational freedom of GA , both in the air and on the ground at larger airports . Difficulty with access to larger airports is compounded by a decline in the number of aerodromes generally , and existing sites are often threatened with closure and re @-@ development for more profitable uses . The UK planning system is designed to focus on local issues , and consideration of the national impact of GA operations is not within its remit . This makes aerodrome development difficult , often subjecting those that successfully negotiate the process to restrictions in use . 
 = = = Airspace access = = = 
 Airspace is shared by CAT , military and GA users . It is divided into controlled airspace , in which aircraft must always be under the control of an air traffic controller , and uncontrolled airspace , in which aircraft can operate autonomously . Although GA flights can under certain conditions enter controlled airspace , they operate mainly outside of it . 
 Controlled airspace is essential for the provision of a known air traffic environment necessary for the safe operation of CAT . A CAA review found that " mixing [ commercial ] operations with other users is considered undesirable , even untenable " by commercial operators . However this position has resulted in extensive Class A controlled airspace with complex boundaries , including some running down to the ground , prohibiting VFR access to airspace , resulting in high numbers of GA flights operating close to the borders of controlled airspace who could not get formal receipt of an air traffic service . Coupled with pilot navigation errors , hundreds of airspace infringements have been recorded every year . 
 Increases in the number of CAT operations , and in the number of airports they operate from , has resulted in a corresponding increase in Class A controlled airspace . Between 1997 and 2006 this area grew in size from 13 per cent of all airspace to 22 per cent nationally , and from 24 per cent to 43 per cent in airspace above England and Wales , leading to a perception within the GA community of being squeezed out . There are particular problems for GA around large airports , where Class A controlled airspace extends to ground level . The concentration of commercial operations and high demand for GA in the South East of England have also resulted in extensive areas of Class A controlled airspace there , which serve to channel uncontrolled GA operations through high @-@ collision @-@ risk hot spots . 
 = = = Aerodrome access = = = 
 Regional airports , such as Edinburgh Airport , have experienced strong growth in CAT operations in recent years . These operations are commercially and operationally incompatible with GA , and although there is no evidence of deliberate discrimination , the effect has been to discourage or exclude it . GA aircraft are being subject to significant increases in charges , including the imposition of handling fees in some cases . Some airports restrict or deny GA parking , and others limit or refuse certain GA activity . As a result , light GA aircraft are now rarely or never seen at large , busy international airports such as Heathrow , Stansted , Gatwick and Manchester . 
 In addition to this de facto loss of facilities , the number of aerodromes in the UK has been in decline over the last 50 years , as a result of increasing urbanisation and the closure of airfields built during WWII . Alternative and more profitable uses for land can also lead to existing aerodromes being threatened with closure , for example North Weald , or actually being closed , as happened to Ipswich Airport. and Bristol Filton Airport . Referring to the importance of a " functioning national network of GA airfields " , especially where GA performs an air transport role , the CAA states that " there could be cause for concern if a significant further loss of airfields were to continue , especially if crucial nodes on the transport network were to be lost . " 
 = = = Planning system = = = 
 The planning system is critical to the viability and operation of GA aerodromes . With many cities lacking scheduled air transport services between them , and with GA access to commercial airports becoming increasingly difficult and expensive , a viable network of aerodromes supporting GA air transport operations is regarded as an important national issue . However , there is no unified national planning policy specific to GA aerodromes , and planning decisions relating to these are based on local issues that are not required to consider the national impact . Because aircraft are excluded from noise control legislation , the only recourse for people affected by aircraft noise is through the planning process , and this issue is the principal factor on which the majority of planning decisions relating to GA land use are made . GA is a specialist subject often unfamiliar to Local Planning Authorities , and most planning decisions relating to GA either refuse permission , or grant it with restrictive conditions . Little Gransden is just one example of a GA airfield required to comply with planning restrictions on the number of movements permitted , thereby inhibiting further development . Such restrictions , if poorly conceived , can make GA operations unviable or even unsafe . 
 = = Criticism = = 
 Public opinion towards aviation generally is worsening , based on increasing environmental concerns relating to emissions and noise , and private flying has been criticised by respondents to a government consultation on aircraft noise as a frivolous or selfish activity . In terms of environmental complaints and enquiries made to the CAA that relate specifically to GA , noise is " by far " the most common subject . Half of the 2 @,@ 000 noise complaints made annually to the CAA concern GA operations , most of which relate to aerobatics , helicopters using private sites , air balloon incidents , parachute dropping , and alleged low flying . 
 Planning guidance on aircraft noise advises that " in some circumstances the public perceive general aircraft noise levels as more disturbing than similar levels around major airports . " This is a result of the tonal characteristics of light aircraft engines and the activities they are engaged in , including : repetitive circuit flying at low @-@ altitude near an aerodrome , during which aircraft are audible for long periods ; slow climbing aircraft engaged in parachute drop or glider tug activities concentrated around the drop zone or aerodrome , also audible for long periods ; erratic and repetitive engine noise from aircraft engaged in aerobatics ; and piston @-@ engines on full power in areas of low background noise , leading to the perception that such noise is more intrusive . In an attempt to alleviate these problems , the majority of aerodromes implement noise abatement procedures designed to route aircraft away from noise sensitive areas , and more than 50 are required by the government to provide consultative facilities in which local concerns can be raised with aerodrome operators . 
 = SMS Zrínyi = 
 SMS Zrínyi ( " His Majesty 's ship Zrínyi " ) was a Radetzky @-@ class pre @-@ dreadnought battleship ( Schlachtschiff ) of the Austro @-@ Hungarian Navy ( K.u.K. Kriegsmarine ) , named for the Zrinski , a noble Croatian family . Zrínyi and her sisters , Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and Radetzky , were the last pre @-@ dreadnoughts built by the Austro @-@ Hungarian Navy . 
 During World War I , Zrínyi saw action in the Adriatic Sea . She served with the Second Division of the Austro @-@ Hungarian Navy 's battleships and shelled Senigallia as part of the bombardment of the key seaport of Ancona , Italy , during May 1915 . However , Allied control of the Strait of Otranto meant that the Austro @-@ Hungarian Navy was , for all intents and purposes , effectively bottled up in the Adriatic . Nonetheless , the presence of the Zrínyi and other battleships tied down a substantial force of Allied ships . 
 With the war going against the Austrians by the end of 1918 , Zrínyi was prepared to be transferred to the new State of Slovenes , Croats and Serbs . On 10 November 1918 — just one day before the end of the war , navy officers sailed the battleship out of Pola ( Pula ) and eventually surrendered to a squadron of American submarine chasers . Following the handover to the United States Navy , she was briefly designated USS Zrínyi . In the Treaty of Saint @-@ Germain @-@ en @-@ Laye , the transfer was not recognized ; instead , Zrínyi was given to Italy and broken up for scrap . 
 = = Design and construction = = 
 Zrínyi was built at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino dockyard in Trieste , the same place where her sister ships were built earlier . She was laid down on 15 November 1908 and launched from the slipway on 12 April 1910 . The teak used on Zrínyi 's deck was the only material Austria @-@ Hungary had to purchase abroad to build the ship . The ship was completed by 15 July 1911 , and on 22 November 1911 she was commissioned into the fleet . She was the last ship of the class to be completed and had a crew of 880 to 890 officers and men . 
 Zrínyi was 138 @.@ 8 m ( 455 ft 4 in ) long , and had a beam of 24 @.@ 6 m ( 80 ft 8 in ) and a draft of 8 @.@ 1 m ( 26 ft 9 in ) . She displaced 14 @,@ 508 long tons ( 14 @,@ 741 t ) normally , and up to 15 @,@ 845 long tons ( 16 @,@ 099 t ) with a full combat load . She was powered by two @-@ shaft four @-@ cylinder vertical triple expansion engines rated at 19 @,@ 800 indicated horsepower . The ship had a top speed of 20 @.@ 5 knots ( 38 @.@ 0 km / h ; 23 @.@ 6 mph ) . Zrínyi was the first warship in the Austro @-@ Hungarian Navy to use fuel oil to supplement her 12 Yarrow @-@ type coal @-@ fired boilers . She had a maximum range of 4 @,@ 000 nautical miles ( 7 @,@ 400 km ; 4 @,@ 600 mi ) at a cruising speed of 10 knots ( 19 km / h ; 12 mph ) . 
 The ship 's primary armament consisted of four 30 @.@ 5 cm ( 12 in ) 45 @-@ caliber guns in two twin gun turrets . This was augmented by a heavy secondary battery of eight 24 cm ( 9 @.@ 4 in ) guns in four wing turrets . The tertiary battery consisted of twenty 10 cm L / 50 guns in casemated single mounts , four 47 mm ( 1 @.@ 85 in ) L / 44 and one 47 mm L / 33 quick @-@ firing guns . Furthermore , the ship 's boats were equipped with two 66 mm ( 2 @.@ 6 in ) landing guns for operations shore . Three 45 cm ( 17 @.@ 7 in ) torpedo tubes were also carried , one on each broadside and one in the stern . 
 = = Service history = = 
 The ship was assigned to the Austro @-@ Hungarian Fleet 's 1st Battle Squadron after her 1911 commissioning . In 1912 , Zrínyi and her two sister ships conducted two training cruises into the eastern Mediterranean Sea . On the second cruise into the Aegean Sea , conducted from November to December , Zrínyi and her sister ships were accompanied by the cruiser SMS Admiral Spaun and a pair of destroyers . After returning to Pola , the entire fleet mobilized for possible hostilities , as tensions flared in the Balkans . 
 In 1913 , Zrínyi participated in an international naval demonstration in the Ionian Sea to protest the Balkan Wars . Ships from other navies included in the demonstration were the British pre @-@ dreadnought HMS King Edward VII , the Italian pre @-@ dreadnought Ammiraglio di Saint Bon , the French armored cruiser Edgar Quinet , and the German light cruiser SMS Breslau . The most important action of the combined flotilla , which was under the command of British Admiral Cecil Burney , was to blockade the Montenegrin coast . The goal of the blockade was to prevent Serbian reinforcements from supporting the siege at Scutari , where Montenegro had besieged a combined force of Albanians and Ottomans . Pressured by the international blockade , Serbia withdrew its army from Scutari , which was subsequently occupied by a joint Allied ground force . 
 During that year , the first of four new dreadnoughts , SMS Viribus Unitis , that made up the Tegetthoff class — the only dreadnoughts built for the Austro @-@ Hungarian Navy — came into active service . With the commissioning of these dreadnoughts , Zrínyi and her sisters were moved from the 1st Division to the 2nd Division of the 1st Battle Squadron . 
 = = = World War I = = = 
 At that time of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914 , the battleships in the Austro @-@ Hungarian Navy consisted of the Radetzky class , the Tegetthoff class ( which still had one ship , SMS Szent István , under construction ) , the Erzherzog Karl class and finally , the older Habsburg class . Along with the remainder of the Austro @-@ Hungarian Navy , Zrínyi was mobilized in late July 1914 to support the flight of SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau . The two German ships broke out of Messina , which was surrounded by the British navy and reached Turkey . The flotilla had advanced as far south as Brindisi in southeastern Italy when news of the successful breakout reached Vienna . The Austro @-@ Hungarian ships were then recalled before seeing action . 
 On 23 May 1915 , between two and four hours after news of the Italian declaration of war reached the main Austro @-@ Hungarian naval base at Pola , Zrínyi and the rest of the fleet departed to bombard the Italian and Montenegrin coast . Their focus was on the important naval base at Ancona , and later the coast of Montenegro . The bombardment of Montenegro was part of the larger Austro @-@ Hungarian campaign against the Kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia , who were members of the Entente , during the first half of 1915 . The attack on Ancona was an immense success , and the ships were unopposed during the operation . The bombardment of the province and the surrounding area resulted in the destruction of an Italian steamer in the port of Ancona itself , and an Italian destroyer , Turbine , was severely damaged further south . On the shore , the infrastructure of the port of Ancona , as well as the surrounding towns , were severely damaged . The railroad yard in Ancona , as well as the port facilities in the town , were damaged or destroyed . The local shore batteries were also suppressed . During the bombardment , Zrínyi also helped to destroy a train , a railway station , and a bridge at Senigallia . Additional targets that were damaged or destroyed included wharves , warehouses , oil tanks , radio stations , and the local barracks . Sixty @-@ three Italians , both civilians and military personnel , were killed in the bombardment . By the time Italian ships from Taranto and Brindisi arrived on the scene , the Austro @-@ Hungarians were safely back in Pola . 
 The objective of the bombardment of Ancona was to delay the Italian Army from deploying its forces along the border with Austria @-@ Hungary by destroying critical transportation systems . The surprise attack on Ancona succeeded in delaying the Italian deployment to the Alps for two weeks . This delay gave Austria @-@ Hungary valuable time to strengthen its Italian border and re @-@ deploy some of its troops from the Eastern and Balkan fronts . 
 Aside from the attack on Ancona , the Austro @-@ Hungarian battleships were largely confined to Pola for the duration of the war . Their operations were limited by Admiral Anton Haus , the commander of the Austro @-@ Hungarian Navy , who believed that he would need to husband his ships to counter any Italian attempt to seize the Dalmatian coast . Since coal was diverted to the newer Tegetthoff @-@ class battleships , the remainder of the war saw Zrínyi and the rest of the Austro @-@ Hungarian Navy acting as a fleet in being . This resulted in the Allied blockade of the Otranto Strait . With his fleet blockaded in the Adriatic Sea , and with a shortage of coal , Haus followed a strategy based on mines and submarines designed to reduce the numerical superiority of the Allied navies . 
 = = = Post @-@ war fate = = = 
 After the Austro @-@ Hungarian Empire collapsed in 1918 , the Austrians wanted to turn the fleet over to the newly created State of Slovenes , Croats and Serbs ( later to become a part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia ) in order to prevent the Italians from claiming the ships as spoils of war . However , the victorious Allies refused to acknowledge the conversations between the Austrians and the south Slavs and , in due course , reallocated the ships . The ship had been boarded by a scratch Yugoslav crew on 10 November 1918 , one day before the Armistice , and had left Pola with her sister ship , Radetzky . They were soon spotted by heavy Italian ships , so the two battleships hoisted American flags and sailed south along the Adriatic coast to Castelli Bay near Spalato ( also known as Split ) . They appealed for American naval forces to meet them and accept their surrender , which a squadron of United States Navy ( USN ) submarine chasers in the area did . She had apparently been turned over to the fledgling south Slav state , as it was a Croat naval officer , Korvettenkapitän Marijan Polić , who presented the ship as a prize of war to representatives of the United States Navy on the afternoon of 22 November 1919 at Spalato ( Split ) in Dalmatia . Simultaneously she was commissioned as USS Zrínyi and Lieutenant E.E. Hazlett , USN , assumed command . The initial American complement consisted of four officers and 174 enlisted men — the latter entirely composed of United States Navy Reserve Force personnel . The ship remained at anchor at Spalato for nearly a year while the negotiations that would determine her ultimate fate dragged on . Only once did she apparently turn her engines over , and that occurred during a severe gale that struck Spalato on 9 February 1920 . 
 On the morning of 7 November 1920 , Zrínyi was decommissioned . USS Chattanooga took her in tow and , assisted by Brooks and Hovey , towed the battleship to Italy . Under the terms of the treaties of Versailles and St. Germain , Zrínyi was ultimately turned over to the Italian government at Venice . She was broken up for scrap later that year and into 1921 . 
 = Geopyxis carbonaria = 
 Geopyxis carbonaria is a species of fungus in the genus Geopyxis , family Pyronemataceae . First described to science in 1805 , and given its current name in 1889 , the species is commonly known as the charcoal loving elf @-@ cup , dwarf acorn cup , stalked bonfire cup , or pixie cup . The small , goblet @-@ shaped fruitbodies of the fungus are reddish @-@ brown with a whitish fringe and measure up to 2 cm ( 0 @.@ 8 in ) across . They have a short , tapered stalk . Fruitbodies are commonly found on soil where brush has recently been burned , sometimes in great numbers . The fungus is distributed throughout many temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere . It is found in Europe , Turkey , and North America . Although it is primarily a saprotrophic species , feeding on the decomposing organic matter remaining after a fire , it also forms biotrophic associations with the roots of Norway spruce . 
 = = Taxonomy = = 
 The fungus was first described scientifically in 1805 by Johannes Baptista von Albertini and Lewis David de Schweinitz as Peziza carbonaria . Mordecai Cubitt Cooke illustrated the fruitbodies , spores , and asci in his 1879 work Mycographia , seu Icones fungorum . Figures of fungi from all parts of the world . In 1889 , Pier Andrea Saccardo transferred the fungus to the genus Geopyxis , giving the species its current name . Pustularia carbonaria , published by Heinrich Rehm in 1884 , is a synonym of G. carbonaria . Louis @-@ Joseph Grélet proposed the variety Geopyxis carbonaria var. sessilis in 1937 , referring to forms producing fruitbodies without a stalk , but the taxon is not considered to have independent taxonomic significance . In 1860 Miles Berkeley and Moses Ashley Curtis described the species Peziza lepida from collections made in Japan as part of the North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition ( 1853 – 1856 ) . This taxon was synonymized with G. carbonaria by Mien Rifai in 1968 , a taxonomic opinion corroborated by Donald Pfister about a decade later . 
 The specific epithet carbonaria derives from the Latin word for " charcoal " . Common names given to the fungus include " charcoal loving elf @-@ cup " , " dwarf acorn cup " , " pixie cup " , and the British Mycological Society approved " stalked bonfire cup " . 
 = = Description = = 
 The fruitbodies ( ascocarps ) of Geopyxis carbonaris are cup shaped , 1 – 2 cm wide , and have fringed whitish margins . The inner spore @-@ bearing surface of the cup , the hymenium , is brick red and smooth , while the exterior surface is a dull yellow , and may be either smooth or have blister @-@ like spots ( pustules ) . The stipe is small ( 1 – 1 @.@ 5 mm long and 1 – 2 mm wide ) , whitish in color , and expands abruptly into the cup . The brownish flesh of the fungus is thin and brittle . It does not have any distinctive taste , but has an unpleasant smell when crushed in water . The edibility of the fungus is not known , but the fruitbodies are insubstantial and unlikely to be harvested for eating . 
 = = = Microscopic characteristics = = = 
 In mass , the spores are whitish . The spores are elliptical , smooth , hyaline , devoid of oil droplets ( eguttulate ) , and have dimensions of 13 – 18 by 7 – 9 µm . They are thin walled and germinate and grow rapidly in vitro in the absence of external stimuli . The asci are 190 – 225 by 9 – 10 µm . The paraphyses are slightly club @-@ shaped , unbranched , and have irregular orange @-@ brown granules , with tips up to 5 µm wide , and are not forked or lobed . The hypothecium , the layer of cells below the hymenium , is made of densely packed , small irregular cells . 
 = = = Similar species = = = 
 The closely related vulcan elf cup ( Geopyxis vulcanalis ) has a pale orange to yellowish fruitbody that is deeply cup shaped before flattening in maturity , and its crushed flesh often has an odor of sulfur . It may be distinguished microscopically by its paraphyses , which lack the orange @-@ brown granules characteristic of G. carbonaria . It also has larger spores , measuring 14 – 22 by 8 – 11 µm . Unlike G. carbonaria , it grows on substrates other than burned wood , including mosses , and needle duff . Tarzetta cupularis , which grows habitats similar to G. carbonaria , is distinguished microscopically by its spores that contain two oil droplets . Other genera with similar species with which G. carbonaria may be confused in the field include Aleuria , Caloscypha , Melastiza , and Sowerbyella . 
 = = Habitat and distribution = = 
 Geopyxis carbonaria is widespread on burned soil or charcoal in the spring and throughout the growing season . It is one of the most common pioneer species found on burned ground . The charred litter on the forest floor increases the underlying soil pH as well as the availability of minerals . Fruitbodies are produced from 16 to 139 weeks after a forest fire in areas with coniferous trees . Most fruitbodies are produced in the first year after a burn . The fungus prefers fruiting in microhabitats with thin postfire duff near standing burned tree trunks . Geopyxis carbonaria fruitbodies are often found in the same post @-@ fire stands as morels , although the former is usually more abundant . Because the pixie cup fruits earlier than morels , it may serve as an indicator of imminent morel fruiting . Other cup fungi often found fruiting in the same area as G. carbonaria include those from the genera Aleuria , Anthracobia , Peziza , and Tarzetta . 
 The fungus is found in Europe ( from where it was originally described ) , and is widespread throughout North America . The North American distribution extends north to Alaska . In 2010 , it was reported for the first time from Turkey . 
 = = Ecology = = 
 Although primarily a saprotrophic fungus involved in the post @-@ fire breakdown of duff and coniferous roots , Geopyxis carbonaria has been shown to be capable of forming ectomycorrhizae with Norway spruce ( Picea abies ) . It had been demonstrated earlier in laboratory experiments that the fungus has a biotrophic interaction with lodgepole pine ( Pinus contorta ) . The hyphae of G. carbonaria were able to infect the cortex of the tree seedling , but did not penetrate the endodermis . These traits suggest that the fungus is a moderate pathogen , with limited ability to cause reductions in seed germination . Additionally , the fungus produces the enzyme polyphenol oxidase , and can break down the complex organic polymer lignin — features characteristic of saprotrophic fungi . The formation of a rudimentary Hartig net , a characteristic of mycorrhizal fungi , indicated that G. carbonaria might be capable of forming mutualistic relationships under the right conditions . Vrålstad and colleagues suggest that its below @-@ ground association with spruce roots protects it from physical damage in the event of a fire , and the extensive fruitbody production after a fire may reflect " a successful fungal escape from a dying host where the fungus no longer can maintain its biotrophic association " . 
 Large fruitings of the fungus are often associated with damage to the host tree , such as that which occurs with burning . A field study conducted in Norway demonstrated that fruit bodies were more likely to be found in areas that were heavily burned , compared to locations with light to moderate burning where the trees remained viable , or in clearcut areas . Fruiting was much denser in spruce forests — with up to 700 – 1000 fruitbodies per square meter — than in pine forests , where fruitbodies were sporadic . Fruitbodies grew by the millions in the year following the Yellowstone fires of 1988 . 
 = Gold dollar = 
 The gold dollar or gold one @-@ dollar piece was a coin struck as a regular issue by the United States Bureau of the Mint from 1849 to 1889 . The coin had three types over its lifetime , all designed by Mint Chief Engraver James B. Longacre . The Type 1 issue had the smallest diameter of any United States coin ever minted . 
 A gold dollar had been proposed several times in the 1830s and 1840s , but was not initially adopted . Congress was finally galvanized into action by the increased supply of bullion caused by the California gold rush , and in 1849 authorized a gold dollar . In its early years , silver coins were being hoarded or exported , and the gold dollar found a ready place in commerce . Silver again circulated after Congress in 1853 required that new coins of that metal be made lighter , and the gold dollar became a rarity in commerce even before federal coins vanished from circulation because of the economic disruption caused by the American Civil War . 
 Gold did not again circulate in most of the nation until 1879 ; once it did , the gold dollar did not regain its place . In its final years , it was struck in small numbers , causing speculation by hoarders . It was also in demand to be mounted in jewelry . The regular issue gold dollar was last struck in 1889 ; the following year , Congress ended the series . 
 = = Background = = 
 In proposing his plan for a mint and a coinage system , Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in 1791 proposed that the one @-@ dollar denomination be struck both as a gold coin , and as one of silver , representative of the two metals which he proposed be made legal tender . Congress followed Hamilton 's recommendation only in part , authorizing a silver dollar , but no coin of that denomination in gold . 
 In 1831 , the first gold dollar was minted , at the private mint of Christopher Bechtler in North Carolina . Much of the gold then being produced in the United States came from the mountains of North Carolina and Georgia , and the dollars and other small gold coins issued by Bechtler circulated through that region , and were now and then seen further away . Additional one @-@ dollar pieces were struck by August Bechtler , Christopher 's son . 
 Soon after the Bechtlers began to strike their private issues , Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury became an advocate of having the Mint of the United States ( " Mint " , when described as an institution ) strike the one @-@ dollar denomination in gold . He was opposed by the Mint Director , Robert M. Patterson . Woodbury persuaded President Andrew Jackson to have pattern coins struck . In response , Patterson had Mint Second Engraver Christian Gobrecht break off work on the new design for the silver one @-@ dollar coin and work on a pattern for the gold dollar . Gobrecht 's design featured a Liberty cap surrounded by rays on one side , and a palm branch arranged in a circle with the denomination , date , and name of the country on the other . 
 Consideration was given to including the gold dollar as an authorized denomination in the revisionary legislation that became the Mint Act of 1837 . The Philadelphia newspaper Public Ledger , in December 1836 , supported a gold dollar , stating that " the dollar is the smallest gold coin that would be convenient , and as it would be eminently so , neither silver nor paper should be allowed to take its place . " Nevertheless , after Mint Director Patterson appeared before a congressional committee , the provision authorizing the gold dollar was deleted from the bill . 
 = = Inception = = 
 In January 1844 , North Carolina Representative James Iver McKay , the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means , solicited the views of Director Patterson on the gold dollar . Patterson had more of Gobrecht 's pattern dollar struck to show to committee members , again advising against a coin that if issued would be only about a half inch ( 13 mm ) in diameter . He told Treasury Secretary John C. Spencer that the only gold coins of that size in commerce , the Spanish and Colombian half @-@ escudos , were unpopular and had not been struck for more than twenty years . This seemed to satisfy the committee as nothing more was done for the time , and when a gold dollar was proposed again in 1846 , McKay 's committee recommended against it . 
 Even before 1848 , record amounts of gold were flowing to American mints to be struck into coin , but the California Gold Rush vastly increased these quantities . This renewed calls for a gold dollar , as well as for a higher denomination than the eagle ( $ 10 piece ) , then the largest gold coin . In January 1849 , McKay introduced a bill for a gold dollar , which was referred to his committee . There was much discussion in the press about the proposed coin ; one newspaper published a proposal for an annular gold dollar , that is , with a hole in the middle to increase its small diameter . McKay amended his legislation to provide for a double eagle ( $ 20 gold coin ) and wrote to Patterson , who replied stating that the annular gold dollar would not work , and neither would another proposal to have dollar piece consisting of a gold plug in a silver coin . Nevertheless , Gobrecht 's successor as chief engraver , James B. Longacre , prepared patterns , including some with a square hole in the middle . 
 McKay got his fellow Democrat , New Hampshire Senator Charles Atherton , to introduce the bill to authorize the gold dollar and the double eagle in the Senate on February 1 , 1849 — Atherton was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee . McKay introduced a version into the House on February 20 ; debate began the same day . The dollar was attacked by congressmen from the Whig Party , then in the minority , on the grounds that it would be too small , would be counterfeited and in bad light might be mistakenly spent as a half dime , the coins being similar in size . McKay did not respond substantively , but stated that if no one wanted these denominations , they would not be called for at the Mint , and would not be coined . Pennsylvania Representative Joseph Ingersoll , a Whig , spoke against the bill , noting that Patterson opposed the new denominations , and that the idea had been repeatedly turned down , whenever considered . Another Whig , Massachusetts 's Charles Hudson , related that Patterson had sent a real and a counterfeit gold dollar to his committee and the majority of members had been unable to tell the difference . McKay made no answer to these claims , but others did , including New York Congressman Henry Nicoll , who assured the House that the counterfeiting allegations were greatly exaggerated . The point was , he indicated , that the double eagle and gold dollar were wanted by the public , and , in the case of the gold dollar could help money circulate in small communities where banknotes were not accepted . Connecticut Representative John A. Rockwell , a Whig , tried to table the bill , but his motion was defeated . The bill passed easily , and met only minimal opposition in the Senate , becoming law on March 3 , 1849 . 
 = = Preparation = = 
 The officers at the Philadelphia Mint , including Chief Coiner Franklin Peale , were mostly the friends and relations of Director Patterson . The outsider in their midst was Chief Engraver James B. Longacre , successor to Gobrecht ( who had died in 1844 ) . A former copper @-@ plate engraver , Longacre had been appointed through the political influence of South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun . 
 When Longacre began work on the two new coins in early 1849 , he had no one to assist him . Longacre wrote the following year that he had been warned by a Mint employee that one of the officers ( undoubtedly Peale ) planned to undermine the chief engraver 's position by having the work of preparing designs and dies done outside Mint premises . Accordingly , when the gold coin bill became law , Longacre apprised Patterson that he was ready to begin work on the gold dollar . The Mint Director agreed , and after viewing a model of the head on the obverse , authorized Longacre to proceed with preparation of dies . According to Longacre , 
 The engraving was unusually minute and required very close and incessant labor for several weeks . I made the original dies and hubs for making the working dies twice over , to secure their perfect adaptation to the coining machinery . I had a wish to execute this work single handed , that I might thus silently reply to those who had questioned my ability for the work . The result , I believe , was satisfactory . 
 = = Original design = = 
 The Type 1 gold dollar depicts a head of Liberty , facing left , with a coronet or tiara on her head bearing her name . Her hair is gathered in a bun ; she is surrounded by 13 stars representing the original states . The reverse features the date and denomination within a wreath , with the name of the nation near the rim . 
 Contemporary reviews of the Type 1 design were generally favorable . The New York Weekly Tribune on May 19 , 1849 described the new dollar as " undoubtedly the neatest , tiniest , lightest , coin in this country ... it is too delicate and beautiful to pay out for potatoes , and sauerkraut , and salt pork . Oberon might have paid Puck with it for bringing the blossom which bewitched Titania . " Willis ' Bank Note List stated that " there is no probability of them ever getting into general circulation ; they are altogether too small . " The North Carolina Standard hoped that they would be struck at the Charlotte Mint and circulated locally to eliminate the problem of small @-@ denomination bank notes from out of state . Coin dealer and numismatic author Q. David Bowers notes that the head of Liberty on the Type 1 dollar is a scaled @-@ down version of that on the double eagle , and " a nicely preserved gold dollar is beautiful to behold " . 
 = = Modifications = = 
 Mint records indicate the first gold dollars were produced on May 7 , 1849 ; Longacre 's diary notes state instead that the first were struck on May 8 . A few coins in proof condition were struck on the first day , along with about 1 @,@ 000 for circulation . There are five major varieties of the 1849 gold dollar from Philadelphia , made as Longacre continued to fine @-@ tune the design . Mintmarked dies were sent by Longacre 's Engraving Department at the Philadelphia Mint to the branch mints at Charlotte , Dahlonega ( in Georgia ) , and New Orleans ; coins struck at the branches resemble some of the types issued from Philadelphia , depending on when the dies were produced . Of the coins struck at the branch mints in 1849 , only pieces struck at Charlotte ( 1849 @-@ C ) exist in multiple varieties ; most are of what is dubbed the " Closed Wreath " variety . Approximately five of the 1849 @-@ C Open Wreath are known ; one , believed the finest surviving specimen , sold at auction for $ 690 @,@ 000 in 2004 , remaining a record for the gold dollar series as of 2013 . One of the changes made during production was the inclusion of Longacre 's initial " L " on the truncation of Liberty 's neck , the first time a U.S. coin intended for full @-@ scale production had borne the initial of its designer . All issues beginning in 1850 bear the Closed Wreath . Beginning in 1854 , the gold dollar was also struck at the new San Francisco Mint . 
 The continued flow of gold from California made silver expensive in terms of gold , and U.S. silver coins began to flow out of the country for melting in 1849 , a flow that accelerated over the next several years as the price of the metal continued to rise . By 1853 , a thousand dollars in silver coin contained $ 1 @,@ 042 worth of bullion . As silver coins vanished , the gold dollar became the only federal coin in circulation between the cent and the quarter eagle ( $ 2 @.@ 50 piece ) . As such , it was struck in large numbers and widely circulated . According to Bowers in his book on the denomination , " the years 1850 to 1853 were the high @-@ water mark of the gold dollar , the glory years of the denomination when the little gold coins took the place of half dollars and silver dollars in everyday transactions . " This time came to an end in 1853 when Congress passed an act reducing the weight of most silver coins , allowing new issues of them to circulate . 
 As early as 1851 , New York Congressman William Duer alleged that that Patterson had made the gold dollar too small in diameter on purpose to provoke criticism . Patterson retired that year after 16 years in his position , and under his successor , George N. Eckert , annular gold dollar and half dollar patterns were struck . Public Ledger reported that although gold dollars would not be struck in annular form , gold half dollars would be , to help fill the need for change . With the new Pierce administration , Thomas M. Pettit took office as Mint Director on March 31 , 1853 . In April , Treasury Secretary James Guthrie wrote to Pettit that there were complaints that the gold dollar was too small , often lost or mistaken for a small silver coin , and enquiring about reports the Mint had experimented with annular dollars . Pettit replied , stating that none had been preserved , but enclosed a silver piece of equivalent size . He noted that while there would be technical difficulties in the production of the annular dollar , these could be overcome . In a letter dated May 10 , Pettit proposed an oval @-@ shaped holed piece , or an angular @-@ shaped coin , which would lessen the production problems . Pettit died suddenly on May 31 ; Guthrie did not let the issue fall , but queried Pettit 's replacement , James Ross Snowden , concerning the issue on June 7 . As U.S. coins were required to bear some device emblematic of liberty , the secretary hoped that artists could be found who could find some such design for an annular coin . 
 The Act of February 21 , 1853 , that had lightened the silver coins also authorized a gold three @-@ dollar piece , which began to be produced in 1854 . To ensure that the three @-@ dollar piece was not mistaken for other gold coins , it had been made thinner and wider than it would normally be , and Longacre put a distinctive design with an Indian princess on it . Longacre adapted both the technique and the design for the gold dollar , which was made thinner , and thus wider . An adaptation of Longacre 's princess for the larger gold coin was placed on the dollar , and a similar agricultural wreath on the reverse . The idea of making the gold dollar larger in this way had been suggested in Congress as early as 1852 , and had been advocated by Pettit , but Guthrie 's desire for an annular coin stalled the matter . In May 1854 , Snowden sent Guthrie a letter stating that the difficulties with an annular coin , especially in getting the coins to eject properly from the press , were more than trivial . 
 Nevertheless , the Type 2 gold dollar ( as it came to be known ) proved unsatisfactory as the mints had difficulty in striking the new coin so that all details were brought out . This was due to the high relief of the design — the three Southern branch mints especially had trouble with the piece . Many of the Type 2 pieces quickly became illegible , and were sent back to Philadelphia for melting and recoinage . On most surviving specimens , the " 85 " in the date is not fully detailed . The Type 2 gold dollar was struck only at Philadelphia in 1854 and 1855 , at the three Southern branch mints in the latter year , and at San Francisco in 1856 , after the design was designated for replacement . To correct the problems , Longacre enlarged the head of Liberty , making it a scaled @-@ down version of the three @-@ dollar piece , and moved the lettering on the obverse closer to the rim . This improved the metal flow and design sharpness so much that early numismatic scholars assumed the reverse was also altered , though in fact no change was made and the Type 2 and Type 3 reverses are identical . 
 = = = Design of Type 2 and 3 dollars = = = 
 The Type 2 and 3 gold dollars depict Liberty as a Native American princess , with a fanciful feathered headdress not resembling any worn by any Indian tribe . This image is an inexact copy of the design Longacre had made for the three @-@ dollar piece , and is one of a number of versions of Liberty Longacre created based on the Venus Accroupie or Crouching Venus , a sculpture then on display in a Philadelphia museum . For the reverse , Longacre adapted the " agricultural wreath " he had created for the reverse of the three @-@ dollar piece , composed of cotton , corn , tobacco , and wheat , blending the produce of North and South . This wreath would appear , later in the 1850s , on the Flying Eagle cent . 
 Art historian Cornelius Vermeule deprecated the Indian princess design used by Longacre for the obverses of the Types 2 and 3 gold dollar , and for the three @-@ dollar piece , " the ' princess ' of the gold coins is a banknote engraver 's elegant version of folk art of the 1850s . The plumes or feathers are more like the crest of the Prince of Wales than anything that saw the Western frontiers , save perhaps on a music hall beauty . " 
 = = War years = = 
 The gold dollar continued to be produced in the late 1850s , though mintages declined from the figures of two million or more each year between 1850 and 1854 . Only about 51 @,@ 000 gold dollars were produced in 1860 , with over two @-@ thirds of that figure at Philadelphia , just under a third at San Francisco , and 1 @,@ 566 at Dahlonega . Roughly a hundred are known of the last , creating one of the great rarities from Dahlonega in the series . 
 The other candidate for the rarest from that mint is the 1861 @-@ D , with an estimated mintage of 1 @,@ 000 and perhaps 45 to 60 known . Two pairs of dies were shipped from Philadelphia to Dahlonega on December 10 , 1860 ; they arrived on January 7 , 1861 , two weeks before Georgia voted to secede from the Union , as the American Civil War began . Under orders from Governor Joseph E. Brown , state militia secured the mint , and at some point , small quantities of dollars and half eagles were produced . Records of how many coins were struck and when have not survived . Since dies crack in time , and all the mints were supplied with them from Philadelphia , coining could not last , and in May 1861 , coins and supplies remaining at Dahlonega were turned over to the treasury of the Confederate States of America , which Georgia had by then joined . Gold coins with a face value of $ 6 were put aside for assay . Normally , they would have been sent to Philadelphia to await the following year 's meeting of the United States Assay Commission , when they would be available for testing . Instead , these were sent to the initial Confederate capital of Montgomery , Alabama , though what was done with them there , and their ultimate fate , are unknown . The rarity of the 1861 @-@ D dollar , and the association with the Confederacy , make it especially prized . 
 Dahlonega , like the other two branch mints in the South , closed its doors after the 1861 strikings . It and the Charlotte facility never reopened ; the New Orleans Mint again struck coins from 1879 to 1909 , but did not strike gold dollars again . After 1861 , the only issuance of gold dollars outside Philadelphia was at San Francisco , in 1870 . 
 The outbreak of the Civil War shook public confidence in the Union , and citizens began hoarding specie , gold and silver coins . In late December 1861 , banks and then the federal Treasury stopped paying out gold at face value . By mid @-@ 1862 , all federal coins , even the base metal cent , had vanished from commerce in much of the country . The exception was the Far West , where for the most part , only gold and silver were acceptable currencies , and paper money traded at a discount . In the rest of the nation , gold and silver coins could be purchased from banks , exchange agents , and from the Treasury for a premium in the new greenbacks the government began to issue to fill the gap in commerce and finance the war . 
 = = Final years , abolition , and collecting = = 
 Since gold did not circulate in the United States ( except on the West Coast ) in the postwar period , much of the production of coins of that metal in the United States was double eagles for export . Accordingly , although 1 @,@ 361 @,@ 355 gold dollars were struck in 1862 — the last time production would exceed a million — the mintage fell to 6 @,@ 200 in 1863 and remained low for the rest of the coin 's existence , excepting 1873 and 1874 . The Mint felt it improper to suspend coinage of a coin authorized by Congress , and issued proof coins ( generally a few dozen to the tiny numismatic community ) from specially @-@ polished dies , also producing enough circulation strikes so that the proof coins would not be unduly rare . In 1873 and 1874 , old and worn gold dollars held by the government were melted and recoined , generating large mintages of that denomination . This was done in anticipation of the resumption of specie payments , which did not occur until the end of 1878 . Once specie again circulated at face value , the gold dollar found no place in commerce amid large quantities of silver coinage , either released from hoarding or newly struck by the Mint . The government expected that the resumption of specie payments would cause the dollar and other small gold coins to circulate again , but the public , allowed to redeem paper currency , continued to use it as more convenient than coins . 
 In the 1870s and 1880s , public interest grew in the low @-@ mintage gold dollar . Collecting coins was becoming more popular , and a number of numismatists put aside some gold dollars and hoped for increases in value . The Mint most likely channeled its production through some favored Philadelphia dealers , though proof coins could be purchased for $ 1 @.@ 25 at the cashier 's window at the Philadelphia facility . Banks charged a premium for circulation strikes . They were popular in the jewelry trade , mounted into various items . The coins were often exported to China or Japan , where such jewelry was made . The dollars were often damaged in the process ; the Mint refused to sell into this trade and did its best to hinder it . Nevertheless , Mint officials concluded that jewelers were successful at getting the majority of each issue . Proof mintages exceeded 1 @,@ 000 by 1884 , and remained above that mark for the remainder of the series , numbers likely inflated by agents of jewelers , willing to pay the Mint 's premium of $ .25 per coin . Another use for the gold dollar was as a holiday gift ; after its abolition the quarter eagle became a popular present . 
 James Pollock , in his final report as Mint Director in 1873 , advocated limiting striking of gold dollars to depositors who specifically requested it . " The gold dollar is not a convenient coin , on account of its small size , and it suffers more proportionately from abrasion than larger coins . " His successors called for its abolition , with James P. Kimball , before he left office in 1889 , writing to Congress that except as jewelry , " little practical use has been found for this coin " . Later that year , the new director , Edward O. Leech , issued a report stating that the gold dollar " is too small for circulation , and ... [ is ] used almost exclusively for the purposes of ornament . The last year in which the gold dollar was struck was 1889 . Congress abolished the gold dollar , along with the three @-@ cent nickel and three @-@ dollar piece , by the Act of September 26 , 1890 . 
 A total of 19 @,@ 499 @,@ 337 gold dollars were coined , of which 18 @,@ 223 @,@ 438 were struck at Philadelphia , 1 @,@ 004 @,@ 000 at New Orleans , 109 @,@ 138 at Charlotte , 90 @,@ 232 at San Francisco and 72 @,@ 529 at Dahlonega . According to an advertisement in the February 1899 issue of The Numismatist , gold dollars brought $ 1 @.@ 80 each , still in demand as a birthday present and for jewelry . That journal in 1905 carried news of a customer depositing 100 gold dollars into a bank ; the teller , aware of the value , credited the account with $ 1 @.@ 60 per coin . In 1908 , a dealer offered $ 2 each for any quantity . As coin collecting became a widespread pastime in the early 20th century , gold dollars became a popular specialty , a status they retain . The 2014 edition of R.S. Yeoman 's A Guide Book of United States Coins rates the least expensive gold dollar in very fine condition ( VF @-@ 20 ) at $ 300 , a value given for each of the Type 1 Philadelphia issues from 1849 to 1853 . Those seeking one of each type will find the most expensive to be a specimen of the Type 2 , with the 1854 and 1855 estimated at $ 350 in that condition ; the other two types have dates valued at $ 300 in that grade . 
 = = Commemorative gold dollars = = 
 The gold dollar had a brief resurrection during the period of Early United States commemorative coins . Between 1903 and 1922 nine different issues were produced , with a total mintage of 99 @,@ 799 . These were minted for various public events , did not circulate , and none used Longacre 's design . 
 = Johnson – Corey – Chaykovsky reaction = 
 The Johnson – Corey – Chaykovsky reaction ( sometimes referred to as the Corey – Chaykovsky reaction or CCR ) is a chemical reaction used in organic chemistry for the synthesis of epoxides , aziridines , and cyclopropanes . It was discovered in 1961 by A. William Johnson and developed significantly by E. J. Corey and Michael Chaykovsky . The reaction involves addition of a sulfur ylide to a ketone , aldehyde , imine , or enone to produce the corresponding 3 @-@ membered ring . The reaction is diastereoselective favoring trans substitution in the product regardless of the initial stereochemistry . The synthesis of epoxides via this method serves as an important retrosynthetic alternative to the traditional epoxidation reactions of olefins . 
 The reaction is most often employed for epoxidation via methylene transfer , and to this end has been used in several notable total syntheses ( See Synthesis of epoxides below ) . Additionally detailed below are the history , mechanism , scope , and enantioselective variants of the reaction . Several reviews have been published . 
 = = History = = 
 The original publication by Johnson concerned the reaction of 9 @-@ dimethylsulfonium fluorenylide with substituted benzaldehyde derivatives . The attempted Wittig @-@ like reaction failed and a benzalfluorene oxide was obtained instead , noting that " Reaction between the sulfur ylid and benzaldehydes did not afford benzalfluorenes as had the phosphorus and arsenic ylids . " 
 The subsequent development of ( dimethyloxosulfaniumyl ) methanide , ( CH3 ) 2SOCH2 and ( dimethylsulfaniumyl ) methanide , ( CH3 ) 2SCH2 ( known as Corey – Chaykovsky reagents ) by Corey and Chaykovsky as efficient methylene @-@ transfer reagents established the reaction as a part of the organic canon . 
 = = Mechanism = = 
 The reaction mechanism for the Johnson – Corey – Chaykovsky reaction consists of nucleophilic addition of the ylide to the carbonyl or imine group . A negative charge is transferred to the heteroatom and because the sulfonium cation is a good leaving group it gets expelled forming the ring . In the related Wittig reaction , the formation of the much stronger phosphorus @-@ oxygen double bond prevents oxirane formation and instead , olefination takes place through a 4 @-@ membered cyclic intermediate . 
 The trans diastereoselectivity observed results from the reversibility of the initial addition , allowing equilibration to the favored anti betaine over the syn betaine . Initial addition of the ylide results in a betaine with adjacent charges ; density functional theory calculations have shown that the rate @-@ limiting step is rotation of the central bond into the conformer necessary for backside attack on the sulfonium . 
 The degree of reversibility in the initial step ( and therefore the diastereoselectivity ) depends on four factors , with greater reversibility corresponding to higher selectivity : 
 Stability of the substrate with higher stability leading to greater reversibility by favoring the starting material over the betaine . 
 Stability of the ylide with higher stability similarly leading to greater reversibility . 
 Steric hindrance in the betaine with greater hindrance leading to greater reversibility by disfavoring formation of the intermediate and slowing the rate @-@ limiting rotation of the central bond . 
 Solvation of charges in the betaine by counterions such as lithium with greater solvation allowing more facile rotation in the betaine intermediate , lowering the amount of reversibility . 
 = = Scope = = 
 The application of the Johnson – Corey – Chaykovsky reaction in organic synthesis is diverse . The reaction has come to encompass reactions of many types of sulfur ylides with electrophiles well beyond the original publications . It has seen use in a number of high @-@ profile total syntheses , as detailed below , and is generally recognized as a powerful transformative tool in the organic repertoire . 
 = = = Types of ylides = = = 
 Many types of ylides can be prepared with various functional groups both on the anionic carbon center and on the sulfur . The substitution pattern can influence the ease of preparation for the reagents ( typically from the sulfonium halide , e.g. trimethylsulfonium iodide ) and overall reaction rate in various ways . The general format for the reagent is shown on the right . 
 Use of a sulfoxonium allows more facile preparation of the reagent using weaker bases as compared to sulfonium ylides . ( The difference being that a sulfoxonium contains a doubly bonded oxygen whereas the sulfonium does not . ) The former react slower due to their increased stability . In addition , the dialkylsulfoxide by @-@ products of sulfoxonium reagents are greatly preferred to the significantly more toxic , volatile , and odorous dialkylsulfide by @-@ products from sulfonium reagents . 
 The vast majority of reagents are monosubstituted at the ylide carbon ( either R1 or R2 as hydrogen ) . Disubstituted reagents are much rarer but have been described : 
 If the ylide carbon is substituted with an electron @-@ withdrawing group ( EWG ) , the reagent is referred to as a stabilized ylide . These , similarly to sulfoxonium reagents , react much slower and are typically easier to prepare . These are limited in their usefulness as the reaction can become prohibitively sluggish : examples involving amides are widespread , with many fewer involving esters and virtually no examples involving other EWG 's . For these , the related Darzens reaction is typically more appropriate . 
 If the ylide carbon is substituted with an aryl or allyl group , the reagent is referred to as a semi @-@ stabilized ylide . These have been developed extensively , second only to the classical methylene reagents ( R1 = R2 = H ) . The substitution pattern on aryl reagents can heavily influence the selectivity of the reaction as per the criteria above . 
 If the ylide carbon is substituted with an alkyl group the reagent is referred to as an unstabilized ylide . The size of the alkyl groups are the major factors in selectivity with these reagents . 
 The R @-@ groups on the sulfur , though typically methyls , have been used to synthesize reagents that can perform enantioselective variants of the reaction ( See Variations below ) . The size of the groups can also influence diastereoselectivity in alicyclic substrates . 
 = = = Synthesis of epoxides = = = 
 Reactions of sulfur ylides with ketones and aldehydes to form epoxides are by far the most common application of the Johnson – Corey – Chaykovsky reaction . Examples involving complex substrates and ' exotic ' ylides have been reported , as shown below . 
 The reaction has been used in a number of notable total syntheses including the Danishefsky Taxol total synthesis , which produces the chemotherapeutic drug taxol , and the Kuehne Strychnine total synthesis which produces the pesticide strychnine . 
 = = = Synthesis of aziridines = = = 
 The synthesis of aziridines from imines is another important application of the Johnson – Corey – Chaykovsky reaction and provides an alternative to amine transfer from oxaziridines . Though less widely applied , the reaction has a similar substrate scope and functional group tolerance to the carbonyl equivalent . The examples shown below are representative ; in the latter , an aziridine forms in situ and is opened via nucleophilic attack to form the corresponding amine . 
 = = = Synthesis of cyclopropanes = = = 
 For addition of sulfur ylides to enones , higher 1 @,@ 4 @-@ selectivity is typically obtained with sulfoxonium reagents than with sulfonium reagents . Many electron @-@ withdrawing groups have been shown compatible with the reaction including ketones , esters , and amides ( the example below involves a Weinreb amide ) . With further conjugated systems 1 @,@ 6 @-@ addition tends to predominate over 1 @,@ 4 @-@ addition . 
 = = = Other reactions = = = 
 In addition to the reactions originally reported by Johnson , Corey , and Chaykovsky , sulfur ylides have been used for a number of related homologation reactions that tend to be grouped under the same name . 
 With epoxides and aziridines the reaction serves as a ring @-@ expansion to produce the corresponding oxetane or azetidine . The long reaction times required for these reactions prevent them from occurring as significant side reactions when synthesizing epoxides and aziridines . 
 Several cycloadditions wherein the ylide serves as a " nucleophilic carbenoid equivalent " have been reported . 
 Living polymerizations using trialkylboranes as the catalyst and ( dimethyloxosulfaniumyl ) methanide as the monomer have been reported for the synthesis of various complex polymers . 
 = = Enantioselective variations = = 
 The development of an enantioselective ( i.e. yielding an enantiomeric excess , which is labelled as " ee " ) variant of the Johnson – Corey – Chaykovsky reaction remains an active area of academic research . The use of chiral sulfides in a stoichiometric fashion has proved more successful than the corresponding catalytic variants , but the substrate scope is still limited in all cases . The catalytic variants have been developed almost exclusively for enantioselective purposes ; typical organosulfide reagents are not prohibitively expensive and the racemic reactions can be carried out with equimolar amounts of ylide without raising costs significantly . Chiral sulfides , on the other hand , are more costly to prepare , spurring the advancement of catalytic enantioselective methods . 
 = = = Stoichiometric reagents = = = 
 The most successful reagents employed in a stoichiometric fashion are shown below . The first is a bicyclic oxathiane that has been employed in the synthesis of the β @-@ adrenergic compound dichloroisoproterenol ( DCI ) but is limited by the availability of only one enantiomer of the reagent . The synthesis of the axial diastereomer is rationalized via the 1 @,@ 3 @-@ anomeric effect which reduces the nucleophilicity of the equatorial lone pair . The conformation of the ylide is limited by transannular strain and approach of the aldehyde is limited to one face of the ylide by steric interactions with the methyl substituents . 
 The other major reagent is a camphor @-@ derived reagent developed by Varinder Aggarwal of the University of Bristol . Both enantiomers are easily synthesized , although the yields are lower than for the oxathiane reagent . The ylide conformation is determined by interaction with the bridgehead hydrogens and approach of the aldehyde is blocked by the camphor moiety . The reaction employs a phosphazene base to promote formation of the ylide . 
 = = = Catalytic reagents = = = 
 Catalytic reagents have been less successful , with most variations suffering from poor yield , poor enantioselectivity , or both . There are also issues with substrate scope , most having limitations with methylene transfer and aliphatic aldehydes . The trouble stems from the need for a nucleophilic sulfide that efficiently generates the ylide which can also act as a good leaving group to form the epoxide . Since the factors underlying these desiderata are at odds , tuning of the catalyst properties has proven difficult . Shown below are several of the most successful catalysts along with the yields and enantiomeric excess for their use in synthesis of ( E ) -stilbene oxide . 
 Aggarwal has developed an alternative method employing the same sulfide as above and a novel alkylation involving a rhodium carbenoid formed in situ . The method too has limited substrate scope , failing for any electrophiles possessing basic substituents due to competitive consumption of the carbenoid . 
 = Treaty of Ciudad Juárez = 
 The Treaty of Ciudad Juárez was a peace treaty signed between the then President of Mexico , Porfirio Díaz , and the revolutionary Francisco Madero on May 21 , 1911 . The treaty put an end to the fighting between forces supporting Madero and those of Díaz and thus concluded the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution . 
 The treaty stipulated that Díaz , as well as his vice president Ramón Corral , were to step down by the end of May , and that he was to be replaced by Francisco León de la Barra as interim president and hold presidential elections . Those who had suffered losses due to the revolution would be the indemnified , and there would be a general amnesty . Díaz resigned on May 25 , and interim president Francisco León de la Barra was the new incumbent . Díaz and his family , his vice president Corral , plus José Yves Limantour and Rosendo Pineda left Mexico for exile . 
 Significantly , the treaty did not mention or institute any social reforms that Madero had vaguely promised on previous occasions . It also left the Porfirian state essentially intact . Additionally , Madero supported the unpopular idea that all land disputes were to be settled through the courts , staffed by the old judges , a decision that led to outbreaks of sporadic violence , particularly in rural areas . 
 On June 7 , 1911 , Madero entered Mexico City . In October 1911 he was elected president , under the banner of the Partido Constitucional Progresista , along with José María Pino Suárez , his new running mate as vice @-@ president . Madero pushed aside Francisco Vázquez Gómez , the vice presidential candidate for the Anti @-@ Reelectionist Party in 1910 , as being too moderate . 
 = = Military developments leading up to the treaty = = 
 The rebellion against the government of Porfirio Díaz broke out in late 1910 , after Díaz had his rival Francisco Madero imprisoned and had announced his own victory in a falsified election . Madero 's earlier vague promises of agrarian reforms had attracted many supporters . He himself escaped from prison and fled to Texas , from where he issued his famous Plan of San Luis Potosí . This manifesto called for an armed uprising against the Porfiriato and establishment of free and democratic elections . As a response to Madero 's proclamation , violent clashes began throughout Mexico in November 1910 . 
 In the Guerrero district of Chihuahua , Pascual Orozco attacked Federal troops and sent dead soldiers ' clothing back to Díaz with the message , " Ahí te van las hojas , mándame más tamales " ( " Here are the wrappers , send me more tamales . " ) He then began operations which threatened Ciudad Juárez . Additionally , political support for Madero 's rebellion came from Abraham González , who accepted the Plan of San Luis Potosí . 
 At roughly the same time , agrarian unrest in the state of Morelos turned into a full blown rebellion under the leadership of the Zapata brothers , Emiliano and Eufemio . 
 = = = Orozco and Villa take Ciudad Juárez = = = 
 Encouraged by the news of the uprisings , Madero crossed the border back into Mexico in February 1911 . He was joined by Pancho Villa and Orozco and in April the army began approaching Ciudad Juárez . Orozco and Villa led the way with 500 men each , while Madero followed up with 1 @,@ 500 riders . The city was besieged by the end of the month , after Madero 's army encountered some resistance in the Chihuahuan countryside . Madero asked the commander of the city 's garrison to surrender but the latter refused , hoping that the fortifications he had constructed would allow him to defend the city until reinforcements arrived . Concerned also with the possibility that a direct attack on the town would cause artillery shells to cross the border into the United States which could provoke an outside intervention , and faced with a series of peace proposals from Díaz , Madero hesitated in attacking the city . He in fact ordered his commanders to lift the siege . Orozco , however disregarded the order and , joined by Villa , attacked . After two days of fighting the city fell to the insurrectionists . Madero intervened personally to spare the life of the city 's commander , Gen. Navarro , whom both Orozco and Villa wanted executed for his previous killing of rebel POWs . This , coupled with the fact that both leaders were ignored by Madero in his political appointments , outraged and estranged them from him . 
 = = = Zapata in south and central Mexico = = = 
 At about the same time that Villa and Orozco were marching on Ciudad Juárez , the Zapatista revolt gathered strength and spread to the states of Puebla , Tlaxcala , Mexico , Michoacán and Guerrero . On April 14 , Madero had Emiliano Zapata officially designated as his representative in the region . However , Zapata was worried that if he did not fully control all the major towns in Morelos by the time that Madero concluded negotiations with Díaz , the demands of his agrarian movement and the issue of the autonomy of Morelos would be ignored or sidelined . Zapata 's first military action was to take the town of Chinameca where he obtained essential supplies . Subsequently Zapata , for political and strategic reasons , decided to attack the city of Cuautla . In order to mislead his opponents however , he initially attacked and captured the towns of Izúcar de Matamoros ( which was subsequently retaken by federal forces ) and Chietla . From there he made a wide circle around Cuautla and captured Yautepec and Jonacatepec where he gathered more supplies , munitions and soldiers . By May , out of all the major urban centers in the region , only Cuautla and the capital of Morelos , Cuernavaca , remained outside of his control . 
 Zapata began the attack on Cuautla on May 13 with 4000 troops against 400 elite soldiers of the so @-@ called " Golden Fifth " ; the Fifth Cavalry Regiment of the Federal Army . The battle took almost a week and has been described as " six of the most terrible days of battle in the whole Revolution " . It consisted of house to house fighting , hand @-@ to @-@ hand combat , and no quarter given by either side . General Victoriano Huerta arrived in nearby Cuernavaca with 600 reinforcements , but decided not to come to the relief of Cuautla as he was afraid that the capital would revolt in his absence . On May 19 , the remains of the " Golden Fifth " pulled out of the town which was then occupied by Zapata 's soldiers . 
 The successful capture of Cuautla made Zapata a hero to ordinary people throughout Mexico and new corridos were written about him . After Zapata 's taking of Cuautla , the federal government controlled only five states and some urban areas . Porfirio Díaz himself later stated that , while he felt that he could defend against Villa and Orozco in Chihuahua , the fall of Cuautla was the event which persuaded him to agree to peace with Madero . 
 = = The compromise = = 
 As early as March 1911 , Madero 's representatives met in New York with Díaz 's finance minister , José Yves Limantour , and the Mexican ambassador to the US in order to discuss the possibility of peace between the two sides . Limantour proposed an end to the hostilities and offered an amnesty for all revolutionaries , the resignation of the then vice president Ramón Corral , the replacement of four Díaz cabinet ministers and ten state governors by ones chosen by Madero , and the establishment of the principle of " no @-@ reelection " which would prevent Díaz from seeking yet another term as president ( which would have been his ninth ) . Madero responded positively although he also stated that any kind of peace deal had to include an immediate resignation by Díaz . 
 Faced with the siege of Ciudad Juárez and the outbreak of rebellion in Morelos , Díaz and members of his cabinet became more willing to negotiate and launched a " skillful peace offensive " aimed at Madero . This was largely a result of panic among the large landowners associated with the Díaz regime ( the hacendados ) and the financial elite , which represented a " moderate " wing within the government . Some among the Porfiristas in fact , expected that Zapata would soon march on Mexico City itself , unless peace was concluded with Madero . 
 The moderate view within the Díaz government was represented by Jorge Vera Estañol who in a memo to the minister of foreign affairs wrote that there were two revolutions taking place in Mexico : a political revolution , based mostly in the north , whose aim was mostly to establish free elections and remove Díaz himself from power , and a social revolution whose aim was " anarchy " which was spreading throughout the Mexican countryside . Estañol recommended coming to terms with the first group of revolutionaries , by agreeing to the principle of no re @-@ election and a general amnesty , in order to prevent the second group from succeeding . In addition to his fear of " anarchy " , Estañol was also worried that the social revolution would lead to a military intervention by the United States . 
 Estañol 's views represented those of the portion of the upper class which was willing to come to terms with at least a portion of the middle class in order to crush the peasant uprisings , as exemplified by those of Zapata , which were erupting throughout Mexico . Limantour , who broadly agreed with Estañol , had the support of the Mexican financiers , who feared the downgrading of Mexican international credit and a general economic crisis as a result of ongoing social unrest , as well as that of the large landowners who were willing to come to terms with Madero if it would put an end to the agrarian uprisings . 
 These social group were in turn opposed by the more reactionary elements within Díaz 's government , mostly concentrated in the federal army , who though that the rebels should be dealt with through brute force . This faction was represented by General Victoriano Huerta , who would later carry out an attempted coup d 'état against Madero . Likewise , the general , and potential successor to Díaz , Bernardo Reyes stated in a letter to Limantour that " the repression ( against the insurrectionists ) should be carried out with the greates energy , punishing without any pity anyone participating in the armed struggle " . In the end however , Díaz dismissed the advice from his generals as " Custer @-@ like bluster " and chose to seek peace with the moderate wing of the revolution . Limantour had finally managed to persuade him to resign . 
 At the same time there was also disagreement among the rebels . The " left wing " of the revolutionary movement , represented by Zapata and Orozco ( Villa for the time being tended to support Madero ) , warned against any possible compromises with Díaz . In the end their suspicions proved correct as the treaty that was eventually signed neglected issues of social and agrarian land reform that were central to their struggle . 
 = = The treaty 's terms = = 
 The most significant point of the treaty was that Porfirio Díaz , and his vice president , Ramón Corral , resign and that de la Barra , acting as interim president organize free elections as soon as possible . 
 Additionally , the treaty stipulated that : 
 An amnesty for all revolutionaries be declared , with the option for some of them to apply for membership in the rurales . 
 The revolutionary forces were to be demobilized as soon as possible and the federal forces were to be the only army in Mexico . This was in order to appease the army , which had opposed a compromise with Madero . 
 Madero and his supporters had the right to name fourteen provisional state governors , and to approve la Barra 's cabinet . 
 Pensions were to be established for relatives of the soldiers who had died fighting the rebels . 
 Policemen and judges , as well as state legislators , that had been appointed or " elected " under Díaz were to retain their offices . 
 = = Implementation and results = = 
 The treaty was signed on May 21 . Díaz resigned accordingly on May 25 . Francisco de la Barra became the interim president . Madero entered Mexico City on June 7 . 
 Zapata however refused to recognize the interim government of de la Barra , and for the time being the fighting in Morelos continued . Madero met with Zapata on several occasions during June . While initially Zapata trusted Madero , with time he became increasingly concerned that the goals of " his revolution " were not being fulfilled . He was particularly angry that Madero did not plan on carrying out any kind of agrarian reform , or the breakup of large hacendias . Additionally , the press in Mexico City , controlled by the landowners began referring to Zapata as a bandit and federal generals , such as Huerta , continued attacking his troops under the pretext that Zapata failed to demobilize in violation of the treaty . Sporadic fighting in southern Mexico continued . In November 1911 , shortly after Madero 's inauguration , Zapata issued the famous Plan of Ayala , in which the Zapatistas denounced Madero and instead recognized Pascual Orozco as the rightful president and leader of the revolution . 
 Madero also earned the great displeasure of other revolutionaries , including , Pascual Orozco . Madero 's first act after the treaty was signed was a gesture of reconciliation with the Díaz regime . As a result of the treaty he was given the right to appoint members of the la Barra cabinet . He chose mostly upper class Maderistas , including his wife for the post in the treasury . He also maintained the existing federal system , by keeping the sitting judges of the Supreme Court , the legislators in federal and state assemblies and the bureaucrats of the various federal agencies . Venustiano Carranza , who was going to become a major revolutionary in his own right and a future president of Mexico , stated that , after the treaty , Madero had " deliver ( ed ) to the reactionaries a dead revolution which will have to be fought over again " . Díaz , after leaving for exile in France , observed that " Madero has unleashed a tiger , let us see if he can control him " . 
 Orozco , who saw himself as being instrumental in Madero 's victory over Díaz , was merely appointed as a commander of the rurales in Chihuahua , which increased his resentment . When he tried to run for governor of the state , Madero supported his opponent , Abraham González and eventually pressured Orozco to drop out of the race . When , in the aftermath of the Plan of Ayala , Madero ordered Orozco to lead federal troops to suppress Zapata , Orozco refused . In March 1912 , Orozco issued his Plan of Empacadora and formally declared himself in rebellion against Madero . 
 = The Feast of the Goat = 
 The Feast of the Goat ( Spanish : La fiesta del chivo , 2000 ) is a novel by the Peruvian Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa . The book is set in the Dominican Republic and portrays the assassination of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo , and its aftermath , from two distinct standpoints a generation apart : during and immediately after the assassination itself , in May 1961 ; and thirty five years later , in 1996 . Throughout , there is also extensive reflection on the heyday of the dictatorship , in the 1950s , and its significance for the island and its inhabitants . 
 The novel follows three interwoven storylines . The first concerns a woman , Urania Cabral , who is back in the Dominican Republic , after a long absence , to visit her ailing father ; she ends up recalling incidents from her youth and recounting a long @-@ held secret to her aunt and cousins . The second story line focuses on the last day in Trujillo 's life from the moment he wakes up onwards , and shows us the regime 's inner circle , to which Urania 's father once belonged . The third strand depicts Trujillo 's assassins , many of whom had previously been government loyalists , as they wait for his car late that night ; after the assassination , this story line shows us the assassins ' persecution . Each aspect of the book 's plot reveals a different viewpoint on the Dominican Republic 's political and social environment , past and present . 
 Readers are shown the regime 's downward spiral , Trujillo 's assassination , and its aftermath through the eyes of insiders , conspirators , and a middle @-@ aged woman looking back . The novel is therefore a kaleidoscopic portrait of dictatorial power , including its psychological effects , and its long @-@ term impact . The novel 's themes include the nature of power and corruption , and their relationship to machismo and sexual perversion in a rigidly hierarchical society with strongly gendered roles . Memory , and the process of remembering , is also an important theme , especially in Urania 's narrative as she recalls her youth in the Dominican Republic . Her story ( and the book as a whole ) ends when she recounts the terrible events that led to her leaving the country at the age of 14 . The book itself serves as a reminder of the atrocities of dictatorship , to ensure that the dangers of absolute power will be remembered by a new generation . 
 Vargas Llosa interlaces fictional elements and historical events : the book is not a documentary , and the Cabral family , for instance , is completely fictional . On the other hand , the characters of Trujillo and Trujillo 's assassins are drawn from the historical record ; Vargas Llosa weaves real historical incidents of brutality and oppression into these people 's stories , to further illuminate the nature of the regime and the responses it provoked . In Vargas Llosa 's words , " It 's a novel , not a history book , so I took many , many liberties . [ . . . ] I have respected the basic facts , but I have changed and deformed many things in order to make the story more persuasive — and I have not exaggerated . " 
 The Feast of the Goat received largely positive reviews , with several reviewers commenting on the book 's depiction of the relationship between sexuality and power , and on the graphic descriptions of violent events . 
 A film version of the novel was released in 2005 , starring Isabella Rossellini , Paul Freeman , and Tomas Milian . Jorge Alí Triana and his daughter Veronica Triana wrote a theatrical adaptation in 2003 . 
 = = Background = = 
 The Feast of the Goat is only the second of Vargas Llosa 's novels to be set outside Peru ( the first being The War of the End of the World ) . It is also unusual because it is the first to have a female protagonist : as critic Lynn Walford writes of the leading character in The Feast of the Goat , and also Vargas Llosa 's subsequent book The Way to Paradise , " both are utterly unlike any of the other female characters in his previous novels " . 
 The novel examines the dictatorial regime of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina in the Dominican Republic . Trujillo was , in historian Eric Roorda 's words , " a towering influence in Dominican and Caribbean history " who presided over " one of the most durable regimes of the twentieth century " during the thirty @-@ one years between his seizure of power in 1930 and his assassination in 1961 . Trujillo had trained with the United States Marine Corps during the United States occupation of the island , and graduated from the Haina Military Academy in 1921 . After the U.S. departed in 1924 , he became head of the Dominican National Police which , under his command , was transformed into the Dominican National Army and Trujillo 's personal " virtually autonomous power base " . 
 Trujillo was officially dictator only from 1930 to 1938 , and from 1942 to 1952 , but remained in effective power throughout the entire period . Though his regime was broadly nationalist , Daniel Chirot comments that he had " no particular ideology " and that his economic and social policies were basically progressive . 
 The novel 's title is taken from the popular Dominican merengue Mataron al chivo ( " They Killed the Goat " ) , which refers to Trujillo 's assassination on May 30 , 1961 . Merengue is a style of music created by Ñico Lora in the 1920s and actively promoted by Trujillo himself ; it is now considered the country 's national music . Cultural critics Julie Sellers and Stephen Ropp comment about this particular merengue that , by envisaging the dictator as an animal who could be turned into a stew ( as frequently happened with goats struck down on the Dominican Republic 's highways ) , the song " gave those performing , listening to and dancing to this merengue a sense of control over him and over themselves that they had not experienced for over three decades . " Vargas Llosa quotes the lyrics to Mataron al chivo at the beginning of the novel . 
 = = Plot summary = = 
 The novel 's narrative is divided into three distinct strands . One is centred on Urania Cabral , a fictional Dominican character ; another deals with the conspirators involved in Trujillo 's assassination ; and the third focuses on Trujillo himself . The novel alternates between these storylines , and also jumps back and forth from 1961 to 1996 , with frequent flashbacks to periods earlier in Trujillo 's regime . 
 The Feast of the Goat begins with the return of Urania to her hometown of Santo Domingo , a city which had been renamed Ciudad Trujillo during Trujillo 's time in power . This storyline is largely introspective and deals with Urania 's memories and her inner turmoil over the events preceding her departure from the Dominican Republic thirty @-@ five years earlier . Urania escaped the crumbling Trujillo regime in 1961 by claiming she planned to study under the tutelage of nuns in Michigan . In the following decades , she becomes a prominent and successful New York lawyer . She finally returns to the Dominican Republic in 1996 , on a whim , and finds herself compelled to confront her father and elements of her past she has long ignored . As Urania speaks to her ailing father , Agustin Cabral , she recalls more and more of the anger and disgust that led to her thirty @-@ five years of silence . Urania retells her father 's descent into political disgrace , and the betrayal that forms the crux of both Urania 's storyline and that of Trujillo himself . 
 The second and third storylines are set in 1961 , in the weeks prior to and following Trujillo 's assassination on 30 May . Each assassin has his own background story , explaining his motivation for his involvement in the assassination plot . Each has been wronged by Trujillo and his regime , by torture and brutality , or through assaults on their pride , their religious faith , their morality , or their loved ones . Vargas Llosa weaves the tale of the men as memories recalled on the night of Trujillo 's death , as the conspirators lie in wait for " The Goat " . Interconnected with these stories are the actions of other famous Trujillistas of the time : Joaquín Balaguer , the puppet president ; Johnny Abbes García , the merciless head of the Military Intelligence Service ( SIM ) ; and various others — some real , some composites of historical figures , and some purely fictional . 
 The third storyline is concerned with the thoughts and motives of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina himself . The chapters concerning The Goat recall the major events of his time , including the slaughter of thousands of Dominican Haitians in 1937 . They also deal with the Dominican Republic 's tense international relationships during the Cold War , especially with the United States under the presidency of John F. Kennedy , and Cuba under Castro . Vargas Llosa also speculates upon Trujillo 's innermost thoughts and paints a picture of a man whose physical body is failing him . Trujillo is tormented by incontinence and impotence ; and this storyline intersects with Urania 's narrative when it is revealed that Urania was sexually assaulted by Trujillo . He is unable to achieve an erection with Urania , and in frustration and anger he rapes her with his hands . This event is the core of Urania 's shame , and her hatred towards her father . In addition , it is the cause of Trujillo 's repeated anger over the " anemic little bitch " that witnessed his impotence and emotion , and the reason he is en route to sleep with another girl on the night of his assassination . 
 In the novel 's final chapters , the three storylines intersect with increasing frequency . The tone of these chapters is especially dark as they deal primarily with the horrific torture and death of the assassins at the hands of the SIM , the failure of the coup , the rape of Urania , and the concessions made to Trujillo 's most vicious supporters allowing them to enact their horrific revenge on the conspirators and then escape the country . The book ends as Urania prepares to return home , determined this time to keep in touch with her family back on the island . 
 = = Characters = = 
 = = = Modern day = = = 
 Urania Cabral and her father Agustín Cabral appear in both the modern day and historical portions of the novel . In the year 1996 , Urania returns to the Dominican Republic for the first time since her departure at the age of 14 . She is a successful New York lawyer who has spent most of the past 35 years trying to overcome the traumas of her childhood , a goal she pursues through an academic fascination with Trujillo and Dominican history . Urania is deeply troubled by the events of her past , and is compelled to confront her father Agustín about his role in those events . Urania visits her father , finding him weakened by age and a severe stroke , so much so that he is barely able to respond physically to her presence , let alone speak . Agustín listens helplessly as Urania recounts his past as " Egghead Cabral " , a high @-@ ranking member of Trujillo 's inner circle , and his drastic fall from grace . Urania details Agustín 's role in the events that led to her rape by the Dominican leader , and to her subsequent lifetime of celibacy and emotional trauma . Agustín 's character in the modern day portion of the novel serves primarily as a sounding board for Urania 's recollections of the Trujillo era and the events that surrounded both Agustín Cabral 's disgrace and Urania 's escape from the country . His responses are minimal and non @-@ vocal , despite the ardency of Urania 's accusations and the enormity of his own actions during Trujillo 's reign . 
 = = = The Trujillo regime = = = 
 Rafael Trujillo , known also as The Goat , The Chief , and The Benefactor , is a fictionalized character based on the real dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961 and the official President of the Republic from 1930 to 1938 and 1943 to 1952 . In The Feast of the Goat , Vargas Llosa imagines the innermost thoughts of the dictator , and retells The Goat 's last hours from his own perspective . Trujillo 's character struggles with aging and the physical problems of incontinence and impotence . Through fictional events and first person narrative , the reader is given insight into the man who , during his " thirty @-@ one years of horrendous political crimes " , modernized the country 's infrastructure and military , but whose regime 's attacks against its enemies overseas ( particularly the attempted assassination of Rómulo Betancourt , president of Venezuela ) led to the imposition of economic sanctions on the Dominican Republic by the Organization of American States in the 1950s . The resultant economic downturn , in conjunction with other factors , leads to the CIA supported assassination plot that ends Trujillo 's life on May 30 , 1961 . 
 Trujillo 's regime is supported by Johnny Abbes García , the head of the Military Intelligence Service ( SIM ) , a brutal man to whom many " disappearances , ... executions , ... sudden falls into disgrace " are attributed . Abbes and his intelligence officers are notorious for their cruelty , particularly their habit of killing dissidents by throwing them into shark @-@ infested waters . Colonel Abbes " may be the devil , but he 's useful to the Chief ; everything bad is attributed to him and only the good to Trujillo " . Trujillo 's son , Ramfis Trujillo , is a loyal supporter of the Chief . After unsuccessful attempts at schooling in the United States , Ramfis returns to the Dominican Republic to serve in his father 's military . He is a well @-@ known womanizer . Upon Trujillo 's death , Ramfis seeks revenge , even going so far as to torture and kill his uncle by marriage , General Jose Roman , for his part in the assassination conspiracy . 
 Joaquín Balaguer , Trujillo 's puppet president is also a supporter , and initially his seemingly innocuous character holds no real power . Following Trujillo 's death , the calm and serenity of Balaguer bring about real change in his character , and General Román comments that " this insignificant man whom everyone had always considered a mere clerk , a purely decorative figure in the regime , began to acquire surprising authority " . It is Balaguer who guides much of the action in the last sections of the book . 
 = = = Conspirators = = = 
 The storyline concerning the assassination primarily follows the four conspirators who directly participate in Trujillo 's death . Antonio Imbert Barrera is one of the few conspirators who survives the violent reprisals that follow Trujillo 's assassination . Imbert is a politician who becomes disillusioned with the deception and cruelty of the Trujillo regime . His first plan to kill Trujillo was foiled by the unsuccessful attempted overthrow of the regime by Cuban paramilitary forces . Now convinced of the difficulty of his task , Imbert joins the other conspirators in plotting Trujillo 's death . Among the others is Antonio de la Maza , one of Trujillo 's personal guards . Antonio 's brother is killed as part of a government cover @-@ up and Antonio swears revenge upon Trujillo . Salvador Estrella Sadhalá , known as " Turk " , is a devout Catholic who , in indignation at the regime 's many crimes against God , swears an oath against Trujillo . Turk eventually turns himself in for fear that the regime was torturing his family . Both Turk and his innocent brother are then tortured for months . His father remains loyal to Trujillo and disowns Turk to his face . Despite all of this , Turk refuses to commit suicide and does not lose faith in God . He is later executed by Ramfis and other high level government men . Turk 's close friend , Amado García Guerrero , known as Amadito , is a Lieutenant in the army who gave up his beloved as proof of his loyalty to Trujillo , and then later was forced to kill her brother to prove himself to Trujillo . Amadito 's disgust with himself and disillusionment with the regime lead to his decision to help to kill Trujillo . Following the assassination he hides out with de la Maza and dies fighting . In the aftermath of the assassination , Amadito and Antonio de la Maza choose to fight the members of SIM who come to arrest them , opting to die in battle rather than be captured and tortured . 
 = = Major themes = = 
 The Feast of the Goat 's major themes include political corruption , machismo , memory , and writing and power . Olga Lorenzo , reviewer for The Melbourne Age , suggests that overall Vargas Llosa 's aim is to reveal the irrational forces of Latin tradition that give rise to despotism . 
 = = = Political corruption = = = 
 The structure of Dominican society was hierarchical , with strongly gendered roles . Rafael Trujillo , the ruler , was a cruel dictator who haunts the people of Santo Domingo even 35 years after his death . He is a true caudillo , ruling with brutality and corruption . He creates a personality cult in his capitalist society and encourages decadence within his regime . Prior to promotion to a position of responsibility , an officer is required to pass a " test of loyalty " . His people are to remain loyal to him all cost , and are periodically tested by public humiliation and censure even though acts of disloyalty were rare . Trujillo violates women and children as an expression of political and sexual power , and in some cases takes the wife or child of his lieutenants , many of whom still remain blindly loyal . Even the church and military institutions are employed to give women to the tyrant for pleasure . 
 Many of the assassins had belonged to the Trujillo regime or had at one point been its staunch supporters , only to find their support for him eroded by the state 's crimes against its people . Imbert , one of the assassins , sums up this realization in a comment prompted by the murder of the Mirabal sisters : " They kill our fathers , our brothers , our friends . And now they 're killing our women . And here we sit , resigned , waiting our turn . " In an interview , Vargas Llosa describes the corruption and brutality of Trujillo 's regime : " He had more or less all the common traits of a Latin American dictator , but pushed to the extreme . In cruelty , I think he went far far away from the rest — and in corruption , too . " 
 = = = Machismo = = = 
 According to literary scholar Peter Anthony Niessa , the two important components of machismo are aggressive behaviour and hyper @-@ sexuality . Aggressive behaviour is exhibited by displays of power and strength , while hyper @-@ sexuality is revealed through sexual activity with as many partners as possible . These two components shape the portrayal of Trujillo and his regime in The Feast of the Goat . As Lorenzo observes , Vargas Llosa " reveals traditions of machismo , of abusive fathers , and of child @-@ rearing practices that repeat the shaming of children , so that each generation bequeaths a withering of the soul to the subsequent one . " 
 In a display of both aspects of machismo , Trujillo demanded of his aides and cabinet that they provide him with sexual access to their wives and daughters . Mario Vargas Llosa wrote of Trujillo 's machismo and treatment of women , " [ h ] e went to bed with his ministers ' wives , not only because he liked these ladies but because it was a way to test his ministers . He wanted to know if they were ready to accept this extreme humiliation . Mainly the ministers were prepared to play this grotesque role — and they remained loyal to Trujillo even after his death . " Trujillo 's sexual conquests and public humiliations of his enemies also serve to affirm his political power and machismo . In Niessa 's words , " The implication is that maximum virility equals political dominance . " 
 Trujillo 's attempted sexual conquest of Urania is an example of both political manipulation of Agustín Cabral and sexual power over young women . However , as Trujillo 's penis remains flaccid throughout the encounter and he is humiliated in front of the young girl , the encounter fails to satisfy his requirements for machismo . 
 = = = Memory = = = 
 All of the novel 's storylines concern memory in some sense or another . The most apparent confrontation of memory is on the part of Urania Cabral , who has returned to the Dominican Republic for the first time in 30 years , and is forced to confront her father and the traumas that led her to leave the country at 14 . She was the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of the dictator himself , a sacrifice her father made to try to gain favor with the dictator again , a fact to which she alludes throughout the book , but which is only revealed at the very end : the book concludes with her recounting the memory of that night to her aunt and cousins , who never knew the true reason she left the country . When her aunt is surprised that she remembers all these details , she responds that while she forgets many things , " I remember everything about that night . " For Urania , forgetting the atrocities committed by the regime is unacceptable . Her father , on the other hand , is not capable of joining her in this process of remembering , since he has suffered a stroke and is not capable of speaking ; however , Urania is angry that he chose to forget these things while he was still capable of acknowledging them . 
 Memory is also important in the sections of the novel that deal with the assassins . Each recalls the events that led him to take part in the assassination of Trujillo . These incidents included the 1956 Galindez kidnapping and murder , the 1960 murder of the Mirabal sisters , and the 1961 split with the Catholic Church . These historical events are used by Vargas Llosa to connect the assassins with specific moments that demonstrate the violence of Trujillo 's regime . Trujillo , too , is shown reflecting on the past , not least his own formation and training at the hands of the US Marines . 
 But above all Mario Vargas Llosa uses the fictional Urania to facilitate the novel 's attempt at remembering the regime . The novel opens and closes with Urania 's story , effectively framing the narrative in the terms of remembering the past and understanding its legacy in the present . In addition , because of her academic study of the history of the Trujillo regime , Urania is also confronting the memory of the regime for the country as a whole . This is in keeping with one purpose of the book , which is to ensure that the atrocities of the dictatorship and the dangers of absolute power will be remembered by a new generation . 
 = = = Writing and power = = = 
 In her treatment of the novel , María Regina Ruiz claims that power gives its wielder the ability to make prohibitions ; prohibitions that are reflected in history , the study of which reveals what is and what is not told . The government 's actions in The Feast of the Goat demonstrate the discourse of prohibition : foreign newspapers and magazines were prohibited from entering Trujillo 's country as they were seen as a threat to the government 's ideas . Mario Vargas Llosa takes part in this discourse by recounting what was prohibited . 
 Ruiz notes that writing also has the power to transform reality . It brings the reader back to the past , allowing the reader to comprehend myths or distorted stories told by historians . Ruiz contends that knowing the past is crucial to one 's understanding of the present that takes us to postmodernism , and argues that The Feast of the Goat can thus be seen as a postmodern discourse that gives power to history recreation . 
 The construction of fictions surrounding the events of Trujillo 's regime allow a degree of freedom from the horrors that took places . Author Julia Alvarez contends that these events can " only finally be understood by fiction , only finally be redeemed by the imagination " , while Richard Patterson claims that Vargas Llosa " reconfigures , and to a large degree demythologizes " Trujillo and his brutal reign through use of narrative structure . Vargas Llosa 's writing acts as a cathartic force for this period in history . 
 = = Fact and fiction = = 
 The novel is a combination of fact and fiction . Blending together these two elements is important in any historical novel , but especially in The Feast of the Goat because Vargas Llosa chose to narrate an actual event through the minds of both real and fictional characters . Some characters are fictional , and those that are non @-@ fictional still have fictionalized aspects in the book . The general details of the assassination are true , and the assassins are all real people . While they lie in wait for the Dictator to arrive , they recount actual crimes of the regime , such as the murder of the Mirabal sisters . However , other details are invented by Vargas Llosa , such as Amadito 's murder of the brother of the woman he loved . 
 Those within the regime are also a mix of fictional characters and real people . President Balaguer is real , but the entire Cabral family is completely fictional . According to Wolff , Vargas Llosa " uses history as a starting point in constructing a fictionalized account of Trujillo 's " spiritual colonization " of the Dominican Republic as experienced by one Dominican family . The fictional Cabral family allows Vargas Llosa to show two sides of the Trujillo regime : through Agustin , the reader sees ultimate dedication and sacrifice to the leader of the nation ; through Urania , the violence of the regime and the legacy of pain it left behind . Vargas Llosa also fictionalized the internal thoughts of the characters who were non @-@ fictional , especially those of the Goat himself . According to literary scholar Richard Patterson , " Vargas Llosa 's expands all the way into the very " dark area " of Trujillo 's consciousness ( as the storyteller dares to conceive it ) . " 
 Vargas Llosa also built an image of the regime with the troubled historical events . With regard to the historical accuracy of the book , Vargas Llosa has said " It 's a novel , not a history book , so I took many , many liberties . The only limitation I imposed on myself was that I was not going to invent anything that couldn 't have happened within the framework of life in the Dominican Republic . I have respected the basic facts , but I have changed and deformed many things in order to make the story more persuasive — and I have not exaggerated . " 
 = = Critical reception = = 
 The realist style of The Feast of the Goat is recognized by some reviewers as being a break from a more allegorical approach to the dictator novel . The novel received largely positive reviews , most of which were willing to accept sacrifices of historical accuracy in favour of good storytelling . 
 A common comment on the novel is the graphic nature of the many acts of torture and murder which are depicted in the novel . Vargas lets the reader see the realities of an oppressive regime with a degree of detail not often used by his compatriots in Latin American literature , as Michael Wood suggests in the London Review of Books : " Vargas Llosa ... tells us far more about the details of day @-@ to @-@ day intrigue , and the sordid , sadistic minutiae of torture and murder . " Walter Kirn of the New York Times suggests that the " grisly scenes of dungeon interrogations and torture sessions " cast other aspects of the novel in a pale light , draining them of their significance and impact . Similarly , Kirn implies that the " narrative machinery " mentioned by Wood as being somewhat unwieldy also produces a largely superfluous storyline . The plot line centered on Urania Cabral is described by Sturrock as being an emotional centre that focuses the novel , and Wood agrees that her confrontations with past demons hold the readers attention . In contrast , Kirn 's review states that Urania 's segments are " talky and atmospheric ... [ and ] seem to be on loan from another sort of book . " 
 Most reviews of The Feast of the Goat make either indirect of direct reference to the relationship between sexuality and power . Salon reviewer Laura Miller , writer for The Observer Jonathan Heawood , Walter Kirn , and Michael Wood each detail the connection between Trujillo 's gradual loss of ultimate control , both over his body and his followers . The means by which Trujillo reinforces political power through sexual acts and begins to lose personal conviction as his body fails him are topics of frequent discussion among reviewers . 
 In 2011 Bernard Diederich , author of the 1978 non @-@ fiction book Trujillo . The Death of the Goat , accused Vargas @-@ Llosa of plagiarism . 
 = = Adaptations = = 
 An English @-@ language film adaptation of the novel was made in 2005 , directed by Luis Llosa , Mario Vargas Llosa 's cousin . It stars Isabella Rossellini as Urania Cabral , Paul Freeman as her father Agustin , Stephanie Leonidas as Uranita and Tomas Milian as Rafael Leonidas Trujillo . It was filmed in both the Dominican Republic and in Spain . Reviewing the film for the trade paper Variety , critic Jonathan Holland called it " less a feast than a somewhat rushed , but thoroughly enjoyable , three @-@ course meal " , commenting that the main difference from the source novel was the sacrifice of psychological nuance . 
 The novel has also been adapted for the stage , by Jorge Alí Triana and his daughter Veronica Triana , directed by Jorge Triana : the play was put on ( in Spanish , but with simultaneous translation to English ) at Repertorio Español ( www.repertorio.org / chivo ) in New York in 2003 ; and the production moved to Lima in 2007 . A feature of the novel 's stage version is that the same actor plays both Agustin Cabral and Rafael Trujillo . For reviewer Bruce Weber , this makes the point " that Trujillo 's control of the nation depended on gutless collaborators " . 
 = Charles Eaton ( RAAF officer ) = 
 Charles Eaton , OBE , AFC ( 21 December 1895 – 12 November 1979 ) was a senior officer and aviator in the Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) , who later served as a diplomat . Born in London , he joined the British Army upon the outbreak of World War I and saw action on the Western Front before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917 . Posted as a bomber pilot to No. 206 Squadron , he was twice captured by German forces , and twice escaped . Eaton left the military in 1920 and worked in India until moving to Australia in 1923 . Two years later he joined the RAAF , serving initially as an instructor at No. 1 Flying Training School . Between 1929 and 1931 , he was chosen to lead three expeditions to search for lost aircraft in Central Australia , gaining national attention and earning the Air Force Cross for his " zeal and devotion to duty " . 
 In 1939 , on the eve of World War II , Eaton became the inaugural commanding officer of No. 12 ( General Purpose ) Squadron at the newly established RAAF Station Darwin in Northern Australia . Promoted group captain the following year , he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1942 . He took command of No. 79 Wing at Batchelor , Northern Territory , in 1943 , and was mentioned in despatches during operations in the South West Pacific . Retiring from the RAAF in December 1945 , Eaton took up diplomatic posts in the Dutch East Indies , heading a United Nations commission as Consul @-@ General during the Indonesian National Revolution . He returned to Australia in 1950 , and served in Canberra for a further two years . Popularly known as " Moth " Eaton , he was a farmer in later life , and died in 1979 at the age of 83 . He is commemorated by several memorials in the Northern Territory . 
 = = Early life and World War I = = 
 Charles Eaton was born on 21 December 1895 in Lambeth , London , the son of William Walpole Eaton , a butcher , and his wife Grace . Schooled in Wandsworth , Charles worked in Battersea Town Council from the age of fourteen , before joining the London Regiment upon the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 . Attached to a bicycle company in the 24th Battalion of the 47th Division , he arrived at the Western Front in March 1915 . He took part in trench bombing missions and attacks on enemy lines of communication , seeing action in the Battles of Aubers Ridge , Festubert , Loos , and the Somme . 
 On 14 May 1915 , Eaton transferred to the Royal Flying Corps ( RFC ) , undergoing initial pilot training at Oxford . While he was landing his Maurice Farman Shorthorn at the end of his first solo flight , another student collided with him and was killed , but Eaton emerged uninjured . He was commissioned in August and was awarded his wings in October . Ranked lieutenant , he served with No. 110 Squadron , which operated Martinsyde G.100 " Elephant " fighters out of Sedgeford , defending London against Zeppelin airships . Transferred to the newly formed Royal Air Force ( RAF ) in April 1918 , he was posted the following month to France flying Airco DH.9 single @-@ engined bombers with No. 206 Squadron . On 29 June , he was shot down behind enemy lines and captured in the vicinity of Nieppe . Incarcerated in Holzminden prisoner @-@ of @-@ war camp , Germany , Eaton escaped but was recaptured and court @-@ martialled , after which he was kept in solitary confinement . He later effected another escape and succeeded in rejoining his squadron in the final days of the war . 
 = = Between the wars = = 
 Eaton remained in the RAF following the cessation of hostilities . He married Beatrice Godfrey in St. Thomas 's church at Shepherd 's Bush , London , on 11 January 1919 . Posted to No. 1 Squadron , he was a pilot on the first regular passenger service between London and Paris , ferrying delegates to and from the Peace Conference at Versailles . Eaton was sent to India in December to undertake aerial survey work , including the first such survey of the Himalayas . He resigned from the RAF in July 1920 , remaining in India to take up employment with the Imperial Forest Service . After successfully applying for a position with the Queensland Forestry Service , he and his family migrated to Australia in 1923 . Moving to South Yarra , Victoria , he enlisted as a flying officer in the Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) at Laverton on 14 August 1925 . He was posted to No. 1 Flying Training School at RAAF Point Cook , as a flight instructor , where he became known as a strict disciplinarian who " trained his pilots well " . Here Eaton acquired his nickname of " Moth " , the Air Force 's basic trainer at this time being the De Havilland DH.60 Moth . Promoted flight lieutenant in February 1928 , he flew a Moth in the 1929 East @-@ West Air Race from Sydney to Perth , as part of the celebrations for the Western Australia Centenary ; he was the sixth competitor across the line , after fellow RFC veteran Jerry Pentland . 
 Regarded as one of the RAAF 's most skilful cross @-@ country pilots and navigators , Eaton came to public attention as leader of three military expeditions to find lost aircraft in Central Australia between 1929 and 1931 . In April 1929 , he coordinated the Air Force 's part in the search for aviators Keith Anderson and Bob Hitchcock , missing in their aircraft the Kookaburra while themselves looking for Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm , who had force landed the Southern Cross in north Western Australia during a flight from Sydney . Three of the RAAF 's five " ancient " DH.9 biplanes went down in the search — though all crews escaped injury — including Eaton 's , which experienced what he labelled " a good crash " on 21 April near Tennant Creek after the engine 's pistons melted . The same day , Captain Lester Brain , flying a Qantas aircraft , located the wreck of the Kookaburra in the Tanami Desert , approximately 130 kilometres ( 81 mi ) east @-@ south @-@ east of Wave Hill . Setting out from Wave Hill on 23 April , Eaton led a ground party across rough terrain that reached the crash site four days later and buried the crew , who had perished of thirst and exposure . Not a particularly religious man , he recalled that after the burial he saw a perfect cross formed by cirrus cloud in an otherwise clear blue sky above the Kookaburra . The Air Board described the RAAF 's search as taking 240 hours flying time " under the most trying conditions ... where a forced landing meant certain crash " . In November 1930 , Eaton was selected to lead another expedition for a missing aircraft near Ayers Rock , but it was called off soon afterwards when the pilot showed up in Alice Springs . The next month , he was ordered to search for W.L. Pittendrigh and S.J. Hamre , who had disappeared in the biplane Golden Quest 2 while attempting to discover Lasseter 's Reef . Employing a total of four DH.60 Moths , the RAAF team located the missing men near Dashwood Creek on 7 January 1931 , and they were rescued four days later by a ground party accompanied by Eaton . Staying in nearby Alice Springs , he recommended a site for the town 's new airfield , which was approved and has remained in use since its construction . 
 Eaton was awarded the Air Force Cross on 10 March 1931 " in recognition of his zeal and devotion to duty in conducting flights to Central Australia in search of missing aviators " . The media called him the " ' Knight Errant ' of the desert skies " . Aside from his crash landing in the desert while searching for the Kookaburra , Eaton had another narrow escape in 1929 when he was test flying the Wackett Warrigal I with Sergeant Eric Douglas . Having purposely put the biplane trainer into a spin and finding no response in the controls when he tried to recover , Eaton called on Douglas to bail out . When Douglas stood up to do so , the spin stopped , apparently due to his torso changing the airflow over the tail plane . Eaton then managed to land the aeroplane , he and his passenger both badly shaken by the experience . In December 1931 , he was posted to No. 1 Aircraft Depot at Laverton , where he continued to fly as well as performing administrative work . Promoted squadron leader in 1936 , he undertook a clandestine mission around the new year to scout for suitable landing grounds in the Dutch East Indies , primarily Timor and Ambon . Wearing civilian clothes , he and his companion were arrested and held for three days by local authorities in Koepang , Dutch Timor . Eaton was appointed commanding officer ( CO ) of No. 21 Squadron in May 1937 , one of his first tasks being to undertake another aerial search in Central Australia , this time for prospector Sir Herbert Gepp , who was subsequently discovered alive and well . Later that year , Eaton presided over the court of inquiry into the crash of a Hawker Demon biplane in Victoria , recommending a gallantry award for Aircraftman William McAloney , who had leapt into the Demon 's burning wreckage in an effort to rescue its pilot ; McAloney subsequently received the Albert Medal for his heroism . 
 Following a 1937 decision to establish the first north Australian RAAF base , in April 1938 Eaton , now on the headquarters staff of RAAF Station Laverton , and Wing Commander George Jones , Director of Personnel Services at RAAF Headquarters , began developing plans for the new station , to be commanded by Jones , and a new squadron that would be based there , led by Eaton . The next month they flew an Avro Anson on an inspection tour of Darwin , Northern Territory , site of the proposed base . Delays meant that No. 12 ( General Purpose ) Squadron was not formed until 6 February 1939 at Laverton . Jones had by now moved on to another posting but Eaton took up the squadron 's command as planned . Promoted to wing commander on 1 March , he and his equipment officer , Flying Officer Hocking , were ordered to build up the unit as quickly as possible , and established an initial complement of fourteen officers and 120 airmen , plus four Ansons and four Demons , within a week . An advance party of thirty NCOs and airmen under Hocking began moving to Darwin on 1 July . Staff were initially accommodated in a former meatworks built during World War I , and life at the newly established air base had a " distinctly raw , pioneering feel about it " according to historian Chris Coulthard @-@ Clark . Morale , though , was high . On 31 August , No. 12 Squadron launched its first patrol over the Darwin area , flown by one of seven Ansons that had so far been delivered . These were augmented by a flight of four CAC Wirraways ( replacing the originally planned force of Demons ) that took off from Laverton on 2 September , the day before Australia declared war , and arrived in Darwin four days later . A fifth Wirraway in the flight crashed on landing at Darwin , killing both crewmen . 
 = = World War II = = 
 Once war was declared , Darwin began to receive more attention from military planners . In June 1940 , No. 12 Squadron was " cannibalised " to form two additional units , Headquarters RAAF Station Darwin and No. 13 Squadron . No. 12 Squadron retained its Wirraway flight , while its two flights of Ansons went to the new squadron ; these were replaced later that month by more capable Lockheed Hudsons . Eaton was appointed CO of the base , gaining promotion to temporary group captain in September . His squadrons were employed in escort , maritime reconnaissance , and coastal patrol duties , the overworked aircraft having to be sent to RAAF Station Richmond , New South Wales , after every 240 hours flying time — with a consequent three @-@ week loss from Darwin 's strength — as deep maintenance was not yet possible in the Northern Territory . Soon after the establishment of Headquarters RAAF Station Darwin , Minister for Air James Fairbairn visited the base . Piloting his own light plane , he was greeted by four Wirraways that proceeded to escort him into landing ; the Minister subsequently complimented Eaton on the " keen @-@ ness and efficiency of all ranks " , particularly considering the challenging environment . When Fairbairn died in the Canberra air disaster shortly afterwards , his pilot was Flight Lieutenant Robert Hitchcock , son of Bob Hitchcock of the Kookaburra and also a former member of Eaton 's No. 21 Squadron . 
 As senior air commander in the region , Eaton sat on the Darwin Defence Co @-@ ordination Committee . He was occasionally at loggerheads with his naval counterpart , Captain E.P. Thomas , and also incurred the ire of trade unionists when he used RAAF staff to unload ships in Port Darwin during industrial action ; Eaton himself took part in the work , shovelling coal alongside his men . On 25 February 1941 , he made a flight north to reconnoitre Timor , Ambon , and Babo in Dutch New Guinea for potential use by the RAAF in any Pacific conflict . By April , the total strength based at RAAF Station Darwin had increased to almost 700 officers and airmen ; by the following month it had been augmented by satellite airfields at Bathurst Island , Groote Eylandt , Batchelor , and Katherine . Handing over command of Darwin to Group Captain Frederick Scherger in October , Eaton took charge of No. 2 Service Flying Training School near Wagga Wagga , New South Wales . His " marked success " , " untiring energy " , and " tact in handling men " while in the Northern Territory were recognised in the new year with his appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire . Eaton became CO of No. 1 Engineering School and its base , RAAF Station Ascot Vale , Victoria , in April 1942 . Twelve months later in Townsville , Queensland , he formed No. 72 Wing , which subsequently deployed to Merauke in Dutch New Guinea , comprising No. 84 Squadron ( flying CAC Boomerang fighters ) , No. 86 Squadron ( P @-@ 40 Kittyhawk fighters ) , and No. 12 Squadron ( A @-@ 31 Vengeance dive bombers ) . His relations with North @-@ Eastern Area Command in Townsville were strained ; " mountains were made out of molehills " in his opinion , and he was reassigned that July to lead No. 2 Bombing and Gunnery School in Port Pirie , South Australia . 
 On 30 November 1943 , Eaton returned to the Northern Territory to establish No. 79 Wing at Batchelor , comprising No. 1 and No. 2 Squadrons ( flying Bristol Beaufort light reconnaissance bombers ) , No. 31 Squadron ( Bristol Beaufighter long @-@ range fighters ) , and No. 18 ( Netherlands East Indies ) Squadron ( B @-@ 25 Mitchell medium bombers ) . He developed a good relationship with his Dutch personnel , who called him " Oom Charles " ( Uncle Charles ) . Operating under the auspices of North @-@ Western Area Command ( NWA ) , Darwin , Eaton 's forces participated in the New Guinea and North @-@ Western Area Campaigns during 1944 , in which he regularly flew on missions himself . Through March – April , his Beaufighters attacked enemy shipping , while the Mitchells and Beauforts bombed Timor on a daily basis as a prelude to Operations Reckless and Persecution , the invasions of Hollandia and Aitape . On 19 April , he organised a large raid against Su , Dutch Timor , employing thirty @-@ five Mitchells , Beauforts and Beaufighters to destroy the town 's barracks and fuel dumps , the results earning him the personal congratulations of the Air Officer Commanding NWA , Air Vice Marshal " King " Cole , for his " splendid effort " . On the day of the Allied landings , 22 April , the Mitchells and Beaufighters made a daylight raid on Dili , Portuguese Timor . The ground assault met little opposition , credited in part to the air bombardment in the days leading up to it . In June – July , No. 79 Wing supported the Allied attack on Noemfoor . Eaton was recommended to be mentioned in despatches on 28 October 1944 for his " Gallant and distinguished service " in NWA ; this was promulgated in the London Gazette on 9 March 1945 . 
 Completing his tour with No. 79 Wing , Eaton was appointed Air Officer Commanding Southern Area , Melbourne , in January 1945 . The German submarine U @-@ 862 operated off southern Australia during the first months of 1945 , and the few combat units in Eaton 's command were heavily engaged in anti @-@ submarine patrols which sought to locate this and any other U @-@ boats in the area . The Air Officer Commanding RAAF Command , Air Vice Marshal Bill Bostock , considered the sporadic attacks to be partly " nuisance value " , designed to draw Allied resources away from the front line of the South West Pacific war . In April , Eaton complained to Bostock that intelligence from British Pacific Fleet concerning its ships ' movements eastwards out of Western Area was hours out of date by the time it was received at Southern Area Command , leading to RAAF aircraft missing their rendezvous and wasting valuable flying hours searching empty ocean . There had been no U @-@ boat strikes since February , and by June the naval authorities indicated that there was no pressing need for air cover except for the most important vessels . 
 = = Post @-@ war career and legacy = = 
 Eaton retired from the RAAF on 31 December 1945 . In recognition of his war service , he was appointed a Commander of the Order of Orange @-@ Nassau with Swords by the Dutch government on 17 January 1946 . The same month , he became Australian consul in Dili . He had seen an advertisement for the position and was the only applicant with experience of the area . While based there , he accompanied the provincial governor on visits to townships damaged in Allied raids during the war , taking care to be circumspect about the part played by his own forces from No. 79 Wing . In July 1947 , Dutch forces launched a " police action " against territory held by the fledgling Indonesian Republic , which had been declared shortly after the end of the war . Following a ceasefire , the United Nations set up a commission , chaired by Eaton as Consul @-@ General , to monitor progress . Eaton and his fellow commissioners believed that the ceasefire was serving the Dutch as a cover for further penetration of republican enclaves . His requests to the Australian government for military observers led to deployment of the first peacekeeping force to the region ; the Australians were soon followed by British and US observers , and enabled Eaton to display a more realistic impression of the situation to the outside world . The Dutch administration strongly opposed the presence of UN forces and accused Eaton of " impropriety " , but the Australian government refused to recall him . Following the transfer of sovereignty in December 1949 , he became Australia 's first secretary and chargé d 'affaires to the Republic of the United States of Indonesia . In 1950 , he returned to Australia to serve with the Department of External Affairs in Canberra . After retiring from public service in 1951 , he and his wife farmed at Metung , Victoria , and cultivated orchids . They later moved to Frankston , where Eaton was involved in promotional work . 
 Charles Eaton died in Frankston on 12 November 1979 . Survived by his wife and two sons , he was cremated . In accordance with his wishes , his ashes were scattered near Tennant Creek , site of his 1929 forced landing during the search for the Kookaburra , from an RAAF Caribou on 15 April 1981 . His name figures prominently in the Northern Territory , commemorated by Lake Eaton in Central Australia , Eaton Place in the Darwin suburb of Karama , Charles Eaton Drive on the approach to Darwin International Airport , and the Charles Moth Eaton Saloon Bar in the Tennant Creek Goldfields Hotel . He is also honoured with a display at the Northern Territory Parliament , and a National Trust memorial at Tennant Creek Airport . At the RAAF 's 2003 History Conference , Air Commodore Mark Lax , recalling Eaton 's search @-@ and @-@ rescue missions between the wars , commented : " Today , we might think of Eaton perhaps as the pioneer of our contribution to assistance to the civil community — a tradition that continues today . Perhaps I might jog your memory to a more recent series of rescues no less hazardous for all concerned — the amazing location of missing yachtsmen Thierry Dubois , Isabelle Autissier and Tony Bullimore by our P @-@ 3s that guided the Navy to their eventual rescue . My observation is that such activities remain vital for our relevance in that we must remain connected , supportive and responsive to the wants and needs of the Australian community . " 
 = Tina Fey = 
 Elizabeth Stamatina " Tina " Fey ( / feɪ / ; born May 18 , 1970 ) is an American actress , comedian , writer , and producer . She is best known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live ( 1998 @-@ 2006 ) , for her impression of former Alaska Governor and 2008 Vice @-@ Presidential candidate Sarah Palin , and for creating acclaimed series 30 Rock ( 2006 – 2013 ) and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt ( 2015 – present ) . She is also well known for appearing in films such as Mean Girls ( 2004 ) , Baby Mama ( 2008 ) , Date Night ( 2010 ) , Muppets Most Wanted ( 2014 ) , and Sisters ( 2015 ) . 
 Fey broke into comedy as a featured player in the Chicago @-@ based improvisational comedy group The Second City . She then joined SNL as a writer , later becoming head writer and a performer , known for her position as co @-@ anchor in the Weekend Update segment . In 2004 , she co @-@ starred in and wrote the screenplay for Mean Girls , which was adapted from the 2002 self @-@ help book Queen Bees and Wannabes . After leaving SNL in 2006 , she created the television series 30 Rock for Broadway Video , a situation comedy loosely based on her experiences at SNL . In the series , Fey portrays the head writer of a fictional sketch comedy series . In 2008 , she starred in the comedy film Baby Mama , alongside former SNL co @-@ star Amy Poehler . Fey next appeared in the 2010 comedy film Date Night and the animated film Megamind . In 2015 , she created and produced the television series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt , originally for NBC and eventually for Netflix . Her recent films include Sisters and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot . 
 Fey has received eight Emmy Awards , two Golden Globe Awards , five Screen Actors Guild Awards , and four Writers Guild of America Awards and was nominated for a Grammy Award for her autobiographical book Bossypants , which topped The New York Times Best Seller list for five weeks . In 2008 , the Associated Press gave Fey the AP Entertainer of the Year award for her satirical portrayal of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in a guest appearance on SNL . In 2010 , Fey was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor , becoming the youngest @-@ ever recipient of the award . On January 13 , 2013 , Fey hosted the 70th Golden Globe Awards with her long @-@ time friend and fellow comedian , Amy Poehler , to critical acclaim . The duo hosted again the following two years , generating the highest ratings for the annual ceremony in a decade and receiving similar acclaim . 
 = = Early life = = 
 Fey was born on May 18 , 1970 , in Upper Darby , Pennsylvania , a suburb of Philadelphia . Her mother , Zenobia " Jeanne " ( née Xenakes ) , is a brokerage employee ; her father , Donald Henry Fey ( died 2015 , age 82 ) , was a university grant proposal writer . She has a brother , Peter , who is eight years older . Fey 's mother , who was born in Piraeus , Greece , is the daughter of Greek immigrants : Vasiliki Kourelakou , Fey 's maternal grandmother , left Petrina , Laconia , Greece on her own , arriving in the United States in February 1921 . 
 Fey 's father had English , German , and Northern Irish ancestry ; one of Fey 's paternal great @-@ great @-@ great @-@ great @-@ great @-@ grandfathers was John Hewson ( 1744 – 1821 ) , a textile manufacturer who immigrated to America with the support of Benjamin Franklin , enabling Hewson to quickly open a quilting factory in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . According to a genealogical DNA test arranged by the television series Finding Your Roots , Fey 's ancestry is 94 % European , 3 % Middle Eastern , and 3 % from the Caucasus . 
 Fey was exposed to comedy early : 
 At age 11 , Fey read Joe Franklin 's Seventy Years of Great Film Comedians for a school project about comedy . She grew up watching Second City Television , and has cited Catherine O 'Hara as a role model . 
 Fey attended Cardington @-@ Stonehurst Elementary School and Beverly Hills Middle School in Upper Darby . By middle school , she knew she was interested in comedy . Fey attended Upper Darby High School , where she was an honors student , a member of the choir , drama club , and tennis team , and co @-@ editor of the school 's newspaper , The Acorn . She also anonymously wrote the newspaper 's satirical column , The Colonel . Following her graduation in 1988 , Fey enrolled at the University of Virginia , where she studied play @-@ writing and acting and was awarded the Pettway Prize . She graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama . 
 After college , she worked as a receptionist during the day at the Evanston YMCA and took classes at Second City at night . 
 = = Career = = 
 = = = Saturday Night Live ( 1997 – 2006 ) = = = 
 While performing shows with The Second City in 1997 , Fey submitted several scripts to NBC 's variety show Saturday Night Live ( SNL ) , at the request of its head writer Adam McKay , a former performer at Second City . She was hired as a writer for SNL following a meeting with SNL creator Lorne Michaels , and moved to New York from Chicago . Fey told The New Yorker , " I 'd had my eye on the show forever , the way other kids have their eye on Derek Jeter . " Originally , Fey " struggled " at SNL . Her first sketch to air starred Chris Farley in a Sally Jessy Raphael satire . Fey went on to write a series of parodies , including one of ABC 's morning talk show The View . She co @-@ wrote the " Sully and Denise " sketches with Rachel Dratch , who plays one of the teens . 
 Fey was an extra in a 1998 episode , and after watching herself , decided to diet and lost 30 pounds . She told The New York Times , " I was a completely normal weight , but I was here in New York City , I had money and I couldn 't buy any clothes . After I lost weight , there was interest in putting me on camera . " In 1999 , McKay stepped down as head writer , which led Michaels to approach Fey for the position . She became SNL 's first female head writer that year . 
 In 2000 , Fey began performing in sketches , and she and Jimmy Fallon became co @-@ anchors of SNL 's Weekend Update segment . Fey said she did not ask to audition , but that Michaels approached her . Michaels explained that there was chemistry between Fey and Fallon , though the decision was " kind of risky " at the time . Her role in Weekend Update was well received by critics . Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote : " ... Fey delivers such blow darts – poison filled jokes written in long , precisely parsed sentences unprecedented in Update history – with such a bright , sunny countenance makes her all the more devilishly delightful . " Dennis Miller , a former cast member of SNL and anchor of Weekend Update , was pleased with Fey as one of the anchors for the segment : " ... Fey might be the best Weekend Update anchor who ever did it . She writes the funniest jokes " . Robert Bianco of USA Today , however , commented that he was " not enamored " of the pairing . 
 In 2001 , Fey and the rest of the writing staff won a Writers Guild of America Award for SNL 's 25th anniversary special . The following year at the 2002 Emmy Awards ceremony , they won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety , Music or Comedy Program . 
 When Fallon left the show in May 2004 , he was replaced on Weekend Update by Amy Poehler . It was the first time that two women co @-@ anchored Weekend Update . Fey revealed that she " hired " Poehler as her co @-@ host for the segment . The reception was positive , with Rachel Sklar of the Chicago Tribune noting that the pairing " has been a hilarious , pitch @-@ perfect success as they play @-@ off each other with quick one @-@ liners and deadpan delivery " . 
 The 2005 – 2006 season was her last ; she departed to develop 30 Rock for Broadway Video . At the time she left , the 117 episodes she co @-@ hosted made her SNL 's longest @-@ serving Weekend Update anchor , a mark that would later be passed by her replacement , Seth Meyers . In Rolling Stone Magazine 's February , 2015 appraisal of all 141 SNL cast members to date , Fey was ranked third in importance ( behind John Belushi and Eddie Murphy ) . They credited her with " salvaging ' Update ' from a decade @-@ long losing streak , " and " slapping SNL out of its late @-@ nineties coma . " 
 = = = 30 Rock ( 2006 – 2013 ) = = = 
 In 2002 , Fey suggested a pilot episode for a situation comedy about a cable news network to NBC , which rejected it . The pilot was reworked to revolve around an SNL style series , and was accepted by NBC . She signed a contract with NBC in May 2003 , which allowed her to remain in her SNL head writer position at least through the 2004 – 2005 television season . As part of the contract , Fey was to develop a prime @-@ time project to be produced by Broadway Video and NBC Universal . The pilot , directed by Adam Bernstein , centered on Liz Lemon , the head writer of a variety show on NBC , and how she managed her relationships with the show 's volatile stars and the new head of the network . In October 2006 , the pilot aired on NBC as 30 Rock . Although the episode received generally favorable reviews , it finished third in its timeslot . 
 The network renewed the series for a second season , which began in October 2007 . The show 's third season premiered on October 30 , 2008 . The premiere episode drew 8 @.@ 5 million viewers , the highest ratings of the series . 
 In 2007 , Fey received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series . The show itself won the 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series ( and did so again for two subsequent years ) . In 2008 , she won the Golden Globe , Screen Actors Guild , and Emmy awards all in the category for Best Actress in a Comedy Series . The following year , Fey again won the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award in the same categories , and was nominated for an Emmy Award . In early 2010 , Fey received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress , and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Lead Actress . 30 Rock was renewed for the 2010 – 2011 season in March 2010 . The series returned for the 2011 – 2012 season , though due to Fey 's pregnancy with her second child , the season premiere was delayed until midseason . Fey 's performance on the show was inspired by Julia Louis @-@ Dreyfus , and later used Louis @-@ Dreyfus to play the stand @-@ in for the character of Liz Lemon in flashback scenes during the live episode of the fifth season . On May 11 , 2012 , it was announced that the show had been renewed for a seventh and final season , to premiere October 4 , 2012 , with 13 episodes . After receiving 13 Emmy Award nominations and two wins for this final season , 30 Rock ended its critically acclaimed run with 112 Emmy award nominations . It has been cited as one of the greatest TV series of all time and it is considered to have one of the greatest finales in television history . 
 = = = Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt = = = 
 In 2015 , Fey created and produced the television comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt with fellow 30 Rock @-@ alumnus Robert Carlock . The series stars Ellie Kemper as the titular character who escapes from a doomsday cult and moves to New York . It also stars Fey 's former co @-@ star Jane Krakowski , as well as Tituss Burgess ( who had previously appeared in four 30 Rock episodes ) and Carol Kane . Although it was originally produced for NBC , it was eventually sold to Netflix and immediately renewed for a second season . The show premiered on March 6 , 2015 to critical acclaim . 
 On July 16 , 2015 , the series was nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards , including Outstanding Comedy Series . Fey herself was nominated both as the creator / executive producer of the series and for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her guest performance as Marcia , a bumbling prosecutor in reference to Marcia Clark . 
 = = = Feature films = = = 
 In 2002 , Fey appeared in the surreal comedy Martin & Orloff . She made her debut as writer and co @-@ star of the 2004 teen comedy Mean Girls . Characters and behaviors in the movie are based on Fey 's high school life at Upper Darby High School and on the non @-@ fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman . The cast includes other past cast members of SNL including Tim Meadows , Ana Gasteyer , and Amy Poehler . The film received favorable reviews , and was a box office success , grossing US $ 129 million worldwide . 
 In a 2004 interview , Fey expressed that she would like to write and direct movies . In 2006 , Fey worked on a movie script for Paramount Pictures , which was to feature Sacha Baron Cohen , by the name of Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill , based loosely on the true story of a Hasidic rock musician . In 2007 , she was cast in the animated comedy film Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters as the Aqua Teens ' mother , a giant burrito . 
 She received her SAG card after appearing in Artie Lange 's Beer League released in 2006 , in which she was compelled to join for " ... a thousand dollars " . 
 Fey and former SNL castmate Amy Poehler starred in the 2008 comedy Baby Mama . The movie was written and directed by Michael McCullers . The plot concerns Kate ( Fey ) , a business woman , who wants a child but , discovering she has only a million @-@ to @-@ one chance of getting pregnant , decides to find a surrogate : Angie ( Poehler ) , a white @-@ trash schemer . Baby Mama received mixed reviews , but critics enjoyed Fey 's performance . Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote : " Fey is a delight to watch throughout . Able to convey Kate 's intentions and feelings through the simple looks and inflections , she never melodramatizes her situation ; nor does her efficient , perfectionist side become overbearing . " The movie grossed over US $ 64 million at the box office . 
 Fey 's projects after 2008 include a voice role in the English @-@ language version of the Japanese animated film Ponyo . In 2009 , she appeared in The Invention of Lying , alongside Ricky Gervais , Jennifer Garner , Rob Lowe , and Christopher Guest . Her next film role was in Shawn Levy 's 2010 comedy Date Night , a feature that focuses on a married couple , played by Fey and Steve Carell , who go on a date ; however , the night goes awry for the two . Also in the same year , she voiced Roxanne Ritchie , a television reporter , in the DreamWorks animated film Megamind ( 2010 ) . With a total worldwide gross of US $ 321 million , Megamind is Fey 's most commercially successful picture to date . It earned US $ 173 million outside the U.S. and US $ 148 million domestically . 
 In 2013 , Fey starred alongside Paul Rudd in the romantic comedy @-@ drama film Admission , based on the Jean Hanff Korelitz novel by the same name . The film was directed by Paul Weitz . Fey later starred in the 2014 comedy @-@ drama This Is Where I Leave You , helmed by Date Night director Shawn Levy . As was the case with Baby Mama , although both of these films received generally mixed reviews , Fey 's performances were well received by film critics . 
 In 2015 , it was announced Fey would be the narrator for the Disney Nature film Monkey Kingdom , which was released in theaters on April 17 , 2015 . She then re @-@ teamed with Poehler , starring in the 2015 comedy film Sisters as the title characters , and received positive reviews for her role . In 2016 , Fey starred in the biographical war comedy @-@ drama Whiskey Tango Foxtrot , based on the memoir The Taliban Shuffle : Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan , to positive reviews . 
 = = = Subsequent SNL appearances = = = 
 On February 23 , 2008 , Fey hosted the first episode of SNL after the 2007 – 2008 Writers Guild of America strike . For this appearance , she was nominated for an Emmy in the category of Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program . Fey hosted SNL for a second time on April 10 , 2010 , and for her appearance she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series . 
 From September to November 2008 , Fey made multiple guest appearances on SNL to perform a series of parodies of Republican vice @-@ presidential candidate Sarah Palin . On the 34th season premiere episode , aired September 13 , 2008 , Fey imitated Palin in a sketch , alongside Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton . Their repartee included Clinton needling Palin about her " Tina Fey glasses " . The sketch quickly became NBC 's most @-@ watched viral video ever , with 5 @.@ 7 million views by the following Wednesday . Fey reprised this role on the October 4 show , on the October 18 show where she was joined by the real Sarah Palin , and on the November 1 show , where she was joined by John McCain and his wife Cindy . The October 18 show had the best ratings of any SNL show since 1994 . The following year Fey won an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her impersonation of Palin . Fey returned to SNL in April 2010 , and reprised her impression of Palin in one sketch titled the " Sarah Palin Network " . Fey once again did her impression of Palin when she hosted Saturday Night Live on May 8 , 2011 . 
 In December 2009 , Entertainment Weekly put her Palin impersonation on its end @-@ of @-@ the @-@ decade " best @-@ of " list , writing , " Fey 's freakishly spot @-@ on SNL impersonation of the wannabe VP ( and her ability to strike a balance between comedy and cruelty ) made for truly transcendent television . " Rolling Stone called her Palin impression " [ arguably ] the most brilliant move SNL ever made " . 
 = = = Other work = = = 
 In 1997 , Fey and other members of The Second City provided voices for the pinball game Medieval Madness . 
 In 2000 , Fey partnered with fellow SNL cast member Rachel Dratch in the Off Broadway two @-@ woman show Dratch & Fey at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City . The production was well received by critics . Tim Townsend of The Wall Street Journal wrote that the fun part of watching Fey and Dratch perform was " seeing how comfortable they are with each other " . He concluded that the production " isn 't about two women being funny ... Dratch and Fey are just funny . Period . " One of the SNL sketches , " Sully and Denise " , originated at The Second City . 
 On August 13 , 2007 , Fey made a guest appearance in the Sesame Street episode " The Bookaneers " . She appeared as a guest judge on the November 25 , 2007 episode of the Food Network program Iron Chef America . 
 Fey has appeared as Tinker Bell in Disney 's campaign " Year of a Million Dreams " . She has also done commercials for American Express and Garnier Nutrisse . 
 On April 5 , 2011 , Fey 's autobiography , Bossypants , was released to a positive review from The New York Times . 
 In 2011 , Fey narrated The Secret Life of Girls , a two @-@ hour @-@ long radio documentary produced by The Kitchen Sisters . She introduced stories of women and girls from around the world , and also shared memories of her own girlhood and mother . 
 In 2012 , Fey made her rapping debut on the Childish Gambino ( Donald Glover ) mixtape Royalty . Glover is a former writer on 30 Rock , on which he worked with Fey . Fey was also featured as herself in the iCarly episode " iShock America " . 
 = = Comedic and acting style = = 
 Fey is known for her deadpan humor and delivery ; her " sardonic wit " has become a trademark of hers , upon which several critics have commented in their reviews of Fey 's work . According to Los Angeles Times critic Mary McNamara , Fey " project [ s ] both oblivious security and hyper @-@ alert insecurity with the same expression " in her performances , while The Chronicle 's Dillon Fernando wrote that the actress specializes in " delectable , situational and ironic comedy " . On Fey 's comedic prowess , Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels enthused that his former employee " has a very clear take on things ... It always comes from a place of intelligence and there is just an edge to it . " Michaels concluded , " It 's not fearful . It 's strong and confident and you recognise the voice and most of the time you agree with it . " Writing for The Guardian , Christopher Goodwin believes that Fey " fashioned her comic persona around her glasses " , which she has worn since 1995 ; Fey joked that " Glasses make anyone look smarter " . 
 Seldom hesitating to use herself as the butt of her own jokes , Fey is also well known for practicing self @-@ deprecating humor , as demonstrated throughout her performance as Liz Lemon in 30 Rock . In an article ranking Fey 's six greatest jokes , David Renshaw of The Guardian wrote that the performer 's work continues to feature her " trademark mix of snark , self @-@ deprecation and pop @-@ culture smarts . " Fey 's self @-@ deprecating comedic style inspired Ashley Fetters of The Atlantic to recognize her as comedian Phyllis Diller 's successor because of their similar humor . Critics have been divided in their opinions and discussions of Fey 's use of self @-@ deprecating humor , and its effect on women as a female comic ; while blogger Kate Harding disapproved of Fey 's performance in 30 Rock because " I 'm torn between being sad that she apparently doesn 't see [ beauty ] in herself and being pissed off that she 's reinforcing the idea that having brown hair , glasses , and a figure that 's maybe a size 2 instead of a 0 actually equals ugly " , Jessica G. of Jezebel defended the actress , writing that Fey 's performance is " supposed to be parodying precisely the kinds of media that reinforce ideas that unconventional women are unworthy . " Writing that Harding misunderstood Fey 's intentions , the author concluded that her self @-@ deprecation " is precisely what makes her relatable " , elaborating that " [ women ] have many moments of self @-@ doubt , and seeing someone as successful as Tina Fey be self @-@ deprecating gives us all permission to be imperfect . " Sophie Caldecott of Verily defended Fey 's modesty and tendency to downplay her own physical appearance : " She mocks her own appearance , sure , but she does so in a way that consistently shows up our culture for placing so much importance on how women look , as if that ’ s the most interesting thing about us ... Her comic persona on 30 Rock , Liz Lemon , can be laughed at for many things , but her career managerial style and ability is not one of them . " Caldecott concluded , " In reality , self @-@ deprecation is an art that comedians everywhere dabble in ... In fact , I defy you to find a good male comedian who isn ’ t a master of self @-@ deprecation . Comedians make fun of themselves for many reasons , mostly because it is the most readily accessible source of inspiration but also because it is the most generous one . " Observing that Fey 's material lacks " whining " , Gina Barreca of the Hartford Courant wrote that Fey 's comedy " is not simply an iteration of self @-@ deprecating femininity passing itself off as humor . In itself , this demarcates the current generation of female humorists from earlier generations of performers who were told , more or less , to use themselves not as a sounding board for ideas but as a punching bag for insults . " 
 As an actress , Fey has developed a reputation for portraying " the hilarious , self @-@ deprecating unmarried career woman " in most of her films to @-@ date . The Boston Globe 's Janice Paige defended her limited filmography by writing that , unlike most film actors , Fey remains " realistic about her range as a leading lady and says she ’ s been deliberate about only taking on parts for which she actually seems suited . " Fey explained that she approaches each role asking herself , " Would I be plausible in this role , in this job ? " However , her role as Kate Ellis in 2015 's Sisters provided Fey with an opportunity to stray from playing the type @-@ A female characters for which she has become known . The New York Times film critic A. O. Scott wrote , " We ’ re used to seeing Ms. Fey ... as an anxious overthinker using her caustic sarcasm as a weapon against both her own insecurities and the flakes and train wrecks who surround her . This time , she gets to be the train wreck . " In 30 Rock , Fey 's comedic acting was heavily influenced by both physical and improvisational comedy while , as a writer , her " carefully written scripts " were often quirky and character @-@ driven . 
 = = In the media = = 
 In 2002 , Fey was ranked in the Hot 100 List at number 80 on Maxim magazine , which used photos taken earlier by Rolling Stone calling her " the thinking man 's sex symbol " . She was named one of People magazine 's 50 Most Beautiful People in 2003 , and one of People magazine 's 100 Most Beautiful People in 2007 , 2008 , and 2009 . In 2007 , Fey placed seventh on the Hot 100 List on AfterEllen.com. She repeated the appearance the following year , being voted as number one on the list . 
 In 2001 , Entertainment Weekly named Fey as one of their Entertainers of the Year for her work on Weekend Update . In 2007 , she was named one of the magazine 's Entertainers of the Year , and placed number two in 2008 . In 2009 , Fey was named as Entertainment Weekly 's fifth individual in their 15 Entertainers of the 2000s list . In 2013 , Entertainment Weekly crowned Fey as " The Once and Future Queen " ( an allusion to The Once and Future King ) in their feature on " Women Who Run TV , " calling her " the funniest woman in the free world . " EW quoted Mindy Kaling as saying , " I always feel unoriginal bringing up Tina as my inspiration , but she 's everyone 's inspiration for a reason . " The column also quoted praise by Zooey Deschanel and Lena Dunham . 
 The newspaper editors and broadcast producers of the Associated Press voted Fey the AP Entertainer of the Year as the performer who had the greatest impact on culture and entertainment in 2008 , citing her impression of Sarah Palin on SNL . She has appeared on Forbes ' annual Celebrity 100 list of the 100 most powerful celebrities in 2008 , 2009 , 2010 , 2011 , and 2012 at No. 99 , No. 86 , No. 90 , No. 92 , and No. 79 respectively . 
 In 2007 , the New York Post included Fey in New York 's 50 Most Powerful Women , ranking her at number 33 . Fey was among the Time 100 , a list of the 100 most influential people in the world , in 2007 and 2009 , as selected annually by Time magazine . Fey 's featured article for the 2009 list was written by 30 Rock co @-@ star , Alec Baldwin . She was selected by Barbara Walters as one of America 's 10 Most Fascinating People of 2008 . 
 In September 2011 , Fey was ranked at the top of Forbes magazine 's list of the highest @-@ paid TV actresses . 
 In June 2010 , it was announced Fey would receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011 . 
 In 2014 , Fey was recognized by Elle Magazine during The Women in Hollywood Awards , honoring women for their outstanding achievements in film , spanning all aspects of the motion picture industry , including acting , directing , and producing . 
 = = Charity work = = 
 Fey 's charity work includes support of Autism Speaks , an organization that sponsors autism research . In April 2008 , she participated in Night of Too Many Stars , a comedy benefit show for autism education . 
 Fey is also a supporter of Mercy Corps , a global relief and development organization , in their campaign to end world hunger . Fey narrated a video for Mercy Corps 's Action Center in New York City , describing hunger as a symptom of many wider world problems . She also supports the Love Our Children USA organization , which fights violence against children , who named her among their Mothers Who Make a Difference , in 2009 . She was the 2009 national spokesperson for the Light the Night Walk , which benefits the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society . 
 = = Personal life = = 
 In 1994 , two years after Fey joined Chicago 's Second City improvisational theatre troupe , she began dating Jeff Richmond , a piano player who later became Second City 's musical director and then a composer on 30 Rock . They married in a Greek Orthodox ceremony on June 3 , 2001 . They have two daughters : Alice Zenobia Richmond ( born September 10 , 2005 ) and Penelope Athena Richmond ( born August 10 , 2011 ) . In April 2009 , Fey and Richmond purchased a US $ 3 @.@ 4 million apartment on the Upper West Side in New York City . 
 Fey has a scar a few inches long on the left side of her chin and cheek , the cause of which remained unexplained to the public until a 2008 Vanity Fair profile by Maureen Dowd , and subsequently in her autobiographical book , where she revealed that " during the spring semester of kindergarten , I was slashed in the face by a stranger in the alley behind my house " . 
 = = Filmography = = 
 = = = Film = = = 
 = = = Television = = = 
 = = = Video games = = = 
 = = Awards and nominations = = 
 = WASP @-@ 44 = 
 WASP @-@ 44 is a G @-@ type star in constellation Cetus that has the Jupiter @-@ size planet WASP @-@ 44b in orbit . The star is slightly less massive and slightly smaller than the Sun ; it is also slightly cooler , but is more metal @-@ rich . The star was observed by SuperWASP , an organization in search of planets , starting in 2009 ; manual follow @-@ up observations used WASP @-@ 44 's spectrum and measurements of its radial velocity led to the discovery of the transiting planet WASP @-@ 44b . The planet and its star were presented along with WASP @-@ 45b and WASP @-@ 46b on May 17 , 2011 by a team of scientists testing the idea that Hot Jupiters tend to have circular orbits , an assumption that is made when the orbital eccentricity of such planets are not well @-@ constrained . 
 = = Observational history = = 
 WASP @-@ 44 was observed between July and November 2009 by the WASP @-@ South , a station of the SuperWASP planet @-@ searching program based at the South African Astronomical Observatory . Observations of the star revealed a periodic decrease in its brightness . WASP @-@ South , along with the SuperWASP @-@ North station at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the Canary Islands , collected 15 @,@ 755 photometric observations , allowing scientists to produce a more accurate light curve . Another set of observations yielded a 6 @,@ 000 point photometric data set , but the light curve was prepared late and was not considered in the discovery paper . 
 In 2010 , a European science team investigated the star using the CORALIE spectrograph and collected seventeen spectra of WASP @-@ 44 . From the spectra , radial velocity measurements were extrapolated . Analysis of collected CORALIE data ruled out the possibility that the detected radial velocity was caused by the blended spectrum of a spectroscopic binary star , supporting the possibility that the body orbiting WASP @-@ 44 was indeed a planet , designated WASP @-@ 44b . 
 The Leonhard Euler Telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile was used to follow up on the discovery circling WASP @-@ 44 , searching for a point at which the planet transited , or crossed in front of , its host star . One transit was detected . 
 WASP @-@ 44 , its recently discovered planet , the planets orbiting WASP @-@ 45 and WASP @-@ 46 , and a discussion exploring the validity of the common assumption amongst scientists that closely orbiting Hot Jupiter planets have highly circular orbits unless proven otherwise , were reported in a single discovery paper that was published on May 17 , 2011 by the Royal Astronomical Society . The paper was submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on May 16 , 2011 . 
 = = Characteristics = = 
 WASP @-@ 44 is a G @-@ type star ( the same class of star as the Sun ) that is located in the Cetus constellation . WASP @-@ 44 has a mass that is 0 @.@ 951 times that of the Sun . In terms of size , WASP @-@ 44 has a radius that is 0 @.@ 927 times that of the Sun . WASP @-@ 44 has an effective temperature of 5410 K , cooler than the Sun . However , the star is metal @-@ rich with relation to the Sun . Its measured metallicity is [ Fe / H ] = 0 @.@ 06 , or 1 @.@ 148 times that the amount of iron found in the Sun . WASP @-@ 44 's chromosphere ( outermost layer ) is not active . The star also does not rotate at a high velocity . 
 The star has an apparent magnitude of 12 @.@ 9 . It cannot be seen from Earth with the naked eye . 
 = = Planetary system = = 
 There is one known planet in the orbit of WASP @-@ 44 : WASP @-@ 44b . The planet is a Hot Jupiter with a mass of 0 @.@ 889 Jupiters . Its radius is 1 @.@ 14 times that of Jupiter . WASP @-@ 44b orbits its host star every 2 @.@ 4238039 days at a distance 0 @.@ 03473 AU , approximately 3 @.@ 47 % the mean distance between the Earth and Sun . With an orbital inclination of 86.02º , WASP @-@ 44b has an orbit that exists almost edge @-@ on to its host star with respect to Earth . WASPA @-@ 44b 's orbital eccentricity is fit to 0 @.@ 036 , indicating a mostly circular orbit . 
 = Elephanta Caves = 
 Elephanta caves are a network of sculpted caves located on Elephanta Island , or Gharapuri ( literally " the city of caves " ) in Mumbai Harbour , 10 kilometres ( 6 @.@ 2 mi ) to the east of the city of Mumbai in the Indian state of Maharashtra . The island , located on an arm of the Arabian Sea , consists of two groups of caves — the first is a large group of five Hindu caves , the second , a smaller group of two Buddhist caves . The Hindu caves contain rock cut stone sculptures , representing the Shaiva Hindu sect , dedicated to the Lord Shiva . 
 The rock cut architecture of the caves has been dated to between the 5th and 8th centuries , although the identity of the original builders is still a subject of debate . The caves are hewn from solid basalt rock . All the caves were also originally painted in the past , but now only traces remain . 
 The main cave ( Cave 1 , or the Great Cave ) was a Hindu place of worship until Portuguese rule began in 1534 , after which the caves suffered severe damage . This cave was renovated in the 1970s after years of neglect , and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 to preserve the artwork . It is currently maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India ( ASI ) . 
 = = Geography = = 
 Elephanta Island , or Gharapuri , is about 11 km ( 6 @.@ 8 mi ) east of the Apollo Bunder ( Bunder in Marathi means a " pier for embarkation and disembarkation of passengers and goods " ) on the Mumbai Harbour and 10 km ( 6 @.@ 2 mi ) south of Pir Pal in Trombay . The island covers about 10 km2 ( 3 @.@ 9 sq mi ) at high tide and about 16 km2 ( 6 @.@ 2 sq mi ) at low tide . Gharapuri is small village on the south side of the island . The Elephanta Caves can be reached by a ferry from the Gateway of India , Mumbai , which has the nearest airport and train station . The cave is closed on Monday . 
 The island is 2 @.@ 4 km ( 1 @.@ 5 mi ) in length with two hills that rise to a height of about 150 m ( 490 ft ) . A deep ravine cuts through the heart of the island from north to south . On the west , the hill rises gently from the sea and stretches east across the ravine and rises gradually to the extreme east to a height of 173 m ( 568 ft ) . This hill is known as the Stupa hill . Forest growth with clusters of mango , tamarind , and karanj trees cover the hills with scattered palm trees . Rice fields are seen in the valley . The fore shore is made up of sand and mud with mangrove bushes on the fringe . Landing quays sit near three small hamlets known as Set Bunder in the north @-@ west , Mora Bunder in the northeast , and Gharapuri or Raj Bunder in the south . 
 The two hills of the island , the western and the eastern , have five rock @-@ cut caves in the western part and a brick stupa on the eastern hill on its top composed of two caves with a few rock @-@ cut cisterns . One of the caves on the eastern hill is unfinished . It is a protected island with a buffer zone according to a Notification issued in 1985 , which also includes " a prohibited area " that stretches 1 kilometre ( 0 @.@ 62 mi ) from the shoreline . 
 = = History = = 
 Since no inscriptions on any of the island have been discovered , the ancient history of the island is conjectural , at best . Pandavas , the heroes of the Hindu epic Mahabharata , and Banasura , the demon devotee of Shiva , are both credited with building temples or cut caves to live . Local tradition holds that the caves are not man @-@ made . 
 The Elephanta caves are " of unknown date and attribution " . Art historians have dated the caves in the range of late 5th to late 8th century AD . Archaeological excavations have unearthed a few Kshatrapa coins dated to 4th century AD . The known history is traced only to the defeat of Mauryan rulers of Konkan by the Badami Chalukyas emperor Pulakesi II ( 609 – 642 ) in a naval battle , in 635 AD . Elephanta was then called Puri or Purika , and served as the capital of the Konkan Mauryas . Some historians attribute the caves to the Konkan Mauryas , dating them to the mid @-@ 6th century , though others refute this claim saying a relatively small kingdom like the Konkan Mauryas could not undertake " an almost superhuman excavation effort , " which was needed to carve the rock temples from solid rock and could not have the skilled labor to produce such " high quality " sculpture . 
 Some other historians attribute the construction to the Kalachuris ( late 5th to 6th century ) , who may have had a feudal relationship with the Konkan Mauryas . In an era where polytheism was prevalent , the Elephanta main cave dedicates the monotheism of the Pashupata Shaivism sect , a sect to which Kalachuris as well as Konkan Mauryas belonged . 
 The Chalukyas , who defeated the Kalachuris as well as the Konkan Mauryas , are also believed by some to be creators of the main cave , in the mid @-@ 7th century . The Rashtrakutas are the last claimants to the creation of the main cave , approximated to the early 7th to late 8th century . The Elephanta Shiva cave resembles in some aspects the 8th @-@ century Rashtrakuta rock @-@ temple Kailash at Ellora . The Trimurti of Elephanta showing the three faces of Shiva is akin to the Trimurti of Brahma , Vishnu and Mahesh ( Shiva ) , which was the royal insignia of the Rashtrakutas . The Nataraja and Ardhanarishvara sculptures are also attributed to the Rashtrakutas . 
 Later , Elephanta was ruled by another Chalukyan dynasty , and then by Gujarat Sultanate , who surrendered it to the Portuguese in 1534 . By then , Elephanta was called Gharapuri , which denotes a hill settlement . The name is still used in the local Marathi language . The Portuguese named the island " Elephanta Island " in honour of a huge rock @-@ cut black stone statue of an elephant that was then installed on a mound , a short distance east of Gharapuri village . The elephant now sits in the Jijamata Udyaan zoo in Mumbai . 
 Portuguese rule saw a decline in the Hindu population on the island and the abandonment of the Shiva cave ( main cave ) as a regular Hindu place of worship , though worship on Mahashivratri , the festival of Shiva , continued and still does . The Portuguese did considerable damage to the sanctuaries . Portuguese soldiers used the reliefs of Shiva in the main cave for target practice , sparing only the Trimurti sculpture . They also removed an inscription related to the creation of the caves . While some historians solely blame the Portuguese for the destruction of the caves , others also cite water @-@ logging and dripping rainwater as additional damaging factors . The Portuguese left in 1661 as per the marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza , daughter of King John IV of Portugal . This marriage shifted possession of the islands to the British Empire , as part of Catherine 's dowry to Charles . 
 Though the main cave was restored in the 1970s , other caves , including three consisting of important sculptures , are still badly damaged . The caves were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 as per the cultural criteria of UNESCO : the caves " represent a masterpiece of human creative genius " and " bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilisation which is living or which has disappeared " . 
 = = Overview = = 
 The island has two groups of caves in the rock @-@ cut architectural style . The caves are hewn from solid basalt rock . All caves were painted in the past , but only traces remain . The larger group of caves , which consists of five caves on the western hill of the island , is well known for its Hindu sculptures . The primary cave , numbered as Cave 1 , is about 1 @.@ 5 km ( 0 @.@ 93 mi ) up a hillside , facing the ocean . It is a rock @-@ cut temple complex that covers an area of 5 @,@ 600 m2 ( 60 @,@ 000 sq ft ) , and consists of a main chamber , two lateral chambers , courtyards , and subsidiary shrines . It is 39 metres ( 128 ft ) deep from the front entrance to the back . The temple complex is the abode of Shiva , depicted in widely celebrated carvings which reveal his several forms and acts . 
 On the eastern part of the island , on the Stupa Hill , there is a small group of caves that house Buddhist monuments . This hill is named after the religious Stupa monument that they display . One of the two caves is incomplete , while the other contains a Stupa made in brick . 
 = = Main cave = = 
 The main cave , also called the Shiva cave , Cave 1 , or the Great Cave , is 27 metres ( 89 ft ) square in plan with a hall ( mandapa ) . At the entrance are four doors , with three open porticoes and an aisle at the back . Pillars , six in each row , divide the hall into a series of smaller chambers . The roof of the hall has concealed beams supported by stone columns joined together by capitals . The cave entrance is aligned with the north – south axis , unusual for a Shiva shrine ( normally east – west ) . The northern entrance to the cave , which has 1 @,@ 000 steep steps , is flanked by two panels of Shiva dated to the Gupta period . The left panel depicts Yogishvara ( The Lord of Yoga ) and the right shows Nataraja ( Shiva as the Lord of Dance ) . The central Shiva shrine ( see 16 in plan below ) is a free @-@ standing square cell with four entrances , located in the right section of the main hall . Smaller shrines are located at the east and west ends of the caves . The eastern sanctuary serves as a ceremonial entrance . 
 Each wall has large carvings of Shiva , each more than 5 metres ( 16 ft ) in height . The central Shiva relief Trimurti is located on the south wall and is flanked by Ardhanarisvara ( a half @-@ man , half @-@ woman representation of Shiva ) on its left and Gangadhara to its right , which denotes the River Ganges ' descent from Shiva 's matted locks . Other carvings related to the legend of Shiva are also seen in the main hall at strategic locations in exclusive cubicles ; these include Kalyanasundaramurti , depicting Shiva 's marriage to the goddess Parvati , Andhakasuravadamurti or Andhakasuramardana , the slaying of the demon Andhaka by Shiva , Shiva @-@ Parvati on Mount Kailash ( the abode of Shiva ) , and Ravananugraha , depicting the demon @-@ king Ravana shaking Kailash . 
 The main cave blends Chalukyan architectural features such as massive figures of the divinities , guardians , and square pillars with custom capitals with Gupta artistic characteristics , like the depiction of mountains and clouds and female hairstyles . 
 Layout : 
 = = = Shiva @-@ Parvati on Kailash and Ravana lifting Kailash = = = 
 The carving on the south wall to the east of the portico depicts Shiva and Parvati seated on their abode Mount Kailash . The four @-@ armed Shiva is seen with a crown and a disc behind it ( all damaged ) , the sacred thread across his chest , and a dressing gown covering up to the knee . Parvati , dressed in her finery with her hair falling to the front , looks away . Behind her at the right is a woman attendant holding the child , identified with her son Kartikeya , the war @-@ god . Many male and female attendants are seen behind the main figures . Shiva 's attendant , the skeleton @-@ like Bhringi , is seated at his feet . Other figures , not distinct , depict , among others , a royal @-@ looking tall person , ascetics , a fat figure , a dwarf , a bull ( the mount of Shiva ) , features of a Garuda , and two monkeys . The scenic beauty of the mountain is sculpted with the sky background amidst heavenly beings showering flowers on Shiva @-@ Parvati . This scene is interpreted as a gambling scene , where Parvati is angry as Shiva cheats in a game of dice . 
 The carved panel facing this one is a two @-@ level depiction of Ravana lifting Kailash . The upper scene is Mount Kailash , where Shiva and Parvati are seated . The eight @-@ armed , three @-@ eyed Shiva wears headgear with a crescent and disc behind it . Most of his arms are broken , two of them resting on attendants ' heads . The Parvati figure , seated facing Shiva , remains only as a trunk . The panel is flanked by door keepers . Attendants of Shiva are also seen in the relief but mostly in a damaged state . Bhringi is seated near Shiva 's feet and to his left is the elephant @-@ headed son of Shiva , Ganesha . In this ensemble , the ten @-@ headed demon @-@ king Ravana is seen , with only one head left unscathed , and out of his twenty arms , only a few are discernible . Around Ravana are several demons . Numerous figures are seen above Shiva : the god Vishnu , riding his mount Garuda , to his left ; a skeleton @-@ figure ; and in a recess , Parvati 's mount , a tiger is depicted . 
 A legend relates to both these panels . Once , Parvati was annoyed with Shiva . At this moment , Ravana , who was passing by Mount Kailash , found it as an obstruction to his movement . Upset , Ravana shook it vigorously and as a result , Parvati got scared and hugged Shiva . Enraged by Ravana 's arrogance , Shiva stamped down on Ravana , who sang praises of Shiva to free him of his misery and turned into an ardent devotee of Shiva . Another version states that Shiva was pleased with Ravana for restoring Parvati 's composure and blessed him . 
 = = = Trimurti , Gangadhara and Ardhanarishvara = = = 
 Described as a " masterpiece of Gupta @-@ Chalukyan art " , the most important sculpture in the caves is the Trimurti , carved in relief at the back of the cave facing the entrance , on the north @-@ south axis . It is also known as Trimurti Sadashiva and Maheshmurti . The image , 6 m ( 20 ft ) in height , depicts a three @-@ headed Shiva , representing Panchamukha Shiva . The three heads are said to represent three essential aspects of Shiva : creation , protection , and destruction . The right half @-@ face ( west face ) shows him as a young person with sensuous lips , embodying life and its vitality . In his hand he holds an object resembling a rosebud , depicting the promise of life and creativity . This face is closest to that of Brahma , the creator or Uma or Vamadeva , the feminine side of Shiva and creator of joy and beauty . The left half @-@ face ( east face ) is that of a moustached young man , displaying anger . This is Shiva as the terrifying Aghora or Bhairava , the one whose anger can engulf the entire world in flames , leaving only ashes behind . This is also known as Rudra @-@ Shiva , the Destroyer . The central face , benign and meditative , resembles the preserver Vishnu . This is Tatpurusha , " master of positive and negative principles of existence and preserver of their harmony " or Shiva as the yogi Yogeshwar in deep meditation praying for the preservation of humanity . The aspects Sadyojata and Ishana ( not carved ) faces are considered to be at the back and top of the sculpture . The Trimurti sculpture , with the Gateway of India in the background , has been adopted as the logo of the Maharashtra Tourism Department ( MTDC ) . 
 The Gangadhara image to the right of the Trimurti is an ensemble of divinities assembled around the central figures of Shiva and Parvati , the former bearing the River Ganges as she descends from heaven . The carving is 4 m ( 13 ft ) wide and 5 @.@ 207 m ( 17 @.@ 08 ft ) high . The image is highly damaged , particularly the lower half of Shiva seen seated with Parvati , who is shown with four arms , two of which are broken . From the crown , a cup with a triple @-@ headed female figure ( with broken arms ) , representing the three sacred rivers Ganges , Yamuna , and Sarasvati , is depicted . Shiva is sculpted and bedecked with ornaments . The arms hold a coiling serpent whose hood is seen above his left shoulder . Another hand ( partly broken ) gives the semblance of Shiva hugging Parvati , with a head of matted hair . There is a small snake on the right hand and a tortoise close to the neck , with a bundle tied to the back . An ornamented drapery covers his lower torso , below the waist . Parvati is carved to the left of Shiva with a coiffured hair dress , fully bedecked with ornaments and jewellery , also fully draped , with her right hand touching the head of a female attendant who carries Parvati 's dress case . The gods Brahma and Indra , with their mystic regalia and mounts , are shown to the right of Shiva ; Vishnu , riding his mount Garuda , is shown to the left of Parvati . Many other details are defaced but a kneeling figure in the front is inferred to be the king who ordered the image to be carved . There are many divinities and attendant females at the back . The whole setting is under the sky and cloud scenes , with men and women , all dressed , shown showering flowers on the deities . 
 In the chamber to the east of the Trimurti is the four @-@ armed Ardhanarishvara carving . This image , which is 5 @.@ 11 m ( 16 @.@ 8 ft ) in height , has a headdress ( double @-@ folded ) with two pleats draped towards the female head ( Parvati ) and the right side ( Shiva ) depicting curled hair and a crescent . The female figure has all the ornamentation ( broad armlets and long bracelets , a large ring in the ear , jewelled rings on the fingers ) but the right male figure has drooping hair , armlets and wristlets . One of his hands rests on Nandi ’ s left horn , Shiva 's mount , which is fairly well preserved . The pair of hands at the back is also bejewelled ; the right hand of the male holds a serpent , while the left hand of the female holds a mirror . The front left hand is broken but conjectured as holding the robe of the goddess . The central figure is surrounded by divinities . 
 = = = Shiva slaying Andhaka and Wedding of Shiva = = = 
 The engraved panel in the north end of the aisle is considered to be a unique sculpture , and shows Bhairava , or Virabhadra , a frightful form of Shiva . In the carved panel Shiva 's consort is seen sitting next to him , looking terrified . A female attendant is next to her . The central figure , which is much ruined below the waist , is 3 @.@ 5 m ( 11 ft ) high and posed as if running . His headgear has a ruff on the back , a skull and cobra over the forehead , and the crescent high on the right . His facial expression is of intense anger discerned from his furrowed brow , swollen eyes , and tusks . The legs and five of the eight arms are broken , attributed to Portuguese vandalism . The smaller broken image Andhaka is seen below Bhairava 's image . It is interpreted that Shiva is spearing him with the front right hand , as conjectured by the spear seen hanging without any hold . Also seen is the back hand lifted up and holding an elephant 's skin as a cover ; the elephant 's head , carved tusk , and trunk are seen hanging from the left hand . The second left hand depicts a snake coiled round it . The hand holds a bowl to collect the blood dripping from the slain Andhaka . Furthermore , pieces of a male and two female forms , figures of two ascetics , a small figure in front , a female figure , and two dwarfs are also seen in the carved panel . An unusual sculpture seen above the head of the main figure of Shiva is of a " very wide bottle with a curved groove in the middle of it " , which can interpreted variously as : the aum or the linga or a Shiva shrine . 
 The niche image carved on the south wall is an ensemble of divinities assembled around the central figures of Shiva and Parvati shown getting married ( Kalyanasundara icon ) . Parvati is seen standing to Shiva 's right , the ordained place for a Hindu bride at the wedding . The carvings are substantially damaged ; only one of Shiva 's four hands is fully seen and the right leg is missing . Shiva has a headdress with a shining disc attached to it . His garments are well @-@ draped , and well @-@ tied at the waist . The sacred thread is seen across his chest . Parvati is carved as a perfect figure with coiffured hair dress , well adorned with jewellery and is draped tightly to display depressions below the waist only . She is seen with a coy expression and is led by her father who has his right hand on her shoulder . Even though both her hands are damaged , it is inferred that her left hand clasped Shiva 's right hand as a mark of holy alliance . Brahma is sitting as the officiating priest for the marriage . Vishnu is witness to the marriage . Mena , the mother of Parvati , is seen standing next to Vishnu . The moon @-@ god Chandra , seen with a wig and a crescent , is standing behind Parvati holding a circular pot with nectar for the marriage ceremony . Just above the main images , a galaxy of divinities , bearded sages , apsaras ( nymphs ) , Vidyadharas , Yakshis , Gandharvas , Bhringi , and other male and female attendants are seen as witness to the marriage ceremony showering flowers on the divine couple . 
 = = = Yogishvara and Nataraja = = = 
 The panel to the east of the north portico is Shiva in a Yogic position called Yogisvara , Mahayogi , Dharmaraja and Lakulish . Resembling a Buddha , Shiva is in a dilapidated condition with only two broken arms . Shiva is seated in padmasana yogic posture ( cross legged ) on a lotus carried by two Nāgas . His crown is carved with details adorned by a crescent , a round frill at the back , and hair curls dropping on either side of the shoulders . His face is calm in mediation , his eyes half @-@ closed . This represents Shiva in penance sitting amidst the Himalayan mountains after the death of his first wife Sati , who was later reborn as Parvati . He is surrounded by divinities in the sky and attendants below . Also seen is a plantain with three leaves already open and one opening , as well as a sunflower blossom . These are flanked by two attendants . Other figures discerned from a study of the broken images are : Vishnu riding Garuda on a plantain leaf ; the Sun @-@ god Surya riding a fully saddled horse ( head missing ) ; a saint with a rosary ; two female figures in the sky draped up to their thighs ; a faceless figure of the moon with a water container ; three identical figures of a male flanked by two females ; the skeleton of a sage ; Brahma ( without one arm ) riding a swan ; and Indra without his mount ( elephant missing ) . 
 The panel carving in the west niche opposite Yogishvara depicts Shiva as Nataraja performing the Tandava ( cosmic dance ) . The niche is 4 m ( 13 ft ) wide and 3 @.@ 4 m ( 11 ft ) high and set low on the wall . He wears well @-@ decorated headgear . The Shiva image displays a dance pose and had ten arms , but the first right and third left hands are missing . The remaining first right arm is held across the breast and touches the left side , the second right hand that is seen damaged with an out @-@ flaying pose is broken at the elbow . The third arm is damaged at the elbow , and the fourth is also broken but inferred to have held a Khatvanga ( skull @-@ club ) . The left arms , seen hanging , are damaged near the wrists . The third hand is bent ( but broken ) towards Parvati standing on the side and the fourth hand is raised up . The right thigh ( broken ) is lifted up , and the left leg is not seen at all , the elaborate armlets are well @-@ preserved and a skirt round the waist is tied by a ribbon . A tall figurine of Parvati stands to the left of Shiva , which is also seen partly broken but well bejewelled . An airborne female figure is seen behind Parvati . Other figures seen in the relief are : Vishnu riding a Garuda ; Indra riding his elephant ; the elephant @-@ headed Ganesha ; Kartikeya ; Bhrngi ; sages and attendants . 
 = = = Main cave shrine = = = 
 The central shrine is a free @-@ standing square cell , with entrances on each of its sides . Each door is flanked by two dvarapalas ( gate keepers ) . The Linga , the symbol of Shiva in union with the Yoni , and the symbol of Parvati together symbolise the supreme unity that is deified by the shrine . The Linga is set on a raised platform above the floor of the shrine by 1 @.@ 8 m ( 5 ft 11 in ) . Six steps lead to this level from the floor level . The height of the eight dvarapalas varies from 4 @.@ 521 – 4 @.@ 623 m ( 14 @.@ 83 – 15 @.@ 17 ft ) . All are in a damaged condition except those at the southern door to the shrine . The southern gate statue has many unusual features – unusual headgear ; a large skull above the forehead ; lips parted with protruding teeth ; statues adorned with a single bead necklace , earrings , plain twisted armlets and thick wristlets ; a stooped right shoulder ; a globe held at navel level ; the robe is held at the right thigh by the left hand , and the legs are shapeless . 
 = = = East wing = = = 
 Several courtyards to the east and west of the main cave are blocked , though there is a 17 m ( 56 ft ) -wide courtyard that is accessible by entering the eastern part and climbing nine steps . A temple on the southern wall of the court depicts a well @-@ preserved fresco . The circular pedestal seen in the courtyard in front of the Shiva 's shrine near the east end , in the open area , is said to be the seat of Nandi , Shiva 's mount . 
 On each side of the steps leading to the temple @-@ cave portico is a winged lion , or leogriff , each seated with a raised forepaw . The portico has chambers at each end and a Linga @-@ shrine at the back . Five low steps and a threshold lead into the central Linga @-@ shrine which is 4 @.@ 2 m ( 14 ft ) wide and 5 m ( 16 ft ) deep and has a circumambulatory path ( Pradakshina @-@ path ) around it . At the back of the portico , near the east end , is a gigantic statue of a four @-@ armed doorkeeper with two attendant demons . At the north end is a standing figure holding a trident . His left hand rests on a defaced demon @-@ figure . The west wall depicts the Ashta @-@ Matrikas ( eight mother goddesses ) , flanked by Kartikeya and Ganesha , the sons of Shiva . Some of Matrikas are depicted with children , but all of them are shown by their respective mounts ( bull , swan , peacock , a Garuda , etc . ) which identify them . At the east end of the portico is another chapel with a plain interior and sunken floor . Water drips in this chapel . 
 = = = West wing = = = 
 The west wing , entered through the main cave , is in a semi @-@ ruined state . It has a small chapel and a cistern enclosed within the pillared cave , which is believed to be Buddhist . Another shrine to the west of the courtyard , with a portico , has carvings of Shiva in a yogic pose seated on a lotus carried by “ two fat , heavy , wigged figures ” . This carving also depicts a three @-@ faced bearded Bramha and several other figurines . Entering through the back door of the portico is a cave enshrined with a multifaceted Shiva Linga erected over roughly hewn salunkhs . At the door entrance on both flanks , statues of gatekeepers standing over demons and two fat , poised figures are seen . On the southern side of the door is an ensemble of a number of statues . Prominent among these is the Shiva carving , which is depicted with six arms and the third eye in the forehead . Though in a partly ruined state , the carving shows Shiva with an ornamented crown fixed with a crescent , seen carrying a cobra in the left hand , a club in another hand , and discerned to be in a dancing pose . Next to this image are a figure under a plantain tree and a Shiva image ( Yogishvara ) seated on a lotus . Also seen in the panel are a male figure riding a bull with a bell fastened to its neck , a female figure and another carving to left of Shiva , a female figure with a jewel on her forehead with neatly looped headdress , Indra riding an elephant , Vishnu with four arms , holding a discus in one of his left hands and riding on Garuda flanked by a small flying figure , and a male figure with crescent in his hair . 
 = = Other notable caves = = 
 To the south @-@ east of the Great Cave is the second excavation , which faces east @-@ northeast . It includes a chapel at the north end . The front of this cave is completely destroyed ; only fragments of some semi @-@ columns remain . The interior has suffered water damage . The portico is 26 m ( 85 ft ) long and 11 m ( 36 ft ) deep . The chapel is supported by eight eight @-@ cornered columns and two demi @-@ columns and is irregular in shape . At the back of the portico are three chambers ; the central one has an altar and a water channel ( pranalika ) , though the Linga is lost . The shrine door has some traces of sculpture ( a boy , a fat figure , alligators on the frieze , and broken animal figures at the head of a doorjamb ) . The door @-@ keepers of the shrine are now in fragments . 
 A little to the south of the last cave is another cave in worse condition , with water damage . It is a portico in which each end probably had a chapel or room with pillars in front . Two of them have cells at the back . The central door at the back of the portico leads to a damaged shrine . The shrine door has door @-@ keepers at each side , leaning on dwarfs with flying figures over the head , with door @-@ keepers and demons on the jamb and architrave . The shrine is a plain room 6 m ( 20 ft ) deep by 5 @.@ 7 m ( 19 ft ) wide with a low altar , holding a Linga . South of this cave is a cavern that may be used as a cistern . 
 Above these caves is a tiger sculpture , which was worshipped as the tiger goddess Vaghesheri . This sculpture may be a guardian of the north entrance of Cave 1 . A Linga is also found near a small pond at top of the hill . Sculptures depicting a stone with a sun and a moon and a mother suckling a child ( now moved ) were also found nearby . 
 Across the top of the ravine from Cave 1 is large hall known as Sitabai 's Temple ( cave ) . The portico has four pillars and two pilasters . The hall has 3 chambers at the back , the central one a shrine and the rest for priests ( both are plain rooms ) . The door of the central shrine has pilasters and a frieze , with the threshold having lion figures at the end . The shrine has an altar , a water channel , and hole in the centre , in which a statue of Parvati may have been worshipped . A 17th @-@ century record states that " this cave [ has ] a beautiful gate with a porch of exquisitely wrought marble " and two idols , one of goddess Vetal Candi and a head being in a large square seat . 
 Passing along the face of the eastern hill to the north of Sitabai 's cave is a small Hindu excavation with a veranda , which was probably to be three cells , but was abandoned following the discovery of a flaw in the rock . Towards the east of hill is a dry pond , with large artificial boulders and Buddhist cisterns along its banks . At the end of the north spur of the main hill is a mound that resembles a Buddhist stupa . 
 = = Preservation = = 
 The threats to Elephanta Caves have been identified as the following : developmental pressures ( mainly due to its location within the Mumbai harbour ) , anthropogenic pressure due to growth of population of the communities residing on the island , industrial growth of the port facilities close to the island , no risk preparedness plan to address natural calamities such as earthquake , cyclones and terrorist attacks , unsustainable tourism and tourist facilities on the island , and poor management of the heritage monument . 
 Preservation of Elephanta Island as a whole with its monuments has been ensured both through legislation and by physical restoration of the caves and its sculptures . The basic legislations enacted are : The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act of 1958 and Rules ( 1959 ) ; The Elephanta Island ( Protected Monument ) Rules of 1957 , which prohibits mining , quarrying , blasting , excavation and other operations near the monument ; the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act promulgated in 1972 with its Rules promulgated in 1973 ; a Notification issued in 1985 declaring the entire island and a 1 @-@ kilometre ( 0 @.@ 62 mi ) area from the shore as " a prohibited area " ; a series of Maharashtra State Government environmental acts protecting the site ; the 1966 Regional and Town Planning Act ; and the 1995 Heritage Regulations for Greater Bombay . 
 The Archaeological Survey of India ( ASI ) , Aurangabad Circle , on the basis of the above legislation and rules , maintain and manage the monuments . The physical measures undertaken for conservation cover include stabilisation of the rock face , construction of supports to the cave structures where pillars have collapsed , and consolidation of cave floors and construction of a parapet wall surrounding the site . In addition , visitor facilities at the site have been upgraded ( such as toilet facilities , railing construction , pathways , and a flight of steps from the jetty to the caves ) . An on @-@ site museum has been established and a conservation plan has been put in place . Overall , conservation of the property is stated to be good . The site receives approximately 25 @,@ 000 visitors per month . Public information brochures are also available at the venue of the monuments . During the World Heritage Day on 18 April and World Heritage Week between 19 and 25 November there are special events held at the caves . Another popular event organised is an annual traditional dance festival that attracts many visitors . 
 After declaring the caves a World Heritage Site , UNESCO granted $ 100 @,@ 000 to document the site 's history and draw up a site plan . A part of the grant was used for conservation of the caves . Based on assessments by UNESCO , management plans include : better communication and collaboration between the ASI , on @-@ site staff , and other responsible government departments ; improved public information and awareness programs ; monitoring environmental impact of tourists on the cave and island environment ; greater attention to the maintenance of the rocks to address water leakages into the caves ; and daily monitoring of both structural and chemical conservation measures . 
 The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage ( INTACH ) is also involved with the Archaeological Survey of India in improving the local conditions at the cave site . A book has been published jointly by UNESCO , INTACH and the Government of India which presents a comprehensive site plan for restoration and a brief history of each sculpture constructed inside the caves . 
 = Devin Townsend = 
 Devin Garret Townsend ( born May 5 , 1972 ) is a Canadian musician , songwriter and record producer . He was the founder , songwriter , vocalist , and guitarist in extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad from 1994 to 2007 and has an extensive career as a solo artist . 
 After performing in a number of heavy metal bands in high school , Townsend was discovered by a record label in 1993 and was asked to perform lead vocals on Steve Vai 's album Sex & Religion . After recording and touring with Vai , Townsend was discouraged by what he found in the music industry , and vented his anger on the solo album Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing released under the pseudonym Strapping Young Lad . He soon assembled a band under the name , and released the critically acclaimed City in 1997 . Since then , he has released three more studio albums with Strapping Young Lad , along with solo material released under his own independent record label , HevyDevy Records . 
 Townsend 's solo albums , a diverse mix of hard rock , progressive metal , ambient , and new @-@ age , have featured a varying lineup of supporting musicians . In 2002 he formed the Devin Townsend Band , a dedicated lineup which recorded and toured for two of his solo releases . In 2007 , he disbanded both Strapping Young Lad and the Devin Townsend Band , taking a break from touring to spend more time with his family . After a two @-@ year hiatus , he began recording again , and soon announced the formation of the Devin Townsend Project . The project began with a series of four albums , released from 2009 to 2011 , each written in a different style , and Townsend continues to record and tour under the new moniker . 
 Across all his bands and projects , Townsend has released twenty @-@ three studio albums and three live albums . Townsend 's trademark production style , featuring a heavily multitracked wall of sound , has been compared to the styles of Phil Spector and Frank Zappa . His versatile vocal delivery ranges from screaming to an opera @-@ esque singing , and his songwriting is similarly diverse . Townsend 's musical style is rooted in metal , and his albums are written to express different aspects of his personality . 
 = = Biography = = 
 = = = Early musical career ( 1972 – 1994 ) = = = 
 Devin Townsend was born in New Westminster , British Columbia , on May 5 , 1972 . Townsend picked up the banjo when he was five , and began playing guitar when he was 12 . As an early teenager he befriended Brian " Beav " Waddell , who would later play guitars as part of the Devin Townsend Band and bass on the Devin Townsend Project . He participated in several metal bands while he was in high school , and founded Grey Skies at the age of 19 . Around the same time he joined a popular local group called Caustic Thought , replacing Jed Simon on guitar and playing alongside bassist Byron Stroud , both of whom would later become members of Townsend 's flagship band , Strapping Young Lad . In 1993 , Townsend began writing material under the name Noisescapes , a project he later described as " just as violent as Strapping Young Lad " . 
 Townsend recorded a Noisescapes demo and sent copies to various record labels . Relativity Records responded to Townsend with a record deal and Townsend began work on what was to be the first Noisescapes album , Promise . Shortly afterward , the label introduced him to musician Steve Vai . Impressed with Townsend 's vocal work , Vai offered him the role of the lead vocalist on his new album Sex and Religion . After recording Sex and Religion , Townsend accompanied Vai on a world tour in support of the album . Townsend soon landed a second touring gig , this time with the opening band of Vai 's tour , the Wildhearts . He played live with the band throughout half of 1994 in Europe , and appeared as a guest musician on their single Urge . Ginger , the band 's frontman , remained close friends with Townsend , later co @-@ writing several songs on Infinity and the Christeen + 4 Demos EP . 
 While on tour with the Wildhearts , Townsend formed a short @-@ lived thrash metal project with Metallica 's then @-@ bassist Jason Newsted . The band , known as IR8 , featured Newsted on vocals and bass , Townsend on guitar , and Tom Hunting of Exodus on drums . The group recorded a few songs together , although Townsend says that they never intended to go further than that . " People heard about it and thought we wanted to put out a CD , which is absolutely not true , " he explains . " People took this project way too seriously . " A demo tape was put together , but the material was not released until 2002 , when Newsted published the IR8 vs. Sexoturica compilation . 
 Though Townsend was proud of what he had accomplished so early in his career , he was discouraged by his experience with the music industry . " I was becoming a product of somebody else 's imagination , and it was mixing with my own personality , " he later reflected . " This combination was appalling . " He pushed to get his own projects off the ground . Despite getting notable touring gigs with other musicians , however , Townsend continued to face rejection of his own music . Relativity Records dropped Noisescapes from their label shortly after Townsend accepted Vai 's offer , seeing no commercial appeal in Townsend 's music . " I have a hunch they only offered me a deal to get me to sing with Steve , " he mused . While touring with the Wildhearts , Townsend received a phone call from an A & R representative for Roadrunner Records , expressing an interest in his demos and an intention to sign him . The offer was ultimately rescinded by the head of Roadrunner , who regarded Townsend 's recordings as " just noise " . 
 = = = Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing through Infinity ( 1994 – 1998 ) = = = 
 In 1994 , Century Media Records offered Townsend a contract to make " some extreme albums " . He agreed to a five @-@ album deal with the record label , and also provided much of the guitar work on the 1994 album Millennium and the 1995 album Hard Wired by Vancouver industrial band Front Line Assembly . Townsend began to record material under the pseudonym Strapping Young Lad . He avoided using his real name at this point in career , looking for a fresh start after his high @-@ profile Vai gig . " At the beginning , I wanted to avoid at all cost to use my name because I was known as the singer for Steve Vai and it wasn 't the best publicity to have , " he later explained . " I was playing somebody else 's music and I was judged in respect to that music . " Townsend produced and performed nearly all the instruments on the debut studio album , Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing , which was released in April 1995 . 
 Following the release of the record , Townsend and several other musician friends he knew in Vancouver recorded his first solo album in 1996 entitled Punky Brüster – Cooked on Phonics . Written and recorded in under a month , the album was produced as a parody of punk rock bands and documents the act of selling out for mainstream success . Townsend founded his own independent record label , HevyDevy Records , to release the album . Townsend assembled a permanent lineup of Strapping Young Lad to record City , including prolific metal drummer Gene Hoglan , along with Townsend 's former bandmates Jed Simon on guitar and Byron Stroud on bass . The industrial @-@ influenced album was released in 1997 . To this day , the album is widely considered Strapping Young Lad 's best work , with Metal Maniacs calling it " groundbreaking " and Revolver naming it " one of the greatest metal albums of all time " . Townsend himself considers it the band 's " ultimate " album . Later that year , Townsend released his second solo album , Ocean Machine : Biomech . The album featured a mix of hard rock , ambient , and progressive rock . 
 After the completion of City and Ocean Machine : Biomech , Townsend began to approach a mental breakdown . " I started to see human beings as little lonesome , water based , pink meat , " he explained , " life forms pushing air through themselves and making noises that the other little pieces of meat seemed to understand . " In 1997 , he checked himself into a mental @-@ health hospital , where he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder . The diagnosis helped him understand where the two sides of his music were coming from ; he felt his disorder " gave birth to the two extremes that are Strapping 's City record and Ocean Machine : Biomech . " After being discharged from the hospital , Townsend found that " everything just clicked " and he was able to write his third solo album , Infinity , which he described as " the parent project " of City and Ocean Machine : Biomech , with music influenced by Broadway . Townsend returned to the studio , accompanied by Hoglan , to work on the album , on which Townsend played most of the instruments . Infinity was released in October 1998 . Later in his career , Townsend has cited Infinity as his favorite solo record . 
 With Infinity , Townsend began to label all albums outside of Strapping Young Lad under his own name , dropping the Ocean Machine moniker , to reduce confusion . He wanted to show that despite the highly varied nature of his projects , they are all simply aspects of his identity . The album Biomech was relabeled and redistributed as Ocean Machine : Biomech , under Townsend 's name , to reflect the new arrangement . Townsend 's bandmates began to play two sets at their shows , one as Strapping Young Lad , and one as the Devin Townsend Band , playing songs from Townsend 's solo albums . 
 = = = Physicist and Terria ( 1999 – 2001 ) = = = 
 Townsend 's next project took several years to come to fruition . After the creation of the IR8 demo tape , Townsend and Jason Newsted had begun work on a new project called Fizzicist , which they described as " heavier than Strapping Young Lad " . When the IR8 tape was leaked , Newsted 's Metallica bandmates James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich learned of the project . Hetfield was " fucking pissed " that Newsted was playing outside the band , and Newsted was prevented by his bandmates from working on any more side projects . With the project stalled , Townsend instead wrote the album himself , entitling it Physicist . Townsend assembled his Strapping Young Lad bandmates to record it , the only time this lineup was featured on a Devin Townsend album . The thrash @-@ influenced Physicist was released in June 2000 , and is generally considered a low point in Townsend 's career . Hoglan and the rest of the band were dissatisfied with the way the sound was mixed , and Townsend considers it his worst album to date . 
 Feeling he had " ostracized a bunch of fans " with Physicist , Townsend felt he had the chance to make a more personal and honest record . Townsend was inspired one morning while driving across Canada with his band , and looked to write an " introspective " album dedicated to his homeland . He produced and recorded Terria , a " highly illustrated stream @-@ of @-@ consciousness " album , with Gene Hoglan on drums , Craig McFarland on bass and Jamie Meyer on keyboards . Townsend cited Ween 's White Pepper as an inspiration for the album . Terria was released in November 2001 . 
 = = = Strapping Young Lad through Synchestra ( 2003 – 2006 ) = = = 
 Townsend 's solo run lasted until 2002 . After a five @-@ year break from recording , Strapping Young Lad reunited to record a new album . Townsend credits the album , Strapping Young Lad , as an emotional response to the attacks of September 11 , 2001 , in the United States . " If the world 's about to blow up , " said Townsend , " let 's write the soundtrack for it . " The album 's lyrics were based more around fear and insecurity than the " hostile " lyrics of City . Musically , Strapping Young Lad was less industrial than City , and more reminiscent of death metal , with a " larger @-@ than @-@ life " rock production style . Townsend cited Front Line Assembly , Grotus , and Samael 's Passage as influences . The self @-@ titled album was released in February 2003 . It received lukewarm reviews , with critics finding it inferior to City , but it was the band 's first charting album , entering at 97th place on Billboard 's Top Heatseekers chart . 
 While Strapping Young Lad was being reunited , Townsend formed a new , permanent band " on par with Strapping " to record and tour for his solo releases . The Devin Townsend Band consisted of Brian " Beav " Waddell on guitar , Mike Young on bass , Ryan Van Poederooyen on drums , and Dave Young on keyboards . Townsend performed guitar , vocals , and production , as he did in Strapping Young Lad . Townsend worked on the band 's first album , Accelerated Evolution , at the same time he was working on Strapping Young Lad , spending half the week on one and half on the other . Accelerated Evolution , named for the pace of putting a new band together in under a year , was released a month after Strapping Young Lad . Mike G. of Metal Maniacs called it " the album of the year " , praising it for " the hard @-@ to @-@ accomplish trick of being extreme yet accessible , simultaneously heavy ' n ' rockin ' yet majestic and beautiful . " Prior to the formation of the Devin Townsend Band , Townsend had represented his solo releases live with the Strapping Young Lad lineup ; the band would play one set of Strapping Young Lad songs and one set of Devin Townsend songs . After the release of Accelerated Evolution , Townsend 's two bands toured separately for their separate albums . 
 Strapping Young Lad began working on their next album , Alien , in March 2004 . Feeling that the band 's previous album did not live up to expectations , Townsend decided to take his music to a new extreme . To prepare for the new album , Townsend stopped taking the medication prescribed to treat his bipolar disorder . " I think that as an artist , in order for me to get to the next plateau , I kind of feel the need to explore things and sometimes that exploration leads you to places that are a little crazy , " he explains . " And Alien was no exception with that . " Although Townsend considered the album an " impenetrable mass of technicality " , it was well received on its release , selling 3 @,@ 697 copies in its first week and appearing on several Billboard charts . Around this time , Townsend also contributed to the soundtrack of the video game Fallout : Brotherhood of Steel . 
 Shortly thereafter Townsend began putting together the next Devin Townsend Band record , with the working title Human . Townsend intended the album as the more " pleasant " counterpart to Alien . " It 's basically a record about coming back down to earth after being in space with Alien for a while . " The album ended up being renamed Synchestra and was released in January 2006 . Townsend showcased a wide variety of musical styles in Synchestra , blending his trademark " pop metal " with influences from folk , polka , and Middle Eastern music . The final Strapping Young Lad album , The New Black , was released later in 2006 . 
 = = = Ziltoid the Omniscient and hiatus ( 2006 – 2008 ) = = = 
 Townsend withdrew from touring to spend time with his family . From home , Townsend completed his second solo ambient album , The Hummer , releasing it exclusively on his website in November 2006 . 
 In May 2007 , Townsend released Ziltoid the Omniscient , a tongue @-@ in @-@ cheek rock opera about the eponymous fictional alien . This was truly a solo album ; he programmed the drums using Drumkit from Hell , a software drum machine that uses samples recorded by Tomas Haake of Meshuggah and played all other instruments himself . Shortly after the album 's release , Townsend announced that he no longer planned to tour or make albums with Strapping Young Lad or the Devin Townsend Band . He explained that he was " burnt out on travelling , touring , and self promotion " and wished to do production work , write albums , and spend time with his family without the stress of interviews or touring . 
 In 2008 , Townsend lent his voice to characters in several episodes of the Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse ( see Musician cameos in Metalocalypse for more ) . The original character design for Pickles the Drummer , one of the series ' main characters , bore a striking resemblance to Townsend . The series ' co @-@ creator Brendon Small acknowledged the similarity , and altered the design before the series began . " We made sure he didn 't look like Devin Townsend . We gave him the goatee and the dreadover so he wouldn 't look like that . " 
 = = = Devin Townsend Project ( 2008 – 2012 ) = = = 
 After removing himself from the music industry , Townsend cut his trademark hair off and gave up drinking and smoking . Townsend found it " disconcerting " that he had difficulty writing music without drugs , and that he had trouble identifying his purpose as a musician . He spent a year producing albums in absence of writing , but found it unrewarding and decided to " pick up the guitar and just write " . This began a period of " self discovery " where he learned " how to create without drugs " . 
 Over two years , Townsend wrote over 60 songs , and found that they fit into " four distinct styles " . In March 2009 , Townsend announced his plans for a four @-@ album series called Devin Townsend Project , with the goal of clarifying his musical identity and being " accountable " for the persona he projects to the public . The project 's concept includes a different " theme " and a different group of musicians on each album . 
 Ki , the first album of the Devin Townsend Project tetralogy was written to " set the stage " for the subsequent albums . Townsend channelled his new @-@ found control and sobriety into Ki , a " tense , quiet " album , which contrasts with much of the music he had been known for . Additional female vocals were provided by Ché Aimee Dorval ( Casualties of Cool ) . Ki was released in May 2009 . 
 The second entry , a " commercial , yet heavy " album called Addicted , was released in November 2009 and features lead vocals from Townsend and Dutch singer Anneke van Giersbergen . Brian " Beav " Waddell was recruited from the Devin Townsend Band to play bass . 
 Townsend returned to the stage in January 2010 , touring North America with headliner Between the Buried and Me as well as Cynic and Scale the Summit . This was followed by a headlining tour in Australia and a series of high @-@ profile shows in Europe ( for example co @-@ headlining the Brutal Assault festival in Czech Republic ) . He headlined a North American tour with UK label mates TesseracT supporting , which began in October 2010 , and toured in Europe with support from Aeon Zen and Anneke van Giersbergen . 
 The third and fourth albums in the Devin Townsend Project series , Deconstruction and Ghost , were released simultaneously on June 21 , 2011 . In December 2011 all four Devin Townsend Project albums with additional material were released as the Contain Us box set . Townsend performed all four of Devin Townsend Project albums in London and recorded them for a DVD box set called By a Thread : Live in London 2011 that was released on June 18 , 2012 . The first three shows were held at the University of London Union , November 10 – 12 , 2011 . Ki , Addicted , and Deconstruction were each performed on one night , respectively . The show for Ghost was held at the Union Chapel , Islington on November 13 , 2011 . These four shows were each entitled " An Evening with the Devin Townsend Project " . 
 Despite the Devin Townsend Project being originally a four @-@ album series , Townsend decided to continue working under the moniker and released the fifth album , Epicloud on September 18 , 2012 . Again featuring Anneke van Giersbergen on vocals , Epicloud appeared on several European charts , peaking at number 8 in Finland . On October 27 , 2012 , Devin Townsend performed a one @-@ off show covering his musical career called The Retinal Circus at Roundhouse in London . The 3 @-@ hour performance was recorded in high definition and released on DVD and Blu @-@ ray on September 30 , 2013 . Also in 2012 , Townsend played bass on the debut Bent Sea album Noistalgia . He also produced the record . 
 Another project Townsend has mentioned several times between 2009 and 2012 is Obviouser , an album featuring " creepy , bass driven apocalyptic music " created with an " Ampeg rig " and an " Icelandic choir " . Working with many projects simultaneously at that time , Townsend stated in 2012 the Obviouser project is vying for pole position until " he wakes up and says ' he wants to do it ' " . 
 = = = Casualties of Cool and Z2 ( 2012 – present ) = = = 
 After Deconstruction and Ghost , Townsend announced a new album , Casualties of Cool , with which he started to work after the release of Epicloud . The album features Ché Aimee Dorval ( from Ki ) on vocals and Morgan Ågren on drums . Townsend described the album sounds like " haunted Johnny Cash songs " and " late night music " , highlighting it will be different than anything he has done before . Townsend referred the music of the album to be " closest to his heart " at this point of his life , and that it is an important and satisfying project he doesn 't want to rush . 
 The album was completed on November 2013 , and a bonus disc was also made for the album , containing the leftover material from the main album as well as songs from Ghost 2 , the unreleased compilation of leftover tracks from Ghost . Originally in 2012 , Townsend stated that this album will be the sixth and the last album in the Devin Townsend Project series , but he ultimately confirmed that Casualties of Cool is its own project . Townsend also started a crowdfunding campaign through PledgeMusic to support the release of the album . The funding quickly reached its goal , and all additional funds were put directly to Townsend 's upcoming projects . Casualties of Cool was released on May 14 , 2014 . The album was re @-@ issued worldwide on January 15 , 2016 containing an additional DVD with live footage from the 2014 concert at the Union Chapel in London . 
 From 2009 , Townsend worked on a long @-@ running album project called Z ² , a sequel to the album Ziltoid the Omniscient ( 2007 ) . Originally in 2012 , he teased he " may have just written the heaviest thing he 's ever done " for the album , and told there might a surprising lack of Ziltoid himself appearing on the album . However , in August 2013 , a London @-@ based radio station TeamRock Radio aired the first episode of Ziltoid Radio , a satirical radio show hosted solely by Ziltoid , this being one element of the Z ² project . Townsend also discussed a " ZTV " or " Ziltoid TV " is preceding the album . Later Townsend stated he has found the project hard to schedule and work with amidst touring and writing , stating " it takes a lot of effort " to keep the content with tongue @-@ in @-@ cheek humour entertaining . 
 After writing ideas for over 70 songs , Townsend stated he is finally going to finish the whole project , followed by the announcement the album will be released on October 27 , 2014 . The recording process started in May 2014 , and the final project includes the album , a Ziltoid TV program and a live show , with a " big graphic novel comic " and a documentary . The album itself is a double album , with disc one being the main album and disc two featuring Devin Townsend Project material ; according to Townsend , the album 's theme is " Ziltoid against the world " . The Devin Townsend Project disc is called Sky Blue and the Ziltoid disc is called Dark Matters . 
 After finishing the album , Townsend stated the project was " punishing " and an " absolute nightmare to complete " due to amount of material against tight schedules . He also described the hardship of the project by telling " if he was ever going to start drinking [ again ] , the last months would have been it " , but now " he 's starting to get excited again " . Later , " after the chaos of finishing it had subsided " , Townsend stated he is really satisfied with the result . 
 Townsend recently discussed at least a year @-@ long hiatus , beginning after the Z ² show taking place at the Royal Albert Hall on April 13 , 2015 . During the indefinitely long break Townsend intends to " recharge his batteries " , " get some inspiration and experiences " and to " see what the next chapter holds " for him . 
 In 2014 , Devin recorded a ' poppy sounding ' song in Los Angeles with producer Brian Howes , but has decided against releasing . Devin mentioned he is against the project being contrived due to the current hard rock undertones in popular music . He described it as a " lukewarm heavy metal Devin song " . On December 11 , 2015 Townsend announced via Twitter that he was recording vocals for a song by Steve Vai . 
 As of April 2016 , Devin is in the middle of recording the seventh DTP album , entitled Transcendence at Armoury Studios in Vancouver . 
 = = Personal life = = 
 Townsend has been married to Tracy Turner , his girlfriend since he was 19 . She gave birth to their first son , Reyner Liam Johnstan Townsend , on October 4 , 2006 . He is a vegetarian . 
 = = Musical style = = 
 = = = Projects = = = 
 Townsend designed his two main projects , the aggressive Strapping Young Lad and his more melodic solo material , as counterparts . Strapping Young Lad 's music was a diverse mix of extreme metal genres : death metal , thrash metal , black metal and industrial metal . Townsend 's solo material blends many genres and influences , with elements of atmospheric ambient music , hard rock and progressive rock , along with pop metal and arena rock . He described it as " a highly orchestrated type of expansive music based in hard rock and heavy metal . Dense and produced with a large amount of ambient elements . " Despite Strapping Young Lad 's greater mainstream acceptance , Townsend identifies more with his solo material , and has never intended Strapping Young Lad to be the focus of his music . 
 = = = Production style = = = 
 As a self @-@ proclaimed " fan of multitracking " , Townsend has developed a trademark production style featuring an atmospheric , layered " wall of sound " . Townsend has drawn critical praise for his productions , which " are always marked by a sense of adventure , intrigue , chaotic atmospherics and overall aural pyrotechnics " , according to Mike G. of Metal Maniacs . Townsend mainly uses Pro Tools to produce his music , alongside other software suites such as Steinberg Cubase , Ableton Live , and Logic Pro . Townsend 's musical ideas and production style have drawn comparisons to Phil Spector and Frank Zappa . Townsend has carried out the mixing and mastering for most of his solo work himself . He has also mixed and remixed work for other artists such as Rammstein , August Burns Red and Misery Signals . 
 = = = Playing style = = = 
 Townsend mainly uses Open C tuning for both six and seven string guitar . He now also uses Open B tuning and Open B flat tuning ( Open C tuning tuned a half and a whole step down respectively ) on his six string guitars . Townsend 's technique varies from fingerpicking , power chords and polychords to sweep @-@ picked arpeggios and tapping techniques . He is also known for his heavy use of reverb and delay effects . He has expressed that he has no taste for shred guitar , saying that " Musically it doesn 't do anything for me " and that he only solos when he thinks that he can within the context of the song . 
 = = = Vocals = = = 
 Townsend 's employs a variety of vocal techniques in his work , including screaming , growling or even falsetto . His vocal range has been noted to be over 5 octaves ( C2 to F7 ) . 
 = = = Influences = = = 
 Townsend draws influence from a wide range of music genres , most prominently heavy metal . Townsend has cited , among others , Judas Priest , W.A.S.P. , Frank Zappa , Broadway musicals , ABBA , new @-@ age music , Zoviet France , King 's X , Morbid Angel , Barkmarket , Grotus , Jane 's Addiction , Metallica , Cop Shoot Cop and Fear Factory as his influences , and has also expressed his admiration for Meshuggah on several occasions , calling them " the best metal band on the planet " . Townsend lists Paul Horn and Ravi Shankar as the " two most important musicians in his life " . The two songs that Townsend credits with changing the way he thought about music are " The Burning Down " by King 's X , and " Up the Beach " by Jane 's Addiction . City was influenced by bands such as Foetus and Cop Shoot Cop , and The New Black 's influences were Meshuggah , and " more traditional metal " like Metallica . He is also influenced by orchestral and classical composers such as John Williams , Trevor Jones and Igor Stravinsky . 
 = = Discography = = 
 = Zagreb Synagogue = 
 The Zagreb Synagogue ( Croatian : Zagrebačka sinagoga ) was the main place of worship for the Jewish community of Zagreb in modern @-@ day Croatia . It was constructed in 1867 in the Kingdom of Croatia @-@ Slavonia within the Austrian Empire , and was used until it was demolished by the fascist authorities in 1941 in the Axis @-@ aligned Independent State of Croatia . 
 The Moorish Revival synagogue , designed after the Leopoldstädter Tempel in Vienna , was located on modern @-@ day Praška Street . It has been the only purpose @-@ built Jewish house of worship in the history of the city . It was one of the city 's most prominent public buildings , as well as one of the most esteemed examples of synagogue architecture in the region . 
 Since the 1980s , plans have been made to rebuild the synagogue in its original location . Due to various political circumstances , very limited progress has been made . Major disagreements exist between the government and Jewish organizations as to how much the latter should be involved in decisions about the reconstruction project , including proposed design and character of the new building . 
 = = History = = 
 Encouraged by the 1782 Edict of Tolerance of Emperor Joseph II , Jews first permanently settled in Zagreb in the late eighteenth century , and founded the Jewish community in 1806 . In 1809 the Jewish community had a rabbi , and by 1811 it had its own cemetery . As early as 1833 , the community was permitted to buy land for construction of a synagogue , but did not have sufficient money to finance one at the time . 
 By 1855 , the community had grown to 700 members and , on October 30 of that year , the decision was made to build a new Jewish synagogue . The construction committee , appointed in 1861 , selected and purchased a parcel of land at the corner of Maria Valeria Street ( now Praška Street ) and Ban Jelačić Square , the central town square . However , a new urban planning scheme of 1864 reduced the area available for construction , and the community decided to buy another parcel of 1 @,@ 540 square metres ( 16 @,@ 600 sq ft 

ing
in the world could make eider down of a pine plank. So gathering up the
shavings with another grin, and throwing them into the great stove in
the middle of the room, he went about his business, and left me in a
brown study.

I now took the measure of the bench, and found that it was a foot too
short; but that could be mended with a chair. But it was a foot too
narrow, and the other bench in the room was about four inches higher
than the planed one—so there was no yoking them. I then placed the
first bench lengthwise along the only clear space against the wall,
leaving a little interval between, for my back to settle down in. But I
soon found that there came such a draught of cold air over me from
under the sill of the window, that this plan would never do at all,
especially as another current from the rickety door met the one from
the window, and both together formed a series of small whirlwinds in
the immediate vicinity of the spot where I had thought to spend the
night.

The devil fetch that harpooneer, thought I, but stop, couldn’t I steal
a march on him—bolt his door inside, and jump into his bed, not to be
wakened by the most violent knockings? It seemed no bad idea; but upon
second thoughts I dismissed it. For who could tell but what the next
morning, so soon as I popped out of the room, the harpooneer might be
standing in the entry, all ready to knock me down!

Still, looking round me again, and seeing no possible chance of
spending a sufferable night unless in some other person’s bed, I began
to think that after all I might be cherishing unwarrantable prejudices
against this unknown harpooneer. Thinks I, I’ll wait awhile; he must be
dropping in before long. I’ll have a good look at him then, and perhaps
we may become jolly good bedfellows after all—there’s no telling.

But though the other boarders kept coming in by ones, twos, and threes,
and going to bed, yet no sign of my harpooneer.

“Landlord!” said I, “what sort of a chap is he—does he always keep such
late hours?” It was now hard upon twelve o’clock.

The landlord chuckled again with his lean chuckle, and seemed to be
mightily tickled at something beyond my comprehension. “No,” he
answered, “generally he’s an early bird—airley to bed and airley to
rise—yes, he’s the bird what catches the worm. But to-night he went out
a peddling, you see, and I don’t see what on airth keeps him so late,
unless, may be, he can’t sell his head.”

“Can’t sell his head?—What sort of a bamboozingly story is this you are
telling me?” getting into a towering rage. “Do you pretend to say,
landlord, that this harpooneer is actually engaged this blessed
Saturday night, or rather Sunday morning, in peddling his head around
this town?”

“That’s precisely it,” said the landlord, “and I told him he couldn’t
sell it here, the market’s overstocked.”

“With what?” shouted I.

“With heads to be sure; ain’t there too many heads in the world?”

“I tell you what it is, landlord,” said I quite calmly, “you’d better
stop spinning that yarn to me—I’m not green.”

“May be not,” taking out a stick and whittling a toothpick, “but I
rayther guess you’ll be done _brown_ if that ere harpooneer hears you a
slanderin’ his head.”

“I’ll break it for him,” said I, now flying into a passion again at
this unaccountable farrago of the landlord’s.

“It’s broke a’ready,” said he.

“Broke,” said I—“_broke_, do you mean?”

“Sartain, and that’s the very reason he can’t sell it, I guess.”

“Landlord,” said I, going up to him as cool as Mt. Hecla in a
snow-storm—“landlord, stop whittling. You and I must understand one
another, and that too without delay. I come to your house and want a
bed; you tell me you can only give me half a one; that the other half
belongs to a certain harpooneer. And about this harpooneer, whom I have
not yet seen, you persist in telling me the most mystifying and
exasperating stories tending to beget in me an uncomfortable feeling
towards the man whom you design for my bedfellow—a sort of connexion,
landlord, which is an intimate and confidential one in the highest
degree. I now demand of you to speak out and tell me who and what this
harpooneer is, and whether I shall be in all respects safe to spend the
night with him. And in the first place, you will be so good as to unsay
that story about selling his head, which if true I take to be good
evidence that this harpooneer is stark mad, and I’ve no idea of
sleeping with a madman; and you, sir, _you_ I mean, landlord, _you_,
sir, by trying to induce me to do so knowingly, would thereby render
yourself liable to a criminal prosecution.”

“Wall,” said the landlord, fetching a long breath, “that’s a purty long
sarmon for a chap that rips a little now and then. But be easy, be
easy, this here harpooneer I have been tellin’ you of has just arrived
from the south seas, where he bought up a lot of ’balmed New Zealand
heads (great curios, you know), and he’s sold all on ’em but one, and
that one he’s trying to sell to-night, cause to-morrow’s Sunday, and it
would not do to be sellin’ human heads about the streets when folks is
goin’ to churches. He wanted to, last Sunday, but I stopped him just as
he was goin’ out of the door with four heads strung on a string, for
all the airth like a string of inions.”

This account cleared up the otherwise unaccountable mystery, and showed
that the landlord, after all, had had no idea of fooling me—but at the
same time what could I think of a harpooneer who stayed out of a
Saturday night clean into the holy Sabbath, engaged in such a cannibal
business as selling the heads of dead idolators?

“Depend upon it, landlord, that harpooneer is a dangerous man.”

“He pays reg’lar,” was the rejoinder. “But come, it’s getting dreadful
late, you had better be turning flukes—it’s a nice bed; Sal and me
slept in that ere bed the night we were spliced. There’s plenty of room
for two to kick about in that bed; it’s an almighty big bed that. Why,
afore we give it up, Sal used to put our Sam and little Johnny in the
foot of it. But I got a dreaming and sprawling about one night, and
somehow, Sam got pitched on the floor, and came near breaking his arm.
Arter that, Sal said it wouldn’t do. Come along here, I’ll give ye a
glim in a jiffy;” and so saying he lighted a candle and held it towards
me, offering to lead the way. But I stood irresolute; when looking at a
clock in the corner, he exclaimed “I vum it’s Sunday—you won’t see that
harpooneer to-night; he’s come to anchor somewhere—come along then;
_do_ come; _won’t_ ye come?”

I considered the matter a moment, and then up stairs we went, and I was
ushered into a small room, cold as a clam, and furnished, sure enough,
with a prodigious bed, almost big enough indeed for any four
harpooneers to sleep abreast.

“There,” said the landlord, placing the candle on a crazy old sea chest
that did double duty as a wash-stand and centre table; “there, make
yourself comfortable now, and good night to ye.” I turned round from
eyeing the bed, but he had disappeared.

Folding back the counterpane, I stooped over the bed. Though none of
the most elegant, it yet stood the scrutiny tolerably well. I then
glanced round the room; and besides the bedstead and centre table,
could see no other furniture belonging to the place, but a rude shelf,
the four walls, and a papered fireboard representing a man striking a
whale. Of things not properly belonging to the room, there was a
hammock lashed up, and thrown upon the floor in one corner; also a
large seaman’s bag, containing the harpooneer’s wardrobe, no doubt in
lieu of a land trunk. Likewise, there was a parcel of outlandish bone
fish hooks on the shelf over the fire-place, and a tall harpoon
standing at the head of the bed.

But what is this on the chest? I took it up, and held it close to the
light, and felt it, and smelt it, and tried every way possible to
arrive at some satisfactory conclusion concerning it. I can compare it
to nothing but a large door mat, ornamented at the edges with little
tinkling tags something like the stained porcupine quills round an
Indian moccasin. There was a hole or slit in the middle of this mat, as
you see the same in South American ponchos. But could it be possible
that any sober harpooneer would get into a door mat, and parade the
streets of any Christian town in that sort of guise? I put it on, to
try it, and it weighed me down like a hamper, being uncommonly shaggy
and thick, and I thought a little damp, as though this mysterious
harpooneer had been wearing it of a rainy day. I went up in it to a bit
of glass stuck against the wall, and I never saw such a sight in my
life. I tore myself out of it in such a hurry that I gave myself a kink
in the neck.

I sat down on the side of the bed, and commenced thinking about this
head-peddling harpooneer, and his door mat. After thinking some time on
the bed-side, I got up and took off my monkey jacket, and then stood in
the middle of the room thinking. I then took off my coat, and thought a
little more in my shirt sleeves. But beginning to feel very cold now,
half undressed as I was, and remembering what the landlord said about
the harpooneer’s not coming home at all that night, it being so very
late, I made no more ado, but jumped out of my pantaloons and boots,
and then blowing out the light tumbled into bed, and commended myself
to the care of heaven.

Whether that mattress was stuffed with corn-cobs or broken crockery,
there is no telling, but I rolled about a good deal, and could not
sleep for a long time. At last I slid off into a light doze, and had
pretty nearly made a good offing towards the land of Nod, when I heard
a heavy footfall in the passage, and saw a glimmer of light come into
the room from under the door.

Lord save me, thinks I, that must be the harpooneer, the infernal
head-peddler. But I lay perfectly still, and resolved not to say a word
till spoken to. Holding a light in one hand, and that identical New
Zealand head in the other, the stranger entered the room, and without
looking towards the bed, placed his candle a good way off from me on
the floor in one corner, and then began working away at the knotted
cords of the large bag I before spoke of as being in the room. I was
all eagerness to see his face, but he kept it averted for some time
while employed in unlacing the bag’s mouth. This accomplished, however,
he turned round—when, good heavens! what a sight! Such a face! It was
of a dark, purplish, yellow colour, here and there stuck over with
large blackish looking squares. Yes, it’s just as I thought, he’s a
terrible bedfellow; he’s been in a fight, got dreadfully cut, and here
he is, just from the surgeon. But at that moment he chanced to turn his
face so towards the light, that I plainly saw they could not be
sticking-plasters at all, those black squares on his cheeks. They were
stains of some sort or other. At first I knew not what to make of this;
but soon an inkling of the truth occurred to me. I remembered a story
of a white man—a whaleman too—who, falling among the cannibals, had
been tattooed by them. I concluded that this harpooneer, in the course
of his distant voyages, must have met with a similar adventure. And
what is it, thought I, after all! It’s only his outside; a man can be
honest in any sort of skin. But then, what to make of his unearthly
complexion, that part of it, I mean, lying round about, and completely
independent of the squares of tattooing. To be sure, it might be
nothing but a good coat of tropical tanning; but I never heard of a hot
sun’s tanning a white man into a purplish yellow one. However, I had
never been in the South Seas; and perhaps the sun there produced these
extraordinary effects upon the skin. Now, while all these ideas were
passing through me like lightning, this harpooneer never noticed me at
all. But, after some difficulty having opened his bag, he commenced
fumbling in it, and presently pulled out a sort of tomahawk, and a
seal-skin wallet with the hair on. Placing these on the old chest in
the middle of the room, he then took the New Zealand head—a ghastly
thing enough—and crammed it down into the bag. He now took off his
hat—a new beaver hat—when I came nigh singing out with fresh surprise.
There was no hair on his head—none to speak of at least—nothing but a
small scalp-knot twisted up on his forehead. His bald purplish head now
looked for all the world like a mildewed skull. Had not the stranger
stood between me and the door, I would have bolted out of it quicker
than ever I bolted a dinner.

Even as it was, I thought something of slipping out of the window, but
it was the second floor back. I am no coward, but what to make of this
head-peddling purple rascal altogether passed my comprehension.
Ignorance is the parent of fear, and being completely nonplussed and
confounded about the stranger, I confess I was now as much afraid of
him as if it was the devil himself who had thus broken into my room at
the dead of night. In fact, I was so afraid of him that I was not game
enough just then to address him, and demand a satisfactory answer
concerning what seemed inexplicable in him.

Meanwhile, he continued the business of undressing, and at last showed
his chest and arms. As I live, these covered parts of him were
checkered with the same squares as his face; his back, too, was all
over the same dark squares; he seemed to have been in a Thirty Years’
War, and just escaped from it with a sticking-plaster shirt. Still
more, his very legs were marked, as if a parcel of dark green frogs
were running up the trunks of young palms. It was now quite plain that
he must be some abominable savage or other shipped aboard of a whaleman
in the South Seas, and so landed in this Christian country. I quaked to
think of it. A peddler of heads too—perhaps the heads of his own
brothers. He might take a fancy to mine—heavens! look at that tomahawk!

But there was no time for shuddering, for now the savage went about
something that completely fascinated my attention, and convinced me
that he must indeed be a heathen. Going to his heavy grego, or wrapall,
or dreadnaught, which he had previously hung on a chair, he fumbled in
the pockets, and produced at length a curious little deformed image
with a hunch on its back, and exactly the colour of a three days’ old
Congo baby. Remembering the embalmed head, at first I almost thought
that this black manikin was a real baby preserved in some similar
manner. But seeing that it was not at all limber, and that it glistened
a good deal like polished ebony, I concluded that it must be nothing
but a wooden idol, which indeed it proved to be. For now the savage
goes up to the empty fire-place, and removing the papered fire-board,
sets up this little hunch-backed image, like a tenpin, between the
andirons. The chimney jambs and all the bricks inside were very sooty,
so that I thought this fire-place made a very appropriate little shrine
or chapel for his Congo idol.

I now screwed my eyes hard towards the half hidden image, feeling but
ill at ease meantime—to see what was next to follow. First he takes
about a double handful of shavings out of his grego pocket, and places
them carefully before the idol; then laying a bit of ship biscuit on
top and applying the flame from the lamp, he kindled the shavings into
a sacrificial blaze. Presently, after many hasty snatches into the
fire, and still hastier withdrawals of his fingers (whereby he seemed
to be scorching them badly), he at last succeeded in drawing out the
biscuit; then blowing off the heat and ashes a little, he made a polite
offer of it to the little negro. But the little devil did not seem to
fancy such dry sort of fare at all; he never moved his lips. All these
strange antics were accompanied by still stranger guttural noises from
the devotee, who seemed to be praying in a sing-song or else singing
some pagan psalmody or other, during which his face twitched about in
the most unnatural manner. At last extinguishing the fire, he took the
idol up very unceremoniously, and bagged it again in his grego pocket
as carelessly as if he were a sportsman bagging a dead woodcock.

All these queer proceedings increased my uncomfortableness, and seeing
him now exhibiting strong symptoms of concluding his business
operations, and jumping into bed with me, I thought it was high time,
now or never, before the light was put out, to break the spell in which
I had so long been bound.

But the interval I spent in deliberating what to say, was a fatal one.
Taking up his tomahawk from the table, he examined the head of it for
an instant, and then holding it to the light, with his mouth at the
handle, he puffed out great clouds of tobacco smoke. The next moment
the light was extinguished, and this wild cannibal, tomahawk between
his teeth, sprang into bed with me. I sang out, I could not help it
now; and giving a sudden grunt of astonishment he began feeling me.

Stammering out something, I knew not what, I rolled away from him
against the wall, and then conjured him, whoever or whatever he might
be, to keep quiet, and let me get up and light the lamp again. But his
guttural responses satisfied me at once that he but ill comprehended my
meaning.

“Who-e debel you?”—he at last said—“you no speak-e, dam-me, I kill-e.”
And so saying the lighted tomahawk began flourishing about me in the
dark.

“Landlord, for God’s sake, Peter Coffin!” shouted I. “Landlord! Watch!
Coffin! Angels! save me!”

“Speak-e! tell-ee me who-ee be, or dam-me, I kill-e!” again growled the
cannibal, while his horrid flourishings of the tomahawk scattered the
hot tobacco ashes about me till I thought my linen would get on fire.
But thank heaven, at that moment the landlord came into the room light
in hand, and leaping from the bed I ran up to him.

“Don’t be afraid now,” said he, grinning again, “Queequeg here wouldn’t
harm a hair of your head.”

“Stop your grinning,” shouted I, “and why didn’t you tell me that that
infernal harpooneer was a cannibal?”

“I thought ye know’d it;—didn’t I tell ye, he was a peddlin’ heads
around town?—but turn flukes again and go to sleep. Queequeg, look
here—you sabbee me, I sabbee—you this man sleepe you—you sabbee?”

“Me sabbee plenty”—grunted Queequeg, puffing away at his pipe and
sitting up in bed.

“You gettee in,” he added, motioning to me with his tomahawk, and
throwing the clothes to one side. He really did this in not only a
civil but a really kind and charitable way. I stood looking at him a
moment. For all his tattooings he was on the whole a clean, comely
looking cannibal. What’s all this fuss I have been making about,
thought I to myself—the man’s a human being just as I am: he has just
as much reason to fear me, as I have to be afraid of him. Better sleep
with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.

“Landlord,” said I, “tell him to stash his tomahawk there, or pipe, or
whatever you call it; tell him to stop smoking, in short, and I will
turn in with him. But I don’t fancy having a man smoking in bed with
me. It’s dangerous. Besides, I ain’t insured.”

This being told to Queequeg, he at once complied, and again politely
motioned me to get into bed—rolling over to one side as much as to
say—“I won’t touch a leg of ye.”

“Good night, landlord,” said I, “you may go.”

I turned in, and never slept better in my life.


CHAPTER 4. The Counterpane.

Upon waking next morning about daylight, I found Queequeg’s arm thrown
over me in the most loving and affectionate manner. You had almost
thought I had been his wife. The counterpane was of patchwork, full of
odd little parti-coloured squares and triangles; and this arm of his
tattooed all over with an interminable Cretan labyrinth of a figure, no
two parts of which were of one precise shade—owing I suppose to his
keeping his arm at sea unmethodically in sun and shade, his shirt
sleeves irregularly rolled up at various times—this same arm of his, I
say, looked for all the world like a strip of that same patchwork
quilt. Indeed, partly lying on it as the arm did when I first awoke, I
could hardly tell it from the quilt, they so blended their hues
together; and it was only by the sense of weight and pressure that I
could tell that Queequeg was hugging me.

My sensations were strange. Let me try to explain them. When I was a
child, I well remember a somewhat similar circumstance that befell me;
whether it was a reality or a dream, I never could entirely settle. The
circumstance was this. I had been cutting up some caper or other—I
think it was trying to crawl up the chimney, as I had seen a little
sweep do a few days previous; and my stepmother who, somehow or other,
was all the time whipping me, or sending me to bed supperless,—my
mother dragged me by the legs out of the chimney and packed me off to
bed, though it was only two o’clock in the afternoon of the 21st June,
the longest day in the year in our hemisphere. I felt dreadfully. But
there was no help for it, so up stairs I went to my little room in the
third floor, undressed myself as slowly as possible so as to kill time,
and with a bitter sigh got between the sheets.

I lay there dismally calculating that sixteen entire hours must elapse
before I could hope for a resurrection. Sixteen hours in bed! the small
of my back ached to think of it. And it was so light too; the sun
shining in at the window, and a great rattling of coaches in the
streets, and the sound of gay voices all over the house. I felt worse
and worse—at last I got up, dressed, and softly going down in my
stockinged feet, sought out my stepmother, and suddenly threw myself at
her feet, beseeching her as a particular favour to give me a good
slippering for my misbehaviour; anything indeed but condemning me to
lie abed such an unendurable length of time. But she was the best and
most conscientious of stepmothers, and back I had to go to my room. For
several hours I lay there broad awake, feeling a great deal worse than
I have ever done since, even from the greatest subsequent misfortunes.
At last I must have fallen into a troubled nightmare of a doze; and
slowly waking from it—half steeped in dreams—I opened my eyes, and the
before sun-lit room was now wrapped in outer darkness. Instantly I felt
a shock running through all my frame; nothing was to be seen, and
nothing was to be heard; but a supernatural hand seemed placed in mine.
My arm hung over the counterpane, and the nameless, unimaginable,
silent form or phantom, to which the hand belonged, seemed closely
seated by my bed-side. For what seemed ages piled on ages, I lay there,
frozen with the most awful fears, not daring to drag away my hand; yet
ever thinking that if I could but stir it one single inch, the horrid
spell would be broken. I knew not how this consciousness at last glided
away from me; but waking in the morning, I shudderingly remembered it
all, and for days and weeks and months afterwards I lost myself in
confounding attempts to explain the mystery. Nay, to this very hour, I
often puzzle myself with it.

Now, take away the awful fear, and my sensations at feeling the
supernatural hand in mine were very similar, in their strangeness, to
those which I experienced on waking up and seeing Queequeg’s pagan arm
thrown round me. But at length all the past night’s events soberly
recurred, one by one, in fixed reality, and then I lay only alive to
the comical predicament. For though I tried to move his arm—unlock his
bridegroom clasp—yet, sleeping as he was, he still hugged me tightly,
as though naught but death should part us twain. I now strove to rouse
him—“Queequeg!”—but his only answer was a snore. I then rolled over, my
neck feeling as if it were in a horse-collar; and suddenly felt a
slight scratch. Throwing aside the counterpane, there lay the tomahawk
sleeping by the savage’s side, as if it were a hatchet-faced baby. A
pretty pickle, truly, thought I; abed here in a strange house in the
broad day, with a cannibal and a tomahawk! “Queequeg!—in the name of
goodness, Queequeg, wake!” At length, by dint of much wriggling, and
loud and incessant expostulations upon the unbecomingness of his
hugging a fellow male in that matrimonial sort of style, I succeeded in
extracting a grunt; and presently, he drew back his arm, shook himself
all over like a Newfoundland dog just from the water, and sat up in
bed, stiff as a pike-staff, looking at me, and rubbing his eyes as if
he did not altogether remember how I came to be there, though a dim
consciousness of knowing something about me seemed slowly dawning over
him. Meanwhile, I lay quietly eyeing him, having no serious misgivings
now, and bent upon narrowly observing so curious a creature. When, at
last, his mind seemed made up touching the character of his bedfellow,
and he became, as it were, reconciled to the fact; he jumped out upon
the floor, and by certain signs and sounds gave me to understand that,
if it pleased me, he would dress first and then leave me to dress
afterwards, leaving the whole apartment to myself. Thinks I, Queequeg,
under the circumstances, this is a very civilized overture; but, the
truth is, these savages have an innate sense of delicacy, say what you
will; it is marvellous how essentially polite they are. I pay this
particular compliment to Queequeg, because he treated me with so much
civility and consideration, while I was guilty of great rudeness;
staring at him from the bed, and watching all his toilette motions; for
the time my curiosity getting the better of my breeding. Nevertheless,
a man like Queequeg you don’t see every day, he and his ways were well
worth unusual regarding.

He commenced dressing at top by donning his beaver hat, a very tall
one, by the by, and then—still minus his trowsers—he hunted up his
boots. What under the heavens he did it for, I cannot tell, but his
next movement was to crush himself—boots in hand, and hat on—under the
bed; when, from sundry violent gaspings and strainings, I inferred he
was hard at work booting himself; though by no law of propriety that I
ever heard of, is any man required to be private when putting on his
boots. But Queequeg, do you see, was a creature in the transition
stage—neither caterpillar nor butterfly. He was just enough civilized
to show off his outlandishness in the strangest possible manners. His
education was not yet completed. He was an undergraduate. If he had not
been a small degree civilized, he very probably would not have troubled
himself with boots at all; but then, if he had not been still a savage,
he never would have dreamt of getting under the bed to put them on. At
last, he emerged with his hat very much dented and crushed down over
his eyes, and began creaking and limping about the room, as if, not
being much accustomed to boots, his pair of damp, wrinkled cowhide
ones—probably not made to order either—rather pinched and tormented him
at the first go off of a bitter cold morning.

Seeing, now, that there were no curtains to the window, and that the
street being very narrow, the house opposite commanded a plain view
into the room, and observing more and more the indecorous figure that
Queequeg made, staving about with little else but his hat and boots on;
I begged him as well as I could, to accelerate his toilet somewhat, and
particularly to get into his pantaloons as soon as possible. He
complied, and then proceeded to wash himself. At that time in the
morning any Christian would have washed his face; but Queequeg, to my
amazement, contented himself with restricting his ablutions to his
chest, arms, and hands. He then donned his waistcoat, and taking up a
piece of hard soap on the wash-stand centre table, dipped it into water
and commenced lathering his face. I was watching to see where he kept
his razor, when lo and behold, he takes the harpoon from the bed
corner, slips out the long wooden stock, unsheathes the head, whets it
a little on his boot, and striding up to the bit of mirror against the
wall, begins a vigorous scraping, or rather harpooning of his cheeks.
Thinks I, Queequeg, this is using Rogers’s best cutlery with a
vengeance. Afterwards I wondered the less at this operation when I came
to know of what fine steel the head of a harpoon is made, and how
exceedingly sharp the long straight edges are always kept.

The rest of his toilet was soon achieved, and he proudly marched out of
the room, wrapped up in his great pilot monkey jacket, and sporting his
harpoon like a marshal’s baton.


CHAPTER 5. Breakfast.

I quickly followed suit, and descending into the bar-room accosted the
grinning landlord very pleasantly. I cherished no malice towards him,
though he had been skylarking with me not a little in the matter of my
bedfellow.

However, a good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a
good thing; the more’s the pity. So, if any one man, in his own proper
person, afford stuff for a good joke to anybody, let him not be
backward, but let him cheerfully allow himself to spend and be spent in
that way. And the man that has anything bountifully laughable about
him, be sure there is more in that man than you perhaps think for.

The bar-room was now full of the boarders who had been dropping in the
night previous, and whom I had not as yet had a good look at. They were
nearly all whalemen; chief mates, and second mates, and third mates,
and sea carpenters, and sea coopers, and sea blacksmiths, and
harpooneers, and ship keepers; a brown and brawny company, with bosky
beards; an unshorn, shaggy set, all wearing monkey jackets for morning
gowns.

You could pretty plainly tell how long each one had been ashore. This
young fellow’s healthy cheek is like a sun-toasted pear in hue, and
would seem to smell almost as musky; he cannot have been three days
landed from his Indian voyage. That man next him looks a few shades
lighter; you might say a touch of satin wood is in him. In the
complexion of a third still lingers a tropic tawn, but slightly
bleached withal; _he_ doubtless has tarried whole weeks ashore. But who
could show a cheek like Queequeg? which, barred with various tints,
seemed like the Andes’ western slope, to show forth in one array,
contrasting climates, zone by zone.

“Grub, ho!” now cried the landlord, flinging open a door, and in we
went to breakfast.

They say that men who have seen the world, thereby become quite at ease
in manner, quite self-possessed in company. Not always, though:
Ledyard, the great New England traveller, and Mungo Park, the Scotch
one; of all men, they possessed the least assurance in the parlor. But
perhaps the mere crossing of Siberia in a sledge drawn by dogs as
Ledyard did, or the taking a long solitary walk on an empty stomach, in
the negro heart of Africa, which was the sum of poor Mungo’s
performances—this kind of travel, I say, may not be the very best mode
of attaining a high social polish. Still, for the most part, that sort
of thing is to be had anywhere.

These reflections just here are occasioned by the circumstance that
after we were all seated at the table, and I was preparing to hear some
good stories about whaling; to my no small surprise, nearly every man
maintained a profound silence. And not only that, but they looked
embarrassed. Yes, here were a set of sea-dogs, many of whom without the
slightest bashfulness had boarded great whales on the high seas—entire
strangers to them—and duelled them dead without winking; and yet, here
they sat at a social breakfast table—all of the same calling, all of
kindred tastes—looking round as sheepishly at each other as though they
had never been out of sight of some sheepfold among the Green
Mountains. A curious sight; these bashful bears, these timid warrior
whalemen!

But as for Queequeg—why, Queequeg sat there among them—at the head of
the table, too, it so chanced; as cool as an icicle. To be sure I
cannot say much for his breeding. His greatest admirer could not have
cordially justified his bringing his harpoon into breakfast with him,
and using it there without ceremony; reaching over the table with it,
to the imminent jeopardy of many heads, and grappling the beefsteaks
towards him. But _that_ was certainly very coolly done by him, and
every one knows that in most people’s estimation, to do anything coolly
is to do it genteelly.

We will not speak of all Queequeg’s peculiarities here; how he eschewed
coffee and hot rolls, and applied his undivided attention to
beefsteaks, done rare. Enough, that when breakfast was over he withdrew
like the rest into the public room, lighted his tomahawk-pipe, and was
sitting there quietly digesting and smoking with his inseparable hat
on, when I sallied out for a stroll.


CHAPTER 6. The Street.

If I had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of so outlandish
an individual as Queequeg circulating among the polite society of a
civilized town, that astonishment soon departed upon taking my first
daylight stroll through the streets of New Bedford.

In thoroughfares nigh the docks, any considerable seaport will
frequently offer to view the queerest looking nondescripts from foreign
parts. Even in Broadway and Chestnut streets, Mediterranean mariners
will sometimes jostle the affrighted ladies. Regent Street is not
unknown to Lascars and Malays; and at Bombay, in the Apollo Green, live
Yankees have often scared the natives. But New Bedford beats all Water
Street and Wapping. In these last-mentioned haunts you see only
sailors; but in New Bedford, actual cannibals stand chatting at street
corners; savages outright; many of whom yet carry on their bones unholy
flesh. It makes a stranger stare.

But, besides the Feegeeans, Tongatobooarrs, Erromanggoans, Pannangians,
and Brighggians, and, besides the wild specimens of the whaling-craft
which unheeded reel about the streets, you will see other sights still
more curious, certainly more comical. There weekly arrive in this town
scores of green Vermonters and New Hampshire men, all athirst for gain
and glory in the fishery. They are mostly young, of stalwart frames;
fellows who have felled forests, and now seek to drop the axe and
snatch the whale-lance. Many are as green as the Green Mountains whence
they came. In some things you would think them but a few hours old.
Look there! that chap strutting round the corner. He wears a beaver hat
and swallow-tailed coat, girdled with a sailor-belt and sheath-knife.
Here comes another with a sou’-wester and a bombazine cloak.

No town-bred dandy will compare with a country-bred one—I mean a
downright bumpkin dandy—a fellow that, in the dog-days, will mow his
two acres in buckskin gloves for fear of tanning his hands. Now when a
country dandy like this takes it into his head to make a distinguished
reputation, and joins the great whale-fishery, you should see the
comical things he does upon reaching the seaport. In bespeaking his
sea-outfit, he orders bell-buttons to his waistcoats; straps to his
canvas trowsers. Ah, poor Hay-Seed! how bitterly will burst those
straps in the first howling gale, when thou art driven, straps,
buttons, and all, down the throat of the tempest.

But think not that this famous town has only harpooneers, cannibals,
and bumpkins to show her visitors. Not at all. Still New Bedford is a
queer place. Had it not been for us whalemen, that tract of land would
this day perhaps have been in as howling condition as the coast of
Labrador. As it is, parts of her back country are enough to frighten
one, they look so bony. The town itself is perhaps the dearest place to
live in, in all New England. It is a land of oil, true enough: but not
like Canaan; a land, also, of corn and wine. The streets do not run
with milk; nor in the spring-time do they pave them with fresh eggs.
Yet, in spite of this, nowhere in all America will you find more
patrician-like houses; parks and gardens more opulent, than in New
Bedford. Whence came they? how planted upon this once scraggy scoria of
a country?

Go and gaze upon the iron emblematical harpoons round yonder lofty
mansion, and your question will be answered. Yes; all these brave
houses and flowery gardens came from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian
oceans. One and all, they were harpooned and dragged up hither from the
bottom of the sea. Can Herr Alexander perform a feat like that?

In New Bedford, fathers, they say, give whales for dowers to their
daughters, and portion off their nieces with a few porpoises a-piece.
You must go to New Bedford to see a brilliant wedding; for, they say,
they have reservoirs of oil in every house, and every night recklessly
burn their lengths in spermaceti candles.

In summer time, the town is sweet to see; full of fine maples—long
avenues of green and gold. And in August, high in air, the beautiful
and bountiful horse-chestnuts, candelabra-wise, proffer the passer-by
their tapering upright cones of congregated blossoms. So omnipotent is
art; which in many a district of New Bedford has superinduced bright
terraces of flowers upon the barren refuse rocks thrown aside at
creation’s final day.

And the women of New Bedford, they bloom like their own red roses. But
roses only bloom in summer; whereas the fine carnation of their cheeks
is perennial as sunlight in the seventh heavens. Elsewhere match that
bloom of theirs, ye cannot, save in Salem, where they tell me the young
girls breathe such musk, their sailor sweethearts smell them miles off
shore, as though they were drawing nigh the odorous Moluccas instead of
the Puritanic sands.


CHAPTER 7. The Chapel.

In this same New Bedford there stands a Whaleman’s Chapel, and few are
the moody fishermen, shortly bound for the Indian Ocean or Pacific, who
fail to make a Sunday visit to the spot. I am sure that I did not.

Returning from my first morning stroll, I again sallied out upon this
special errand. The sky had changed from clear, sunny cold, to driving
sleet and mist. Wrapping myself in my shaggy jacket of the cloth called
bearskin, I fought my way against the stubborn storm. Entering, I found
a small scattered congregation of sailors, and sailors’ wives and
widows. A muffled silence reigned, only broken at times by the shrieks
of the storm. Each silent worshipper seemed purposely sitting apart
from the other, as if each silent grief were insular and
incommunicable. The chaplain had not yet arrived; and there these
silent islands of men and women sat steadfastly eyeing several marble
tablets, with black borders, masoned into the wall on either side the
pulpit. Three of them ran something like the following, but I do not
pretend to quote:—

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN TALBOT, Who, at the age of eighteen, was
lost overboard, Near the Isle of Desolation, off Patagonia, _November_
1_st_, 1836. THIS TABLET Is erected to his Memory BY HIS SISTER.

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF ROBERT LONG, WILLIS ELLERY, NATHAN COLEMAN,
WALTER CANNY, SETH MACY, AND SAMUEL GLEIG, Forming one of the boats’
crews OF THE SHIP ELIZA Who were towed out of sight by a Whale, On the
Off-shore Ground in the PACIFIC, _December_ 31_st_, 1839. THIS MARBLE
Is here placed by their surviving SHIPMATES.

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF The late CAPTAIN EZEKIEL HARDY, Who in the bows
of his boat was killed by a Sperm Whale on the coast of Japan, _August_
3_d_, 1833. THIS TABLET Is erected to his Memory BY HIS WIDOW.

Shaking off the sleet from my ice-glazed hat and jacket, I seated
myself near the door, and turning sideways was surprised to see
Queequeg near me. Affected by the solemnity of the scene, there was a
wondering gaze of incredulous curiosity in his countenance. This savage
was the only person present who seemed to notice my entrance; because
he was the only one who could not read, and, therefore, was not reading
those frigid inscriptions on the wall. Whether any of the relatives of
the seamen whose names appeared there were now among the congregation,
I knew not; but so many are the unrecorded accidents in the fishery,
and so plainly did several women present wear the countenance if not
the trappings of some unceasing grief, that I feel sure that here
before me were assembled those, in whose unhealing hearts the sight of
those bleak tablets sympathetically caused the old wounds to bleed
afresh.

Oh! ye whose dead lie buried beneath the green grass; who standing
among flowers can say—here, _here_ lies my beloved; ye know not the
desolation that broods in bosoms like these. What bitter blanks in
those black-bordered marbles which cover no ashes! What despair in
those immovable inscriptions! What deadly voids and unbidden
infidelities in the lines that seem to gnaw upon all Faith, and refuse
resurrections to the beings who have placelessly perished without a
grave. As well might those tablets stand in the cave of Elephanta as
here.

In what census of living creatures, the dead of mankind are included;
why it is that a universal proverb says of them, that they tell no
tales, though containing more secrets than the Goodwin Sands; how it is
that to his name who yesterday departed for the other world, we prefix
so significant and infidel a word, and yet do not thus entitle him, if
he but embarks for the remotest Indies of this living earth; why the
Life Insurance Companies pay death-forfeitures upon immortals; in what
eternal, unstirring paralysis, and deadly, hopeless trance, yet lies
antique Adam who died sixty round centuries ago; how it is that we
still refuse to be comforted for those who we nevertheless maintain are
dwelling in unspeakable bliss; why all the living so strive to hush all
the dead; wherefore but the rumor of a knocking in a tomb will terrify
a whole city. All these things are not without their meanings.

But Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these
dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.

It needs scarcely to be told, with what feelings, on the eve of a
Nantucket voyage, I regarded those marble tablets, and by the murky
light of that darkened, doleful day read the fate of the whalemen who
had gone before me. Yes, Ishmael, the same fate may be thine. But
somehow I grew merry again. Delightful inducements to embark, fine
chance for promotion, it seems—aye, a stove boat will make me an
immortal by brevet. Yes, there is death in this business of whaling—a
speechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into Eternity. But what
then? Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death.
Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true
substance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too
much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking
that thick water the thinnest of air. Methinks my body is but the lees
of my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is
not me. And therefore three cheers for Nantucket; and come a stove boat
and stove body when they will, for stave my soul, Jove himself cannot.


CHAPTER 8. The Pulpit.

I had not been seated very long ere a man of a certain venerable
robustness entered; immediately as the storm-pelted door flew back upon
admitting him, a quick regardful eyeing of him by all the congregation,
sufficiently attested that this fine old man was the chaplain. Yes, it
was the famous Father Mapple, so called by the whalemen, among whom he
was a very great favourite. He had been a sailor and a harpooneer in
his youth, but for many years past had dedicated his life to the
ministry. At the time I now write of, Father Mapple was in the hardy
winter of a healthy old age; that sort of old age which seems merging
into a second flowering youth, for among all the fissures of his
wrinkles, there shone certain mild gleams of a newly developing
bloom—the spring verdure peeping forth even beneath February’s snow. No
one having previously heard his history, could for the first time
behold Father Mapple without the utmost interest, because there were
certain engrafted clerical peculiarities about him, imputable to that
adventurous maritime life he had led. When he entered I observed that
he carried no umbrella, and certainly had not come in his carriage, for
his tarpaulin hat ran down with melting sleet, and his great pilot
cloth jacket seemed almost to drag him to the floor with the weight of
the water it had absorbed. However, hat and coat and overshoes were one
by one removed, and hung up in a little space in an adjacent corner;
when, arrayed in a decent suit, he quietly approached the pulpit.

Like most old fashioned pulpits, it was a very lofty one, and since a
regular stairs to such a height would, by its long angle with the
floor, seriously contract the already small area of the chapel, the
architect, it seemed, had acted upon the hint of Father Mapple, and
finished the pulpit without a stairs, substituting a perpendicular side
ladder, like those used in mounting a ship from a boat at sea. The wife
of a whaling captain had provided the chapel with a handsome pair of
red worsted man-ropes for this ladder, which, being itself nicely
headed, and stained with a mahogany colour, the whole contrivance,
considering what manner of chapel it was, seemed by no means in bad
taste. Halting for an instant at the foot of the ladder, and with both
hands grasping the ornamental knobs of the man-ropes, Father Mapple
cast a look upwards, and then with a truly sailor-like but still
reverential dexterity, hand over hand, mounted the steps as if
ascending the main-top of his vessel.

The perpendicular parts of this side ladder, as is usually the case
with swinging ones, were of cloth-covered rope, only the rounds were of
wood, so that at every step there was a joint. At my first glimpse of
the pulpit, it had not escaped me that however convenient for a ship,
these joints in the present instance seemed unnecessary. For I was not
prepared to see Father Mapple after gaining the height, slowly turn
round, and stooping over the pulpit, deliberately drag up the ladder
step by step, till the whole was deposited within, leaving him
impregnable in his little Quebec.

I pondered some time without fully comprehending the reason for this.
Father Mapple enjoyed such a wide reputation for sincerity and
sanctity, that I could not suspect him of courting notoriety by any
mere tricks of the stage. No, thought I, there must be some sober
reason for this thing; furthermore, it must symbolize something unseen.
Can it be, then, that by that act of physical isolation, he signifies
his spiritual withdrawal for the time, from all outward worldly ties
and connexions? Yes, for replenished with the meat and wine of the
word, to the faithful man of God, this pulpit, I see, is a
self-containing stronghold—a lofty Ehrenbreitstein, with a perennial
well of water within the walls.

But the side ladder was not the only strange feature of the place,
borrowed from the chaplain’s former sea-farings. Between the marble
cenotaphs on either hand of the pulpit, the wall which formed its back
was adorned with a large painting representing a gallant ship beating
against a terrible storm off a lee coast of black rocks and snowy
breakers. But high above the flying scud and dark-rolling clouds, there
floated a little isle of sunlight, from which beamed forth an angel’s
face; and this bright face shed a distinct spot of radiance upon the
ship’s tossed deck, something like that silver plate now inserted into
the Victory’s plank where Nelson fell. “Ah, noble ship,” the angel
seemed to say, “beat on, beat on, thou noble ship, and bear a hardy
helm; for lo! the sun is breaking through; the clouds are rolling
off—serenest azure is at hand.”

Nor was the pulpit itself without a trace of the same sea-taste that
had achieved the ladder and the picture. Its panelled front was in the
likeness of a ship’s bluff bows, and the Holy Bible rested on a
projecting piece of scroll work, fashioned after a ship’s fiddle-headed
beak.

What could be more full of meaning?—for the pulpit is ever this earth’s
foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the
world. From thence it is the storm of God’s quick wrath is first
descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is
the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favourable winds.
Yes, the world’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete;
and the pulpit is its prow.


CHAPTER 9. The Sermon.

Father Mapple rose, and in a mild voice of unassuming authority ordered
the scattered people to condense. “Starboard gangway, there! side away
to larboard—larboard gangway to starboard! Midships! midships!”

There was a low rumbling of heavy sea-boots among the benches, and a
still slighter shuffling of women’s shoes, and all was quiet again, and
every eye on the preacher.

He paused a little; then kneeling in the pulpit’s bows, folded his
large brown hands across his chest, uplifted his closed eyes, and
offered a prayer so deeply devout that he seemed kneeling and praying
at the bottom of the sea.

This ended, in prolonged solemn tones, like the continual tolling of a
bell in a ship that is foundering at sea in a fog—in such tones he
commenced reading the following hymn; but changing his manner towards
the concluding stanzas, burst forth with a pealing exultation and joy—


  “The ribs and terrors in the whale, Arched over me a dismal gloom,
  While all God’s sun-lit waves rolled by, And lift me deepening down
  to doom.

  “I saw the opening maw of hell, With endless pains and sorrows there;
  Which none but they that feel can tell— Oh, I was plunging to
  despair.

  “In black distress, I called my God, When I could scarce believe him
  mine, He bowed his ear to my complaints— No more the whale did me
  confine.

  “With speed he flew to my relief, As on a radiant dolphin borne;
  Awful, yet bright, as lightning shone The face of my Deliverer God.

  “My song for ever shall record That terrible, that joyful hour; I
  give the glory to my God, His all the mercy and the power.”




Nearly all joined in singing this hymn, which swelled high above the
howling of the storm. A brief pause ensued; the preacher slowly turned
over the leaves of the Bible, and at last, folding his hand down upon
the proper page, said: “Beloved shipmates, clinch the last verse of the
first chapter of Jonah—‘And God had prepared a great fish to swallow up
Jonah.’”

“Shipmates, this book, containing only four chapters—four yarns—is one
of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures. Yet what
depths of the soul does Jonah’s deep sealine sound! what a pregnant
lesson to us is this prophet! What a noble thing is that canticle in
the fish’s belly! How billow-like and boisterously grand! We feel the
floods surging over us; we sound with him to the kelpy bottom of the
waters; sea-weed and all the slime of the sea is about us! But _what_
is this lesson that the book of Jonah teaches? Shipmates, it is a
two-stranded lesson; a lesson to us all as sinful men, and a lesson to
me as a pilot of the living God. As sinful men, it is a lesson to us
all, because it is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly
awakened fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally
the deliverance and joy of Jonah. As with all sinners among men, the
sin of this son of Amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the
command of God—never mind now what that command was, or how
conveyed—which he found a hard command. But all the things that God
would have us do are hard for us to do—remember that—and hence, he
oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade. And if we obey God, we
must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein
the hardness of obeying God consists.

“With this sin of disobedience in him, Jonah still further flouts at
God, by seeking to flee from Him. He thinks that a ship made by men
will carry him into countries where God does not reign, but only the
Captains of this earth. He skulks about the wharves of Joppa, and seeks
a ship that’s bound for Tarshish. There lurks, perhaps, a hitherto
unheeded meaning here. By all accounts Tarshish could have been no
other city than the modern Cadiz. That’s the opinion of learned men.
And where is Cadiz, shipmates? Cadiz is in Spain; as far by water, from
Joppa, as Jonah could possibly have sailed in those ancient days, when
the Atlantic was an almost unknown sea. Because Joppa, the modern
Jaffa, shipmates, is on the most easterly coast of the Mediterranean,
the Syrian; and Tarshish or Cadiz more than two thousand miles to the
westward from that, just outside the Straits of Gibraltar. See ye not
then, shipmates, that Jonah sought to flee world-wide from God?
Miserable man! Oh! most contemptible and worthy of all scorn; with
slouched hat and guilty eye, skulking from his God; prowling among the
shipping like a vile burglar hastening to cross the seas. So
disordered, self-condemning is his look, that had there been policemen
in those days, Jonah, on the mere suspicion of something wrong, had
been arrested ere he touched a deck. How plainly he’s a fugitive! no
baggage, not a hat-box, valise, or carpet-bag,—no friends accompany him
to the wharf with their adieux. At last, after much dodging search, he
finds the Tarshish ship receiving the last items of her cargo; and as
he steps on board to see its Captain in the cabin, all the sailors for
the moment desist from hoisting in the goods, to mark the stranger’s
evil eye. Jonah sees this; but in vain he tries to look all ease and
confidence; in vain essays his wretched smile. Strong intuitions of the
man assure the mariners he can be no innocent. In their gamesome but
still serious way, one whispers to the other—“Jack, he’s robbed a
widow;” or, “Joe, do you mark him; he’s a bigamist;” or, “Harry lad, I
guess he’s the adulterer that broke jail in old Gomorrah, or belike,
one of the missing murderers from Sodom.” Another runs to read the bill
that’s stuck against the spile upon the wharf to which the ship is
moored, offering five hundred gold coins for the apprehension of a
parricide, and containing a description of his person. He reads, and
looks from Jonah to the bill; while all his sympathetic shipmates now
crowd round Jonah, prepared to lay their hands upon him. Frighted Jonah
trembles, and summoning all his boldness to his face, only looks so
much the more a coward. He will not confess himself suspected; but that
itself is strong suspicion. So he makes the best of it; and when the
sailors find him not to be the man that is advertised, they let him
pass, and he descends into the cabin.

“‘Who’s there?’ cries the Captain at his busy desk, hurriedly making
out his papers for the Customs—‘Who’s there?’ Oh! how that harmless
question mangles Jonah! For the instant he almost turns to flee again.
But he rallies. ‘I seek a passage in this ship to Tarshish; how soon
sail ye, sir?’ Thus far the busy Captain had not looked up to Jonah,
though the man now stands before him; but no sooner does he hear that
hollow voice, than he darts a scrutinizing glance. ‘We sail with the
next coming tide,’ at last he slowly answered, still intently eyeing
him. ‘No sooner, sir?’—‘Soon enough for any honest man that goes a
passenger.’ Ha! Jonah, that’s another stab. But he swiftly calls away
the Captain from that scent. ‘I’ll sail with ye,’—he says,—‘the passage
money how much is that?—I’ll pay now.’ For it is particularly written,
shipmates, as if it were a thing not to be overlooked in this history,
‘that he paid the fare thereof’ ere the craft did sail. And taken with
the context, this is full of meaning.

“Now Jonah’s Captain, shipmates, was one whose discernment detects
crime in any, but whose cupidity exposes it only in the penniless. In
this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and
without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all
frontiers. So Jonah’s Captain prepares to test the length of Jonah’s
purse, ere he judge him openly. He charges him thrice the usual sum;
and it’s assented to. Then the Captain knows that Jonah is a fugitive;
but at the same time resolves to help a flight that paves its rear with
gold. Yet when Jonah fairly takes out his purse, prudent suspicions
still molest the Captain. He rings every coin to find a counterfeit.
Not a forger, any way, he mutters; and Jonah is put down for his
passage. ‘Point out my state-room, Sir,’ says Jonah now, ‘I’m
travel-weary; I need sleep.’ ‘Thou lookest like it,’ says the Captain,
‘there’s thy room.’ Jonah enters, and would lock the door, but the lock
contains no key. Hearing him foolishly fumbling there, the Captain
laughs lowly to himself, and mutters something about the doors of
convicts’ cells being never allowed to be locked within. All dressed
and dusty as he is, Jonah throws himself into his berth, and finds the
little state-room ceiling almost resting on his forehead. The air is
close, and Jonah gasps. Then, in that contracted hole, sunk, too,
beneath the ship’s water-line, Jonah feels the heralding presentiment
of that stifling hour, when the whale shall hold him in the smallest of
his bowels’ wards.

“Screwed at its axis against the side, a swinging lamp slightly
oscillates in Jonah’s room; and the ship, heeling over towards the
wharf with the weight of the last bales received, the lamp, flame and
all, though in slight motion, still maintains a permanent obliquity
with reference to the room; though, in truth, infallibly straight
itself, it but made obvious the false, lying levels among which it
hung. The lamp alarms and frightens Jonah; as lying in his berth his
tormented eyes roll round the place, and this thus far successful
fugitive finds no refuge for his restless glance. But that
contradiction in the lamp more and more appals him. The floor, the
ceiling, and the side, are all awry. ‘Oh! so my conscience hangs in
me!’ he groans, ‘straight upwards, so it burns; but the chambers of my
soul are all in crookedness!’

“Like one who after a night of drunken revelry hies to his bed, still
reeling, but with conscience yet pricking him, as the plungings of the
Roman race-horse but so much the more strike his steel tags into him;
as one who in that miserable plight still turns and turns in giddy
anguish, praying God for annihilation until the fit be passed; and at
last amid the whirl of woe he feels, a deep stupor steals over him, as
over the man who bleeds to death, for conscience is the wound, and
there’s naught to staunch it; so, after sore wrestlings in his berth,
Jonah’s prodigy of ponderous misery drags him drowning down to sleep.

“And now the time of tide has come; the ship casts off her cables; and
from the deserted wharf the uncheered ship for Tarshish, all careening,
glides to sea. That ship, my friends, was the first of recorded
smugglers! the contraband was Jonah. But the sea rebels; he will not
bear the wicked burden. A dreadful storm comes on, the ship is like to
break. But now when the boatswain calls all hands to lighten her; when
boxes, bales, and jars are clattering overboard; when the wind is
shrieking, and the men are yelling, and every plank thunders with
trampling feet right over Jonah’s head; in all this raging tumult,
Jonah sleeps his hideous sleep. He sees no black sky and raging sea,
feels not the reeling timbers, and little hears he or heeds he the far
rush of the mighty whale, which even now with open mouth is cleaving
the seas after him. Aye, shipmates, Jonah was gone down into the sides
of the ship—a berth in the cabin as I have taken it, and was fast
asleep. But the frightened master comes to him, and shrieks in his dead
ear, ‘What meanest thou, O, sleeper! arise!’ Startled from his lethargy
by that direful cry, Jonah staggers to his feet, and stumbling to the
deck, grasps a shroud, to look out upon the sea. But at that moment he
is sprung upon by a panther billow leaping over the bulwarks. Wave
after wave thus leaps into the ship, and finding no speedy vent runs
roaring fore and aft, till the mariners come nigh to drowning while yet
afloat. And ever, as the white moon shows her affrighted face from the
steep gullies in the blackness overhead, aghast Jonah sees the rearing
bowsprit pointing high upward, but soon beat downward again towards the
tormented deep.

“Terrors upon terrors run shouting through his soul. In all his
cringing attitudes, the God-fugitive is now too plainly known. The
sailors mark him; more and more certain grow their suspicions of him,
and at last, fully to test the truth, by referring the whole matter to
high Heaven, they fall to casting lots, to see for whose cause this
great tempest was upon them. The lot is Jonah’s; that discovered, then
how furiously they mob him with their questions. ‘What is thine
occupation? Whence comest thou? Thy country? What people? But mark now,
my shipmates, the behavior of poor Jonah. The eager mariners but ask
him who he is, and where from; whereas, they not only receive an answer
to those questions, but likewise another answer to a question not put
by them, but the unsolicited answer is forced from Jonah by the hard
hand of God that is upon him.

“‘I am a Hebrew,’ he cries—and then—‘I fear the Lord the God of Heaven
who hath made the sea and the dry land!’ Fear him, O Jonah? Aye, well
mightest thou fear the Lord God _then!_ Straightway, he now goes on to
make a full confession; whereupon the mariners became more and more
appalled, but still are pitiful. For when Jonah, not yet supplicating
God for mercy, since he but too well knew the darkness of his
deserts,—when wretched Jonah cries out to them to take him and cast him
forth into the sea, for he knew that for _his_ sake this great tempest
was upon them; they mercifully turn from him, and seek by other means
to save the ship. But all in vain; the indignant gale howls louder;
then, with one hand raised invokingly to God, with the other they not
unreluctantly lay hold of Jonah.

“And now behold Jonah taken up as an anchor and dropped into the sea;
when instantly an oily calmness floats out from the east, and the sea
is still, as Jonah carries down the gale with him, leaving smooth water
behind. He goes down in the whirling heart of such a masterless
commotion that he scarce heeds the moment when he drops seething into
the yawning jaws awaiting him; and the whale shoots-to all his ivory
teeth, like so many white bolts, upon his prison. Then Jonah prayed
unto the Lord out of the fish’s belly. But observe his prayer, and
learn a weighty lesson. For sinful as he is, Jonah does not weep and
wail for direct deliverance. He feels that his dreadful punishment is
just. He leaves all his deliverance to God, contenting himself with
this, that spite of all his pains and pangs, he will still look towards
His holy temple. And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance;
not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment. And how pleasing
to God was this conduct in Jonah, is shown in the eventual deliverance
of him from the sea and the whale. Shipmates, I do not place Jonah
before you to be copied for his sin but I do place him before you as a
model for repentance. Sin not; but if you do, take heed to repent of it
like Jonah.”

While he was speaking these words, the howling of the shrieking,
slanting storm without seemed to add new power to the preacher, who,
when describing Jonah’s sea-storm, seemed tossed by a storm himself.
His deep chest heaved as with a ground-swell; his tossed arms seemed
the warring elements at work; and the thunders that rolled away from
off his swarthy brow, and the light leaping from his eye, made all his
simple hearers look on him with a quick fear that was strange to them.

There now came a lull in his look, as he silently turned over the
leaves of the Book once more; and, at last, standing motionless, with
closed eyes, for the moment, seemed communing with God and himself.

But again he leaned over towards the people, and bowing his head lowly,
with an aspect of the deepest yet manliest humility, he spake these
words:

“Shipmates, God has laid but one hand upon you; both his hands press
upon me. I have read ye by what murky light may be mine the lesson that
Jonah teaches to all sinners; and therefore to ye, and still more to
me, for I am a greater sinner than ye. And now how gladly would I come
down from this mast-head and sit on the hatches there where you sit,
and listen as you listen, while some one of you reads _me_ that other
and more awful lesson which Jonah teaches to _me_, as a pilot of the
living God. How being an anointed pilot-prophet, or speaker of true
things, and bidden by the Lord to sound those unwelcome truths in the
ears of a wicked Nineveh, Jonah, appalled at the hostility he should
raise, fled from his mission, and sought to escape his duty and his God
by taking ship at Joppa. But God is everywhere; Tarshish he never
reached. As we have seen, God came upon him in the whale, and swallowed
him down to living gulfs of doom, and with swift slantings tore him
along ‘into the midst of the seas,’ where the eddying depths sucked him
ten thousand fathoms down, and ‘the weeds were wrapped about his head,’
and all the watery world of woe bowled over him. Yet even then beyond
the reach of any plummet—‘out of the belly of hell’—when the whale
grounded upon the ocean’s utmost bones, even then, God heard the
engulphed, repenting prophet when he cried. Then God spake unto the
fish; and from the shuddering cold and blackness of the sea, the whale
came breeching up towards the warm and pleasant sun, and all the
delights of air and earth; and ‘vomited out Jonah upon the dry land;’
when the word of the Lord came a second time; and Jonah, bruised and
beaten—his ears, like two sea-shells, still multitudinously murmuring
of the ocean—Jonah did the Almighty’s bidding. And what was that,
shipmates? To preach the Truth to the face of Falsehood! That was it!

“This, shipmates, this is that other lesson; and woe to that pilot of
the living God who slights it. Woe to him whom this world charms from
Gospel duty! Woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God
has brewed them into a gale! Woe to him who seeks to please rather than
to appal! Woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness! Woe
to him who, in this world, courts not dishonor! Woe to him who would
not be true, even though to be false were salvation! Yea, woe to him
who, as the great Pilot Paul has it, while preaching to others is
himself a castaway!”

He dropped and fell away from himself for a moment; then lifting his
face to them again, showed a deep joy in his eyes, as he cried out with
a heavenly enthusiasm,—“But oh! shipmates! on the starboard hand of
every woe, there is a sure delight; and higher the top of that delight,
than the bottom of the woe is deep. Is not the main-truck higher than
the kelson is low? Delight is to him—a far, far upward, and inward
delight—who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever
stands forth his own inexorable self. Delight is to him whose strong
arms yet support him, when the ship of this base treacherous world has
gone down beneath him. Delight is to him, who gives no quarter in the
truth, and kills, burns, and destroys all sin though he pluck it out
from under the robes of Senators and Judges. Delight,—top-gallant
delight is to him, who acknowledges no law or lord, but the Lord his
God, and is only a patriot to heaven. Delight is to him, whom all the
waves of the billows of the seas of the boisterous mob can never shake
from this sure Keel of the Ages. And eternal delight and deliciousness
will be his, who coming to lay him down, can say with his final
breath—O Father!—chiefly known to me by Thy rod—mortal or immortal,
here I die. I have striven to be Thine, more than to be this world’s,
or mine own. Yet this is nothing: I leave eternity to Thee; for what is
man that he should live out the lifetime of his God?”

He said no more, but slowly waving a benediction, covered his face with
his hands, and so remained kneeling, till all the people had departed,
and he was left alone in the place.


CHAPTER 10. A Bosom Friend.

Returning to the Spouter-Inn from the Chapel, I found Queequeg there
quite alone; he having left the Chapel before the benediction some
time. He was sitting on a bench before the fire, with his feet on the
stove hearth, and in one hand was holding close up to his face that
little negro idol of his; peering hard into its face, and with a
jack-knife gently whittling away at its nose, meanwhile humming to
himself in his heathenish way.

But being now interrupted, he put up the image; and pretty soon, going
to the table, took up a large book there, and placing it on his lap
began counting the pages with deliberate regularity; at every fiftieth
page—as I fancied—stopping a moment, looking vacantly around him, and
giving utterance to a long-drawn gurgling whistle of astonishment. He
would then begin again at the next fifty; seeming to commence at number
one each time, as though he could not count more than fifty, and it was
only by such a large number of fifties being found together, that his
astonishment at the multitude of pages was excited.

With much interest I sat watching him. Savage though he was, and
hideously marred about the face—at least to my taste—his countenance
yet had a something in it which was by no means disagreeable. You
cannot hide the soul. Through all his unearthly tattooings, I thought I
saw the traces of a simple honest heart; and in his large, deep eyes,
fiery black and bold, there seemed tokens of a spirit that would dare a
thousand devils. And besides all this, there was a certain lofty
bearing about the Pagan, which even his uncouthness could not
altogether maim. He looked like a man who had never cringed and never
had had a creditor. Whether it was, too, that his head being shaved,
his forehead was drawn out in freer and brighter relief, and looked
more expansive than it otherwise would, this I will not venture to
decide; but certain it was his head was phrenologically an excellent
one. It may seem ridiculous, but it reminded me of General Washington’s
head, as seen in the popular busts of him. It had the same long
regularly graded retreating slope from above the brows, which were
likewise very projecting, like two long promontories thickly wooded on
top. Queequeg was George Washington cannibalistically developed.

Whilst I was thus closely scanning him, half-pretending meanwhile to be
looking out at the storm from the casement, he never heeded my
presence, never troubled himself with so much as a single glance; but
appeared wholly occupied with counting the pages of the marvellous
book. Considering how sociably we had been sleeping together the night
previous, and especially considering the affectionate arm I had found
thrown over me upon waking in the morning, I thought this indifference
of his very strange. But savages are strange beings; at times you do
not know exactly how to take them. At first they are overawing; their
calm self-collectedness of simplicity seems a Socratic wisdom. I had
noticed also that Queequeg never consorted at all, or but very little,
with the other seamen in the inn. He made no advances whatever;
appeared to have no desire to enlarge the circle of his acquaintances.
All this struck me as mighty singular; yet, upon second thoughts, there
was something almost sublime in it. Here was a man some twenty thousand
miles from home, by the way of Cape Horn, that is—which was the only
way he could get there—thrown among people as strange to him as though
he were in the planet Jupiter; and yet he seemed entirely at his ease;
preserving the utmost serenity; content with his own companionship;
always equal to himself. Surely this was a touch of fine philosophy;
though no doubt he had never heard there was such a thing as that. But,
perhaps, to be true philosophers, we mortals should not be conscious of
so living or so striving. So soon as I hear that such or such a man
gives himself out for a philosopher, I conclude that, like the
dyspeptic old woman, he must have “broken his digester.”

As I sat there in that now lonely room; the fire burning low, in that
mild stage when, after its first intensity has warmed the air, it then
only glows to be looked at; the evening shades and phantoms gathering
round the casements, and peering in upon us silent, solitary twain; the
storm booming without in solemn swells; I began to be sensible of
strange feelings. I felt a melting in me. No more my splintered heart
and maddened hand were turned against the wolfish world. This soothing
savage had redeemed it. There he sat, his very indifference speaking a
nature in which there lurked no civilized hypocrisies and bland
deceits. Wild he was; a very sight of sights to see; yet I began to
feel myself mysteriously drawn towards him. And those same things that
would have repelled most others, they were the very magnets that thus
drew me. I’ll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness
has proved but hollow courtesy. I drew my bench near him, and made some
friendly signs and hints, doing my best to talk with him meanwhile. At
first he little noticed these advances; but presently, upon my
referring to his last night’s hospitalities, he made out to ask me
whether we were again to be bedfellows. I told him yes; whereat I
thought he looked pleased, perhaps a little complimented.

We then turned over the book together, and I endeavored to explain to
him the purpose of the printing, and the meaning of the few pictures
that were in it. Thus I soon engaged his interest; and from that we
went to jabbering the best we could about the various outer sights to
be seen in this famous town. Soon I proposed a social smoke; and,
producing his pouch and tomahawk, he quietly offered me a puff. And
then we sat exchanging puffs from that wild pipe of his, and keeping it
regularly passing between us.

If there yet lurked any ice of indifference towards me in the Pagan’s
breast, this pleasant, genial smoke we had, soon thawed it out, and
left us cronies. He seemed to take to me quite as naturally and
unbiddenly as I to him; and when our smoke was over, he pressed his
forehead against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that
henceforth we were married; meaning, in his country’s phrase, that we
were bosom friends; he would gladly die for me, if need should be. In a
countryman, this sudden flame of friendship would have seemed far too
premature, a thing to be much distrusted; but in this simple savage
those old rules would not apply.

After supper, and another social chat and smoke, we went to our room
together. He made me a present of his embalmed head; took out his
enormous tobacco wallet, and groping under the tobacco, drew out some
thirty dollars in silver; then spreading them on the table, and
mechanically dividing them into two equal portions, pushed one of them
towards me, and said it was mine. I was going to remonstrate; but he
silenced me by pouring them into my trowsers’ pockets. I let them stay.
He then went about his evening prayers, took out his idol, and removed
the paper fireboard. By certain signs and symptoms, I thought he seemed
anxious for me to join him; but well knowing what was to follow, I
deliberated a moment whether, in case he invited me, I would comply or
otherwise.

I was a good Christian; born and bred in the bosom of the infallible
Presbyterian Church. How then could I unite with this wild idolator in
worshipping his piece of wood? But what is worship? thought I. Do you
suppose now, Ishmael, that the magnanimous God of heaven and
earth—pagans and all included—can possibly be jealous of an
insignificant bit of black wood? Impossible! But what is worship?—to do
the will of God—_that_ is worship. And what is the will of God?—to do
to my fellow man what I would have my fellow man to do to me—_that_ is
the will of God. Now, Queequeg is my fellow man. And what do I wish
that this Queequeg would do to me? Why, unite with me in my particular
Presbyterian form of worship. Consequently, I must then unite with him
in his; ergo, I must turn idolator. So I kindled the shavings; helped
prop up the innocent little idol; offered him burnt biscuit with
Queequeg; salamed before him twice or thrice; kissed his nose; and that
done, we undressed and went to bed, at peace with our own consciences
and all the world. But we did not go to sleep without some little chat.

How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential
disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the
very bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often
lie and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our
hearts’ honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg—a cosy, loving pair.


CHAPTER 11. Nightgown.

We had lain thus in bed, chatting and napping at short intervals, and
Queequeg now and then affectionately throwing his brown tattooed legs
over mine, and then drawing them back; so entirely sociable and free
and easy were we; when, at last, by reason of our confabulations, what
little nappishness remained in us altogether departed, and we felt like
getting up again, though day-break was yet some way down the future.

Yes, we became very wakeful; so much so that our recumbent position
began to grow wearisome, and by little and little we found ourselves
sitting up; the clothes well tucked around us, leaning against the
head-board with our four knees drawn up close together, and our two
noses bending over them, as if our kneepans were warming-pans. We felt
very nice and snug, the more so since it was so chilly out of doors;
indeed out of bed-clothes too, seeing that there was no fire in the
room. The more so, I say, because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some
small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world
that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If
you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been
so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more. But
if, like Queequeg and me in the bed, the tip of your nose or the crown
of your head be slightly chilled, why then, indeed, in the general
consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm. For
this reason a sleeping apartment should never be furnished with a fire,
which is one of the luxurious discomforts of the rich. For the height
of this sort of deliciousness is to have nothing but the blanket
between you and your snugness and the cold of the outer air. Then there
you lie like the one warm spark in the heart of an arctic crystal.

We had been sitting in this crouching manner for some time, when all at
once I thought I would open my eyes; for when between sheets, whether
by day or by night, and whether asleep or awake, I have a way of always
keeping my eyes shut, in order the more to concentrate the snugness of
being in bed. Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright
except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper
element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey
part. Upon opening my eyes then, and coming out of my own pleasant and
self-created darkness into the imposed and coarse outer gloom of the
unilluminated twelve-o’clock-at-night, I experienced a disagreeable
revulsion. Nor did I at all object to the hint from Queequeg that
perhaps it were best to strike a light, seeing that we were so wide
awake; and besides he felt a strong desire to have a few quiet puffs
from his Tomahawk. Be it said, that though I had felt such a strong
repugnance to his smoking in the bed the night before, yet see how
elastic our stiff prejudices grow when love once comes to bend them.
For now I liked nothing better than to have Queequeg smoking by me,
even in bed, because he seemed to be full of such serene household joy
then. I no more felt unduly concerned for the landlord’s policy of
insurance. I was only alive to the condensed confidential
comfortableness of sharing a pipe and a blanket with a real friend.
With our shaggy jackets drawn about our shoulders, we now passed the
Tomahawk from one to the other, till slowly there grew over us a blue
hanging tester of smoke, illuminated by the flame of the new-lit lamp.

Whether it was that this undulating tester rolled the savage away to
far distant scenes, I know not, but he now spoke of his native island;
and, eager to hear his history, I begged him to go on and tell it. He
gladly complied. Though at the time I but ill comprehended not a few of
his words, yet subsequent disclosures, when I had become more familiar
with his broken phraseology, now enable me to present the whole story
such as it may prove in the 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 in any map; true places never are.

When a new-hatched savage running wild about his native woodlands in a
grass clout, followed by 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 he boasted aunts who were the wives of
unconquerable warriors. There was excellent blood in his veins—royal
stuff; though sadly vitiated, I fear, by the cannibal propensity he
nourished in his untutored 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 his father’s influence
could prevail. But Queequeg vowed a vow. Alone in his canoe, he paddled
off to a distant strait, which he knew the ship must pass through when
she quitted the island. On one side was a coral reef; on the other a
low tongue of land, covered with mangrove thickets that grew out into
the water. Hiding his canoe, still afloat, among these thickets, with
its prow seaward, he sat down in the stern, paddle low in hand; and
when the ship was gliding by, like a flash he darted out; gained her
side; with one backward dash of his foot capsized and sank his canoe;
climbed up the chains; and throwing himself at full length upon the
deck, grappled a ring-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 naked wrists; Queequeg was the son of a King, and
Queequeg budged not. Struck by his desperate dauntlessness, and his
wild desire to visit Christendom, the captain at last relented, and
told him he might make himself at home. But this fine young savage—this
sea Prince of Wales, never saw the Captain’s cabin. They put him down
among the sailors, and made a whaleman of him. But like Czar Peter
content to toil in the shipyards of foreign cities, Queequeg disdained
no seeming ignominy, if thereby he might happily gain the power of
enlightening his untutored countrymen. For at bottom—so he told me—he
was actuated by a profound desire to learn among the Christians, the
arts whereby to make his people still happier than they were; and more
than that, still better than they were. But, alas! the practices of
whalemen soon convinced him that even Christians could be both
miserable and wicked; infinitely more so, than all his father’s
heathens. Arrived at last in old Sag Harbor; and seeing what the
sailors did there; and then going on to Nantucket, and seeing how they
spent their wages in _that_ place also, poor Queequeg gave it up for
lost. Thought he, it’s a wicked world in all meridians; I’ll die a
pagan.

And thus an old idolator at heart, he yet lived among these Christians,
wore their clothes, and tried to talk their gibberish. Hence the queer
ways about him, though now some time from home.

By hints, I asked him whether he did not propose going back, and having
a coronation; since he might now consider his father dead and gone, he
being very old and feeble at the last accounts. He answered no, not
yet; and added that he was fearful Christianity, or rather Christians,
had unfitted him for ascending the pure and undefiled throne of thirty
pagan Kings before him. But by and by, he said, he would return,—as
soon as he felt himself baptized again. For the nonce, however, he
proposed to sail about, and sow his wild oats in all four oceans. They
had made a harpooneer of him, and that barbed iron was in lieu of a
sceptre now.

I asked him what might be his immediate purpose, touching his future
movements. He answered, to go to sea again, in his old vocation. Upon
this, I told him that whaling was my own design, and informed him of my
intention to sail out of Nantucket, as being the most promising port
for an adventurous whaleman to embark from. He at once resolved to
accompany me to that island, ship aboard the same vessel, get into the
same watch, the same boat, the same mess with me, in short to share my
every hap; with both my hands in his, boldly dip into the Potluck of
both worlds. To all this I joyously assented; for besides the affection
I now felt for Queequeg, he was an experienced harpooneer, and as such,
could not fail to be of great usefulness to one, who, like me, was
wholly ignorant of the mysteries of whaling, though well acquainted
with the sea, as known to merchant seamen.

His story being ended with his pipe’s last dying puff, Queequeg
embraced me, pressed his forehead against mine, and blowing out the
light, we rolled over from each other, this way and that, and very soon
were sleeping.


CHAPTER 13. Wheelbarrow.

Next morning, Monday, after disposing of the embalmed head to a barber,
for a block, I settled my own and comrade’s bill; using, however, my
comrade’s money. The grinning landlord, as well as the boarders, seemed
amazingly tickled at the sudden friendship which had sprung up between
me and Queequeg—especially as Peter Coffin’s cock and bull stories
about him had previously so much alarmed me concerning the very person
whom I now companied with.

We borrowed a wheelbarrow, and embarking our things, including my own
poor carpet-bag, and Queequeg’s canvas sack and hammock, away we went
down to “the Moss,” the little Nantucket packet schooner moored at the
wharf. As we were going along the people stared; not at Queequeg so
much—for they were used to seeing cannibals like him in their
streets,—but at seeing him and me upon such confidential terms. But we
heeded them not, going along wheeling the barrow by turns, and Queequeg
now and then stopping to adjust the sheath on his harpoon barbs. I
asked him why he carried such a troublesome thing with him ashore, and
whether all whaling ships did not find their own harpoons. To this, in
substance, he replied, that though what I hinted was true enough, yet
he had a particular affection for his own harpoon, because it was of
assured stuff, well tried in many a mortal combat, and deeply intimate
with the hearts of whales. In short, like many inland reapers and
mowers, who go into the farmers’ meadows armed with their own
scythes—though in no wise obliged to furnish them—even so, Queequeg,
for his own private reasons, preferred his own harpoon.

Shifting the barrow from my hand to his, he told me a funny story about
the first wheelbarrow he had ever seen. It was in Sag Harbor. The
owners of his ship, it seems, had lent him one, in which to carry his
heavy chest to his boarding house. Not to seem ignorant about the
thing—though in truth he was entirely so, concerning the precise way in
which to manage the barrow—Queequeg puts his chest upon it; lashes it
fast; and then shoulders the barrow and marches up the wharf. “Why,”
said I, “Queequeg, you might have known better than that, one would
think. Didn’t the people laugh?”

Upon this, he told me another story. The people of his island of
Rokovoko, it seems, at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water
of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl; and
this punchbowl always forms the great central ornament on the braided
mat where the feast is held. Now a certain grand merchant ship once
touched at Rokovoko, and its commander—from all accounts, a very
stately punctilious gentleman, at least for a sea captain—this
commander was invited to the wedding feast of Queequeg’s sister, a
pretty young princess just turned of ten. Well; when all the wedding
guests were assembled at the bride’s bamboo cottage, this Captain
marches in, and being assigned the post of honor, placed himself over
against the punchbowl, and between the High Priest and his majesty the
King, Queequeg’s father. Grace being said,—for those people have their
grace as well as we—though Queequeg told me that unlike us, who at such
times look downwards to our platters, they, on the contrary, copying
the ducks, glance upwards to the great Giver of all feasts—Grace, I
say, being said, the High Priest opens the banquet by the immemorial
ceremony of the island; that is, dipping his consecrated and
consecrating fingers into the bowl before the blessed beverage
circulates. Seeing himself placed next the Priest, and noting the
ceremony, and thinking himself—being Captain of a ship—as having plain
precedence over a mere island King, especially in the King’s own
house—the Captain coolly proceeds to wash his hands in the
punchbowl;—taking it I suppose for a huge finger-glass. “Now,” said
Queequeg, “what you tink now?—Didn’t our people laugh?”

At last, passage paid, and luggage safe, we stood on board the
schooner. Hoisting sail, it glided down the Acushnet river. On one
side, New Bedford rose in terraces of streets, their ice-covered trees
all glittering in the clear, cold air. Huge hills and mountains of
casks on casks were piled upon her wharves, and side by side the
world-wandering whale ships lay silent and safely moored at last; while
from others came a sound of carpenters and coopers, with blended noises
of fires and forges to melt the pitch, all betokening that new cruises
were on the start; that one most perilous and long voyage ended, only
begins a second; and a second ended, only begins a third, and so on,
for ever and for aye. Such is the endlessness, yea, the intolerableness
of all earthly effort.

Gaining the more open water, the bracing breeze waxed fresh; the little
Moss tossed the quick foam from her bows, as a young colt his
snortings. How I snuffed that Tartar air!—how I spurned that turnpike
earth!—that common highway all over dented with the marks of slavish
heels and hoofs; and turned me to admire the magnanimity of the sea
which will permit no records.

At the same foam-fountain, Queequeg seemed to drink and reel with me.
His dusky nostrils swelled apart; he showed his filed and pointed
teeth. On, on we flew; and our offing gained, the Moss did homage to
the blast; ducked and dived her bows as a slave before the Sultan.
Sideways leaning, we sideways darted; every ropeyarn tingling like a
wire; the two tall masts buckling like Indian canes in land tornadoes.
So full of this reeling scene were we, as we stood by the plunging
bowsprit, that for some time we did not notice the jeering glances of
the passengers, a lubber-like assembly, who marvelled that two fellow
beings should be so companionable; as though a white man were anything
more dignified than a whitewashed negro. But there were some boobies
and bumpkins there, who, by their intense greenness, must have come
from the heart and centre of all verdure. Queequeg caught one of these
young saplings mimicking him behind his back. I thought the bumpkin’s
hour of doom was come. Dropping his harpoon, the brawny savage caught
him in his arms, and by an almost miraculous dexterity and strength,
sent him high up bodily into the air; then slightly tapping his stern
in mid-somerset, the fellow landed with bursting lungs upon his feet,
while Queequeg, turning his back upon him, lighted his tomahawk pipe
and passed it to me for a puff.

“Capting! Capting!” yelled the bumpkin, running towards that officer;
“Capting, Capting, here’s the devil.”

“Hallo, _you_ sir,” cried the Captain, a gaunt rib of the sea, stalking
up to Queequeg, “what in thunder do you mean by that? Don’t you know
you might have killed that chap?”

“What him say?” said Queequeg, as he mildly turned to me.

“He say,” said I, “that you came near kill-e that man there,” pointing
to the still shivering greenhorn.

“Kill-e,” cried Queequeg, twisting his tattooed face into an unearthly
expression of disdain, “ah! him bevy small-e fish-e; Queequeg no kill-e
so small-e fish-e; Queequeg kill-e big whale!”

“Look you,” roared the Captain, “I’ll kill-e _you_, you cannibal, if
you try any more of your tricks aboard here; so mind your eye.”

But it so happened just then, that it was high time for the Captain to
mind his own eye. The prodigious strain upon the main-sail had parted
the weather-sheet, and the tremendous boom was now flying from side to
side, completely sweeping the entire after part of the deck. The poor
fellow whom Queequeg had handled so roughly, was swept overboard; all
hands were in a panic; and to attempt snatching at the boom to stay it,
seemed madness. It flew from right to left, and back again, almost in
one ticking of a watch, and every instant seemed on the point of
snapping into splinters. Nothing was done, and nothing seemed capable
of being done; those on deck rushed towards the bows, and stood eyeing
the boom as if it were the lower jaw of an exasperated whale. In the
midst of this consternation, Queequeg dropped deftly to his knees, and
crawling under the path of the boom, whipped hold of a rope, secured
one end to the bulwarks, and then flinging the other like a lasso,
caught it round the boom as it swept over his head, and at the next
jerk, the spar was that way trapped, and all was safe. The schooner was
run into the wind, and while the hands were clearing away the stern
boat, Queequeg, stripped to the waist, darted from the side with a long
living arc of a leap. For three minutes or more he was seen swimming
like a dog, throwing his long arms straight out before him, and by
turns revealing his brawny shoulders through the freezing foam. I
looked at the grand and glorious fellow, but saw no one to be saved.
The greenhorn had gone down. Shooting himself perpendicularly from the
water, Queequeg, now took an instant’s glance around him, and seeming
to see just how matters were, dived down and disappeared. A few minutes
more, and he rose again, one arm still striking out, and with the other
dragging a lifeless form. The boat soon picked them up. The poor
bumpkin was restored. All hands voted Queequeg a noble trump; the
captain begged his pardon. From that hour I clove to Queequeg like a
barnacle; yea, till poor Queequeg took his last long dive.

Was there ever such unconsciousness? He did not seem to think that he
at all deserved a medal from the Humane and Magnanimous Societies. He
only asked for water—fresh water—something to wipe the brine off; that
done, he put on dry clothes, lighted his pipe, and leaning against the
bulwarks, and mildly eyeing those around him, seemed to be saying to
himself—“It’s a mutual, joint-stock world, in all meridians. We
cannibals must help these Christians.”


CHAPTER 14. Nantucket.

Nothing more happened on the passage worthy the mentioning; so, after a
fine run, we safely arrived in Nantucket.

Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it. See what a real corner of
the world it occupies; how it stands there, away off shore, more lonely
than the Eddystone lighthouse. Look at it—a mere hillock, and elbow of
sand; all beach, without a background. There is more sand there than
you would use in twenty years as a substitute for blotting paper. Some
gamesome wights will tell you that they have to plant weeds there, they
don’t grow naturally; that they import Canada thistles; that they have
to send beyond seas for a spile to stop a leak in an oil cask; that
pieces of wood in Nantucket are carried about like bits of the true
cross in Rome; that people there plant toadstools before their houses,
to get under the shade in summer time; that one blade of grass makes an
oasis, three blades in a day’s walk a prairie; that they wear quicksand
shoes, something like Laplander snow-shoes; that they are so shut up,
belted about, every way inclosed, surrounded, and made an utter island
of by the ocean, that to their very chairs and tables small clams will
sometimes be found adhering, as to the backs of sea turtles. But these
extravaganzas only show that Nantucket is no Illinois.

Look now at the wondrous traditional story of how this island was
settled by the red-men. Thus goes the legend. In olden times an eagle
swooped down upon the New England coast, and carried off an infant
Indian in his talons. With loud lament the parents saw their child
borne out of sight over the wide waters. They resolved to follow in the
same direction. Setting out in their canoes, after a perilous passage
they discovered the island, and there they found an empty ivory
casket,—the poor little Indian’s skeleton.

What wonder, then, that these Nantucketers, born on a beach, should
take to the sea for a livelihood! They first caught crabs and quohogs
in the sand; grown bolder, they waded out with nets for mackerel; more
experienced, they pushed off in boats and captured cod; and at last,
launching a navy of great ships on the sea, explored this watery world;
put an incessant belt of circumnavigations round it; peeped in at
Behring’s Straits; and in all seasons and all oceans declared
everlasting war with the mightiest animated mass that has survived the
flood; most monstrous and most mountainous! That Himmalehan, salt-sea
Mastodon, clothed with such portentousness of unconscious power, that
his very panics are more to be dreaded than his most fearless and
malicious assaults!

And thus have these naked Nantucketers, these sea hermits, issuing from
their ant-hill in the sea, overrun and conquered the watery world like
so many Alexanders; parcelling out among them the Atlantic, Pacific,
and Indian oceans, as the three pirate powers did Poland. Let America
add Mexico to Texas, and pile Cuba upon Canada; let the English
overswarm all India, and hang out their blazing banner from the sun;
two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer’s. For the sea
is his; he owns it, as Emperors own empires; other seamen having but a
right of way through it. Merchant ships are but extension bridges;
armed ones but floating forts; even pirates and privateers, though
following the sea as highwaymen the road, they but plunder other ships,
other fragments of the land like themselves, without seeking to draw
their living from the bottomless deep itself. The Nantucketer, he alone
resides and riots on the sea; he alone, in Bible language, goes down to
it in ships; to and fro ploughing it as his own special plantation.
_There_ is his home; _there_ lies his business, which a Noah’s flood
would not interrupt, though it overwhelmed all the millions in China.
He lives on the sea, as prairie cocks in the prairie; he hides among
the waves, he climbs them as chamois hunters climb the Alps. For years
he knows not the land; so that when he comes to it at last, it smells
like another world, more strangely than the moon would to an Earthsman.
With the landless gull, that at sunset folds her wings and is rocked to
sleep between billows; so at nightfall, the Nantucketer, out of sight
of land, furls his sails, and lays him to his rest, while under his
very pillow rush herds of walruses and whales.


CHAPTER 15. Chowder.

It was quite late in the evening when the little Moss came snugly to
anchor, and Queequeg and I went ashore; so we could attend to no
business that day, at least none but a supper and a bed. The landlord
of the Spouter-Inn had recommended us to his cousin Hosea Hussey of the
Try Pots, whom he asserted to be the proprietor of one of the best kept
hotels in all Nantucket, and moreover he had assured us that Cousin
Hosea, as he called him, was famous for his chowders. In short, he
plainly hinted that we could not possibly do better than try pot-luck
at the Try Pots. But the directions he had given us about keeping a
yellow warehouse on our starboard hand till we opened a white church to
the larboard, and then keeping that on the larboard hand till we made a
corner three points to the starboard, and that done, then ask the first
man we met where the place was: these crooked directions of his very
much puzzled us at first, especially as, at the outset, Queequeg
insisted that the yellow warehouse—our first point of departure—must be
left on the larboard hand, whereas I had understood Peter Coffin to say
it was on the starboard. However, by dint of beating about a little in
the dark, and now and then knocking up a peaceable inhabitant to
inquire the way, we at last came to something which there was no
mistaking.

Two enormous wooden pots painted black, and suspended by asses’ ears,
swung from the cross-trees of an old top-mast, planted in front of an
old doorway. The horns of the cross-trees were sawed off on the other
side, so that this old top-mast looked not a little like a gallows.
Perhaps I was over sensitive to such impressions at the time, but I
could not help staring at this gallows with a vague misgiving. A sort
of crick was in my neck as I gazed up to the two remaining horns; yes,
_two_ of them, one for Queequeg, and one for me. It’s ominous, thinks
I. A Coffin my Innkeeper upon landing in my first whaling port;
tombstones staring at me in the whalemen’s chapel; and here a gallows!
and a pair of prodigious black pots too! Are these last throwing out
oblique hints touching Tophet?

I was called from these reflections by the sight of a freckled woman
with yellow hair and a yellow gown, standing in the porch of the inn,
under a dull red lamp swinging there, that looked much like an injured
eye, and carrying on a brisk scolding with a man in a purple woollen
shirt.

“Get along with ye,” said she to the man, “or I’ll be combing ye!”

“Come on, Queequeg,” said I, “all right. There’s Mrs. Hussey.”

And so it turned out; Mr. Hosea Hussey being from home, but leaving
Mrs. Hussey entirely competent to attend to all his affairs. Upon
making known our desires for a supper and a bed, Mrs. Hussey,
postponing further scolding for the present, ushered us into a little
room, and seating us at a table spread with the relics of a recently
concluded repast, turned round to us and said—“Clam or Cod?”

“What’s that about Cods, ma’am?” said I, with much politeness.

“Clam or Cod?” she repeated.

“A clam for supper? a cold clam; is _that_ what you mean, Mrs. Hussey?”
says I, “but that’s a rather cold and clammy reception in the winter
time, ain’t it, Mrs. Hussey?”

But being in a great hurry to resume scolding the man in the purple
Shirt, who was waiting for it in the entry, and seeming to hear nothing
but the word “clam,” Mrs. Hussey hurried towards an open door leading
to the kitchen, and bawling out “clam for two,” disappeared.

“Queequeg,” said I, “do you think that we can make out a supper for us
both on one clam?”

However, a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the
apparently cheerless prospect before us. But when that smoking chowder
came in, the mystery was delightfully explained. Oh, sweet friends!
hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than
hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up
into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully
seasoned with pepper and salt. Our appetites being sharpened by the
frosty voyage, and in particular, Queequeg seeing his favourite fishing
food before him, and the chowder being surpassingly excellent, we
despatched it with great expedition: when leaning back a moment and
bethinking me of Mrs. Hussey’s clam and cod announcement, I thought I
would try a little experiment. Stepping to the kitchen door, I uttered
the word “cod” with great emphasis, and resumed my seat. In a few
moments the savoury steam came forth again, but with a different
flavor, and in good time a fine cod-chowder was placed before us.

We resumed business; and while plying our spoons in the bowl, thinks I
to myself, I wonder now if this here has any effect on the head? What’s
that stultifying saying about chowder-headed people? “But look,
Queequeg, ain’t that a live eel in your bowl? Where’s your harpoon?”

Fishiest of all fishy places was the Try Pots, which well deserved its
name; for the pots there were always boiling chowders. Chowder for
breakfast, and chowder for dinner, and chowder for supper, till you
began to look for fish-bones coming through your clothes. The area
before the house was paved with clam-shells. Mrs. Hussey wore a
polished necklace of codfish vertebra; and Hosea Hussey had his account
books bound in superior old shark-skin. There was a fishy flavor to the
milk, too, which I could not at all account for, till one morning
happening to take a stroll along the beach among some fishermen’s
boats, I saw Hosea’s brindled cow feeding on fish remnants, and
marching along the sand with each foot in a cod’s decapitated head,
looking very slip-shod, I assure ye.

Supper concluded, we received a lamp, and directions from Mrs. Hussey
concerning the nearest way to bed; but, as Queequeg was about to
precede me up the stairs, the lady reached forth her arm, and demanded
his harpoon; she allowed no harpoon in her chambers. “Why not?” said I;
“every true whaleman sleeps with his harpoon—but why not?” “Because
it’s dangerous,” says she. “Ever since young Stiggs coming from that
unfort’nt v’y’ge of his, when he was gone four years and a half, with
only three barrels of _ile_, was found dead in my first floor back,
with his harpoon in his side; ever since then I allow no boarders to
take sich dangerous weepons in their rooms at night. So, Mr. Queequeg”
(for she had learned his name), “I will just take this here iron, and
keep it for you till morning. But the chowder; clam or cod to-morrow
for breakfast, men?”

“Both,” says I; “and let’s have a couple of smoked herring by way of
variety.”


CHAPTER 16. The Ship.

In bed we concocted our plans for the morrow. But to my surprise and no
small concern, Queequeg now gave me to understand, that he had been
diligently consulting Yojo—the name of his black little god—and Yojo
had told him two or three times over, and strongly insisted upon it
everyway, that instead of our going together among the whaling-fleet in
harbor, and in concert selecting our craft; instead of this, I say,
Yojo earnestly enjoined that the selection of the ship should rest
wholly with me, inasmuch as Yojo purposed befriending us; and, in order
to do so, had already pitched upon a vessel, which, if left to myself,
I, Ishmael, should infallibly light upon, for all the world as though
it had turned out by chance; and in that vessel I must immediately ship
myself, for the present irrespective of Queequeg.

I have forgotten to mention that, in many things, Queequeg placed great
confidence in the excellence of Yojo’s judgment and surprising forecast
of things; and cherished Yojo with considerable esteem, as a rather
good sort of god, who perhaps meant well enough upon the whole, but in
all cases did not succeed in his benevolent designs.

Now, this plan of Queequeg’s, or rather Yojo’s, touching the selection
of our craft; I did not like that plan at all. I had not a little
relied upon Queequeg’s sagacity to point out the whaler best fitted to
carry us and our fortunes securely. But as all my remonstrances
produced no effect upon Queequeg, I was obliged to acquiesce; and
accordingly prepared to set about this business with a determined
rushing sort of energy and vigor, that should quickly settle that
trifling little affair. Next morning early, leaving Queequeg shut up
with Yojo in our little bedroom—for it seemed that it was some sort of
Lent or Ramadan, or day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer with
Queequeg and Yojo that day; _how_ it was I never could find out, for,
though I applied myself to it several times, I never could master his
liturgies and XXXIX Articles—leaving Queequeg, then, fasting on his
tomahawk pipe, and Yojo warming himself at his sacrificial fire of
shavings, I sallied out among the shipping. After much prolonged
sauntering and many random inquiries, I learnt that there were three
ships up for three-years’ voyages—The Devil-dam, the Tit-bit, and the
Pequod. _Devil-Dam_, I do not know the origin of; _Tit-bit_ is obvious;
_Pequod_, you will no doubt remember, was the name of a celebrated
tribe of Massachusetts Indians; now extinct as the ancient Medes. I
peered and pryed about the Devil-dam; from her, hopped over to the
Tit-bit; and finally, going on board the Pequod, looked around her for
a moment, and then decided that this was the very ship for us.

You may have seen many a quaint craft in your day, for aught I
know;—square-toed luggers; mountainous Japanese junks; butter-box
galliots, and what not; but take my word for it, you never saw such a
rare old craft as this same rare old Pequod. She was a ship of the old
school, rather small if anything; with an old-fashioned claw-footed
look about her. Long seasoned and weather-stained in the typhoons and
calms of all four oceans, her old hull’s complexion was darkened like a
French grenadier’s, who has alike fought in Egypt and Siberia. Her
venerable bows looked bearded. Her masts—cut somewhere on the coast of
Japan, where her original ones were lost overboard in a gale—her masts
stood stiffly up like the spines of the three old kings of Cologne. Her
ancient decks were worn and wrinkled, like the pilgrim-worshipped
flag-stone in Canterbury Cathedral where Becket bled. But to all these
her old antiquities, were added new and marvellous features, pertaining
to the wild business that for more than half a century she had
followed. Old Captain Peleg, many years her chief-mate, before he
commanded another vessel of his own, and now a retired seaman, and one
of the principal owners of the Pequod,—this old Peleg, during the term
of his chief-mateship, had built upon her original grotesqueness, and
inlaid it, all over, with a quaintness both of material and device,
unmatched by anything except it be Thorkill-Hake’s carved buckler or
bedstead. She was apparelled like any barbaric Ethiopian emperor, his
neck heavy with pendants of polished ivory. She was a thing of
trophies. A cannibal of a craft, tricking herself forth in the chased
bones of her enemies. All round, her unpanelled, open bulwarks were
garnished like one continuous jaw, with the long sharp teeth of the
sperm whale, inserted there for pins, to fasten her old hempen thews
and tendons to. Those thews ran not through base blocks of land wood,
but deftly travelled over sheaves of sea-ivory. Scorning a turnstile
wheel at her reverend helm, she sported there a tiller; and that tiller
was in one mass, curiously carved from the long narrow lower jaw of her
hereditary foe. The helmsman who steered by that tiller in a tempest,
felt like the Tartar, when he holds back his fiery steed by clutching
its jaw. A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things
are touched with that.

Now when I looked about the quarter-deck, for some one having
authority, in order to propose myself as a candidate for the voyage, at
first I saw nobody; but I could not well overlook a strange sort of
tent, or rather wigwam, pitched a little behind the main-mast. It
seemed only a temporary erection used in port. It was of a conical
shape, some ten feet high; consisting of the long, huge slabs of limber
black bone taken from the middle and highest part of the jaws of the
right-whale. Planted with their broad ends on the deck, a circle of
these slabs laced together, mutually sloped towards each other, and at
the apex united in a tufted point, where the loose hairy fibres waved
to and fro like the top-knot on some old Pottowottamie Sachem’s head. A
triangular opening faced towards the bows of the ship, so that the
insider commanded a complete view forward.

And half concealed in this queer tenement, I at length found one who by
his aspect seemed to have authority; and who, it being noon, and the
ship’s work suspended, was now enjoying respite from the burden of
command. He was seated on an old-fashioned oaken chair, wriggling all
over with curious carving; and the bottom of which was formed of a
stout interlacing of the same elastic stuff of which the wigwam was
constructed.

There was nothing so very particular, perhaps, about the appearance of
the elderly man I saw; he was brown and brawny, like most old seamen,
and heavily rolled up in blue pilot-cloth, cut in the Quaker style;
only there was a fine and almost microscopic net-work of the minutest
wrinkles interlacing round his eyes, which must have arisen from his
continual sailings in many hard gales, and always looking to
windward;—for this causes the muscles about the eyes to become pursed
together. Such eye-wrinkles are very effectual in a scowl.

“Is this the Captain of the Pequod?” said I, advancing to the door of
the tent.

“Supposing it be the captain of the Pequod, what dost thou want of
him?” he demanded.

“I was thinking of shipping.”

“Thou wast, wast thou? I see thou art no Nantucketer—ever been in a
stove boat?”

“No, Sir, I never have.”

“Dost know nothing at all about whaling, I dare say—eh?

“Nothing, Sir; but I have no doubt I shall soon learn. I’ve been
several voyages in the merchant service, and I think that—”

“Merchant service be damned. Talk not that lingo to me. Dost see that
leg?—I’ll take that leg away from thy stern, if ever thou talkest of
the marchant service to me again. Marchant service indeed! I suppose
now ye feel considerable proud of having served in those marchant
ships. But flukes! man, what makes thee want to go a whaling, eh?—it
looks a little suspicious, don’t it, eh?—Hast not been a pirate, hast
thou?—Didst not rob thy last Captain, didst thou?—Dost not think of
murdering the officers when thou gettest to sea?”

I protested my innocence of these things. I saw that under the mask of
these half humorous innuendoes, this old seaman, as an insulated
Quakerish Nantucketer, was full of his insular prejudices, and rather
distrustful of all aliens, unless they hailed from Cape Cod or the
Vineyard.

“But what takes thee a-whaling? I want to know that before I think of
shipping ye.”

“Well, sir, I want to see what whaling is. I want to see the world.”

“Want to see what whaling is, eh? Have ye clapped eye on Captain Ahab?”

“Who is Captain Ahab, sir?”

“Aye, aye, I thought so. Captain Ahab is the Captain of this ship.”

“I am mistaken then. I thought I was speaking to the Captain himself.”

“Thou art speaking to Captain Peleg—that’s who ye are speaking to,
young man. It belongs to me and Captain Bildad to see the Pequod fitted
out for the voyage, and supplied with all her needs, including crew. We
are part owners and agents. But as I was going to say, if thou wantest
to know what whaling is, as thou tellest ye do, I can put ye in a way
of finding it out before ye bind yourself to it, past backing out. Clap
eye on Captain Ahab, young man, and thou wilt find that he has only one
leg.”

“What do you mean, sir? Was the other one lost by a whale?”

“Lost by a whale! Young man, come nearer to me: it was devoured, chewed
up, crunched by the monstrousest parmacetty that ever chipped a
boat!—ah, ah!”

I was a little alarmed by his energy, perhaps also a little touched at
the hearty grief in his concluding exclamation, but said as calmly as I
could, “What you say is no doubt true enough, sir; but how could I know
there was any peculiar ferocity in that particular whale, though indeed
I might have inferred as much from the simple fact of the accident.”

“Look ye now, young man, thy lungs are a sort of soft, d’ye see; thou
dost not talk shark a bit. _Sure_, ye’ve been to sea before now; sure
of that?”

“Sir,” said I, “I thought I told you that I had been four voyages in
the merchant—”

“Hard down out of that! Mind what I said about the marchant
service—don’t aggravate me—I won’t have it. But let us understand each
other. I have given thee a hint about what whaling is; do ye yet feel
inclined for it?”

“I do, sir.”

“Very good. Now, art thou the man to pitch a harpoon down a live
whale’s throat, and then jump after it? Answer, quick!”

“I am, sir, if it should be positively indispensable to do so; not to
be got rid of, that is; which I don’t take to be the fact.”

“Good again. Now then, thou not only wantest to go a-whaling, to find
out by experience what whaling is, but ye also want to go in order to
see the world? Was not that what ye said? I thought so. Well then, just
step forward there, and take a peep over the weather-bow, and then back
to me and tell me what ye see there.”

For a moment I stood a little puzzled by this curious request, not
knowing exactly how to take it, whether humorously or in earnest. But
concentrating all his crow’s feet into one scowl, Captain Peleg started
me on the errand.

Going forward and glancing over the weather bow, I perceived that the
ship swinging to her anchor with the flood-tide, was now obliquely
pointing towards the open ocean. The prospect was unlimited, but
exceedingly monotonous and forbidding; not the slightest variety that I
could see.

“Well, what’s the report?” said Peleg when I came back; “what did ye
see?”

“Not much,” I replied—“nothing but water; considerable horizon though,
and there’s a squall coming up, I think.”

“Well, what does thou think then of seeing the world? Do ye wish to go
round Cape Horn to see any more of it, eh? Can’t ye see the world where
you stand?”

I was a little staggered, but go a-whaling I must, and I would; and the
Pequod was as good a ship as any—I thought the best—and all this I now
repeated to Peleg. Seeing me so determined, he expressed his
willingness to ship me.

“And thou mayest as well sign the papers right off,” he added—“come
along with ye.” And so saying, he led the way below deck into the
cabin.

Seated on the transom was what seemed to me a most uncommon and
surprising figure. It turned out to be Captain Bildad, who along with
Captain Peleg was one of the largest owners of the vessel; the other
shares, as is sometimes the case in these ports, being held by a crowd
of old annuitants; widows, fatherless children, and chancery wards;
each owning about the value of a timber head, or a foot of plank, or a
nail or two in the ship. People in Nantucket invest their money in
whaling vessels, the same way that you do yours in approved state
stocks bringing in good interest.

Now, Bildad, like Peleg, and indeed many other Nantucketers, was a
Quaker, the island having been originally settled by that sect; and to
this day its inhabitants in general retain in an uncommon measure the
peculiarities of the Quaker, only variously and anomalously modified by
things altogether alien and heterogeneous. For some of these same
Quakers are the most sanguinary of all sailors and whale-hunters. They
are fighting Quakers; they are Quakers with a vengeance.

So that there are instances among them of men, who, named with
Scripture names—a singularly common fashion on the island—and in
childhood naturally imbibing the stately dramatic thee and thou of the
Quaker idiom; still, from the audacious, daring, and boundless
adventure of their subsequent lives, strangely blend with these
unoutgrown peculiarities, a thousand bold dashes of character, not
unworthy a Scandinavian sea-king, or a poetical Pagan Roman. And when
these things unite in a man of greatly superior natural force, with a
globular brain and a ponderous heart; who has also by the stillness and
seclusion of many long night-watches in the remotest waters, and
beneath constellations never seen here at the north, been led to think
untraditionally and independently; receiving all nature’s sweet or
savage impressions fresh from her own virgin voluntary and confiding
breast, and thereby chiefly, but with some help from accidental
advantages, to learn a bold and nervous lofty language—that man makes
one in a whole nation’s census—a mighty pageant creature, formed for
noble tragedies. Nor will it at all detract from him, dramatically
regarded, if either by birth or other circumstances, he have what seems
a half wilful overruling morbidness at the bottom of his nature. For
all men tragically great are made so through a certain morbidness. Be
sure of this, O young ambition, all mortal greatness is but disease.
But, as yet we have not to do with such an one, but with quite another;
and still a man, who, if indeed peculiar, it only results again from
another phase of the Quaker, modified by individual circumstances.

Like Captain Peleg, Captain Bildad was a well-to-do, retired whaleman.
But unlike Captain Peleg—who cared not a rush for what are called
serious things, and indeed deemed those self-same serious things the
veriest of all trifles—Captain Bildad had not only been originally
educated according to the strictest sect of Nantucket Quakerism, but
all his subsequent ocean life, and the sight of many unclad, lovely
island creatures, round the Horn—all that had not moved this native
born Quaker one single jot, had not so much as altered one angle of his
vest. Still, for all this immutableness, was there some lack of common
consistency about worthy Captain Bildad. Though refusing, from
conscientious scruples, to bear arms against land invaders, yet himself
had illimitably invaded the Atlantic and Pacific; and though a sworn
foe to human bloodshed, yet had he in his straight-bodied coat, spilled
tuns upon tuns of leviathan gore. How now in the contemplative evening
of his days, the pious Bildad reconciled these things in the
reminiscence, I do not know; but it did not seem to concern him much,
and very probably he had long since come to the sage and sensible
conclusion that a man’s religion is one thing, and this practical world
quite another. This world pays dividends. Rising from a little
cabin-boy in short clothes of the drabbest drab, to a harpooneer in a
broad shad-bellied waistcoat; from that becoming boat-header,
chief-mate, and captain, and finally a ship owner; Bildad, as I hinted
before, had concluded his adventurous career by wholly retiring from
active life at the goodly age of sixty, and dedicating his remaining
days to the quiet receiving of his well-earned income.

Now, Bildad, I am sorry to say, had the reputation of being an
incorrigible old hunks, and in his sea-going days, a bitter, hard
task-master. They told me in Nantucket, though it certainly seems a
curious story, that when he sailed the old Categut whaleman, his crew,
upon arriving home, were mostly all carried ashore to the hospital,
sore exhausted and worn out. For a pious man, especially for a Quaker,
he was certainly rather hard-hearted, to say the least. He never used
to swear, though, at his men, they said; but somehow he got an
inordinate quantity of cruel, unmitigated hard work out of them. When
Bildad was a chief-mate, to have his drab-coloured eye intently looking
at you, made you feel completely nervous, till you could clutch
something—a hammer or a marling-spike, and go to work like mad, at
something or other, never mind what. Indolence and idleness perished
before him. His own person was the exact embodiment of his utilitarian
character. On his long, gaunt body, he carried no spare flesh, no
superfluous beard, his chin having a soft, economical nap to it, like
the worn nap of his broad-brimmed hat.

Such, then, was the person that I saw seated on the transom when I
followed Captain Peleg down into the cabin. The space between the decks
was small; and there, bolt-upright, sat old Bildad, who always sat so,
and never leaned, and this to save his coat tails. His broad-brim was
placed beside him; his legs were stiffly crossed; his drab vesture was
buttoned up to his chin; and spectacles on nose, he seemed absorbed in
reading from a ponderous volume.

“Bildad,” cried Captain Peleg, “at it again, Bildad, eh? Ye have been
studying those Scriptures, now, for the last thirty years, to my
certain knowledge. How far ye got, Bildad?”

As if long habituated to such profane talk from his old shipmate,
Bildad, without noticing his present irreverence, quietly looked up,
and seeing me, glanced again inquiringly towards Peleg.

“He says he’s our man, Bildad,” said Peleg, “he wants to ship.”

“Dost thee?” said Bildad, in a hollow tone, and turning round to me.

“I _dost_,” said I unconsciously, he was so intense a Quaker.

“What do ye think of him, Bildad?” said Peleg.

“He’ll do,” said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on spelling away at
his book in a mumbling tone quite audible.

I thought him the queerest old Quaker I ever saw, especially as Peleg,
his friend and old shipmate, seemed such a blusterer. But I said
nothing, only looking round me sharply. Peleg now threw open a chest,
and drawing forth the ship’s articles, placed pen and ink before him,
and seated himself at a little table. I began to think it was high time
to settle with myself at what terms I would be willing to engage for
the voyage. I was already aware that in the whaling business they paid
no wages; but all hands, including the captain, received certain shares
of the profits called _lays_, and that these lays were proportioned to
the degree of importance pertaining to the respective duties of the
ship’s company. I was also aware that being a green hand at whaling, my
own lay would not be very large; but considering that I was used to the
sea, could steer a ship, splice a rope, and all that, I made no doubt
that from all I had heard I should be offered at least the 275th
lay—that is, the 275th part of the clear net proceeds of the voyage,
whatever that might eventually amount to. And though the 275th lay was
what they call a rather _long lay_, yet it was better than nothing; and
if we had a lucky voyage, might pretty nearly pay for the clothing I
would wear out on it, not to speak of my three years’ beef and board,
for which I would not have to pay one stiver.

It might be thought that this was a poor way to accumulate a princely
fortune—and so it was, a very poor way indeed. But I am one of those
that never take on about princely fortunes, and am quite content if the
world is ready to board and lodge me, while I am putting up at this
grim sign of the Thunder Cloud. Upon the whole, I thought that the
275th lay would be about the fair thing, but would not have been
surprised had I been offered the 200th, considering I was of a
broad-shouldered make.

But one thing, nevertheless, that made me a little distrustful about
receiving a generous share of the profits was this: Ashore, I had heard
something of both Captain Peleg and his unaccountable old crony Bildad;
how that they being the principal proprietors of the Pequod, therefore
the other and more inconsiderable and scattered owners, left nearly the
whole management of the ship’s affairs to these two. And I did not know
but what the stingy old Bildad might have a mighty deal to say about
shipping hands, especially as I now found him on board the Pequod,
quite at home there in the cabin, and reading his Bible as if at his
own fireside. Now while Peleg was vainly trying to mend a pen with his
jack-knife, old Bildad, to my no small surprise, considering that he
was such an interested party in these proceedings; Bildad never heeded
us, but went on mumbling to himself out of his book, “_Lay_ not up for
yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth—”

“Well, Captain Bildad,” interrupted Peleg, “what d’ye say, what lay
shall we give this young man?”

“Thou knowest best,” was the sepulchral reply, “the seven hundred and
seventy-seventh wouldn’t be too much, would it?—‘where moth and rust do
corrupt, but _lay_—’”

_Lay_, indeed, thought I, and such a lay! the seven hundred and
seventy-seventh! Well, old Bildad, you are determined that I, for one,
shall not _lay_ up many _lays_ here below, where moth and rust do
corrupt. It was an exceedingly _long lay_ that, indeed; and though from
the magnitude of the figure it might at first deceive a landsman, yet
the slightest consideration will show that though seven hundred and
seventy-seven is a pretty large number, yet, when you come to make a
_teenth_ of it, you will then see, I say, that the seven hundred and
seventy-seventh part of a farthing is a good deal less than seven
hundred and seventy-seven gold doubloons; and so I thought at the time.

“Why, blast your eyes, Bildad,” cried Peleg, “thou dost not want to
swindle this young man! he must have more than that.”

“Seven hundred and seventy-seventh,” again said Bildad, without lifting
his eyes; and then went on mumbling—“for where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also.”

“I am going to put him down for the three hundredth,” said Peleg, “do
ye hear that, Bildad! The three hundredth lay, I say.”

Bildad laid down his book, and turning solemnly towards him said,
“Captain Peleg, thou hast a generous heart; but thou must consider the
duty thou owest to the other owners of this ship—widows and orphans,
many of them—and that if we too abundantly reward the labors of this
young man, we may be taking the bread from those widows and those
orphans. The seven hundred and seventy-seventh lay, Captain Peleg.”

“Thou Bildad!” roared Peleg, starting up and clattering about the
cabin. “Blast ye, Captain Bildad, if I had followed thy advice in these
matters, I would afore now had a conscience to lug about that would be
heavy enough to founder the largest ship that ever sailed round Cape
Horn.”

“Captain Peleg,” said Bildad steadily, “thy conscience may be drawing
ten inches of water, or ten fathoms, I can’t tell; but as thou art
still an impenitent man, Captain Peleg, I greatly fear lest thy
conscience be but a leaky one; and will in the end sink thee foundering
down to the fiery pit, Captain Peleg.”

“Fiery pit! fiery pit! ye insult me, man; past all natural bearing, ye
insult me. It’s an all-fired outrage to tell any human creature that
he’s bound to hell. Flukes and flames! Bildad, say that again to me,
and start my soul-bolts, but I’ll—I’ll—yes, I’ll swallow a live goat
with all his hair and horns on. Out of the cabin, ye canting,
drab-coloured son of a wooden gun—a straight wake with ye!”

As he thundered out this he made a rush at Bildad, but with a
marvellous oblique, sliding celerity, Bildad for that time eluded him.

Alarmed at this terrible outburst between the two principal and
responsible owners of the ship, and feeling half a mind to give up all
idea of sailing in a vessel so questionably owned and temporarily
commanded, I stepped aside from the door to give egress to Bildad, who,
I made no doubt, was all eagerness to vanish from before the awakened
wrath of Peleg. But to my astonishment, he sat down again on the
transom very quietly, and seemed to have not the slightest intention of
withdrawing. He seemed quite used to impenitent Peleg and his ways. As
for Peleg, after letting off his rage as he had, there seemed no more
left in him, and he, too, sat down like a lamb, though he twitched a
little as if still nervously agitated. “Whew!” he whistled at last—“the
squall’s gone off to leeward, I think. Bildad, thou used to be good at
sharpening a lance, mend that pen, will ye. My jack-knife here needs
the grindstone. That’s he; thank ye, Bildad. Now then, my young man,
Ishmael’s thy name, didn’t ye say? Well then, down ye go here, Ishmael,
for the three hundredth lay.”

“Captain Peleg,” said I, “I have a friend with me who wants to ship
too—shall I bring him down to-morrow?”

“To be sure,” said Peleg. “Fetch him along, and we’ll look at him.”

“What lay does he want?” groaned Bildad, glancing up from the book in
which he had again been burying himself.

“Oh! never thee mind about that, Bildad,” said Peleg. “Has he ever
whaled it any?” turning to me.

“Killed more whales than I can count, Captain Peleg.”

“Well, bring him along then.”

And, after signing the papers, off I went; nothing doubting but that I
had done a good morning’s work, and that the Pequod was the identical
ship that Yojo had provided to carry Queequeg and me round the Cape.

But I had not proceeded far, when I began to bethink me that the
Captain with whom I was to sail yet remained unseen by me; though,
indeed, in many cases, a whale-ship will be completely fitted out, and
receive all her crew on board, ere the captain makes himself visible by
arriving to take command; for sometimes these voyages are so prolonged,
and the shore intervals at home so exceedingly brief, that if the
captain have a family, or any absorbing concernment of that sort, he
does not trouble himself much about his ship in port, but leaves her to
the owners till all is ready for sea. However, it is always as well to
have a look at him before irrevocably committing yourself into his
hands. Turning back I accosted Captain Peleg, inquiring where Captain
Ahab was to be found.

“And what dost thou want of Captain Ahab? It’s all right enough; thou
art shipped.”

“Yes, but I should like to see him.”

“But I don’t think thou wilt be able to at present. I don’t know
exactly what’s the matter with him; but he keeps close inside the
house; a sort of sick, and yet he don’t look so. In fact, he ain’t
sick; but no, he isn’t well either. Any how, young man, he won’t always
see me, so I don’t suppose he will thee. He’s a queer man, Captain
Ahab—so some think—but a good one. Oh, thou’lt like him well enough; no
fear, no fear. He’s a grand, ungodly, god-like man, Captain Ahab;
doesn’t speak much; but, when he does speak, then you may well listen.
Mark ye, be forewarned; Ahab’s above the common; Ahab’s been in
colleges, as well as ’mong the cannibals; been used to deeper wonders
than the waves; fixed his fiery lance in mightier, stranger foes than
whales. His lance! aye, the keenest and the surest that out of all our
isle! Oh! he ain’t Captain Bildad; no, and he ain’t Captain Peleg;
_he’s Ahab_, boy; and Ahab of old, thou knowest, was a crowned king!”

“And a very vile one. When that wicked king was slain, the dogs, did
they not lick his blood?”

“Come hither to me—hither, hither,” said Peleg, with a significance in
his eye that almost startled me. “Look ye, lad; never say that on board
the Pequod. Never say it anywhere. Captain Ahab did not name himself.
’Twas a foolish, ignorant whim of his crazy, widowed mother, who died
when he was only a twelvemonth old. And yet the old squaw Tistig, at
Gayhead, said that the name would somehow prove prophetic. And,
perhaps, other fools like her may tell thee the same. I wish to warn
thee. It’s a lie. I know Captain Ahab well; I’ve sailed with him as
mate years ago; I know what he is—a good man—not a pious, good man,
like Bildad, but a swearing good man—something like me—only there’s a
good deal more of him. Aye, aye, I know that he was never very jolly;
and I know that on the passage home, he was a little out of his mind
for a spell; but it was the sharp shooting pains in his bleeding stump
that brought that about, as any one might see. I know, too, that ever
since he lost his leg last voyage by that accursed whale, he’s been a
kind of moody—desperate moody, and savage sometimes; but that will all
pass off. And once for all, let me tell thee and assure thee, young
man, it’s better to sail with a moody good captain than a laughing bad
one. So good-bye to thee—and wrong not Captain Ahab, because he happens
to have a wicked name. Besides, my boy, he has a wife—not three voyages
wedded—a sweet, resigned girl. Think of that; by that sweet girl that
old man has a child: hold ye then there can be any utter, hopeless harm
in Ahab? No, no, my lad; stricken, blasted, if he be, Ahab has his
humanities!”

As I walked away, I was full of thoughtfulness; what had been
incidentally revealed to me of Captain Ahab, filled me with a certain
wild vagueness of painfulness concerning him. And somehow, at the time,
I felt a sympathy and a sorrow for him, but for I don’t know what,
unless it was the cruel loss of his leg. And yet I also felt a strange
awe of him; but that sort of awe, which I cannot at all describe, was
not exactly awe; I do not know what it was. But I felt it; and it did
not disincline me towards him; though I felt impatience at what seemed
like mystery in him, so imperfectly as he was known to me then.
However, my thoughts were at length carried in other directions, so
that for the present dark Ahab slipped my mind.


CHAPTER 17. 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 chamber-maid. “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 don’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
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.


CHAPTER 18. His Mark.

As we were walking down the end of the wharf towards the ship, Queequeg
carrying his harpoon, Captain Peleg in his gruff voice loudly hailed us
from his wigwam, saying he had not suspected my friend was a cannibal,
and furthermore announcing that he let no cannibals on board that
craft, unless they previously produced their papers.

“What do you mean by that, Captain Peleg?” said I, now jumping on the
bulwarks, and leaving my comrade standing on the wharf.

“I mean,” he replied, “he must show his papers.”

“Yes,” said Captain Bildad in his hollow voice, sticking his head from
behind Peleg’s, out of the wigwam. “He must show that he’s converted.
Son of darkness,” he added, turning to Queequeg, “art thou at present
in communion with any Christian church?”

“Why,” said I, “he’s a member of the first Congregational Church.” Here
be it said, that many tattooed savages sailing in Nantucket ships at
last come to be converted into the churches.

“First Congregational Church,” cried Bildad, “what! that worships in
Deacon Deuteronomy Coleman’s meeting-house?” and so saying, taking out
his spectacles, he rubbed them with his great yellow bandana
handkerchief, and putting them on very carefully, came out of the
wigwam, and leaning stiffly over the bulwarks, took a good long look at
Queequeg.

“How long hath he been a member?” he then said, turning to me; “not
very long, I rather guess, young man.”

“No,” said Peleg, “and he hasn’t been baptized right either, or it
would have washed some of that devil’s blue off his face.”

“Do tell, now,” cried Bildad, “is this Philistine a regular member of
Deacon Deuteronomy’s meeting? I never saw him going there, and I pass
it every Lord’s day.”

“I don’t know anything about Deacon Deuteronomy or his meeting,” said
I; “all I know is, that Queequeg here is a born member of the First
Congregational Church. He is a deacon himself, Queequeg is.”

“Young man,” said Bildad sternly, “thou art skylarking with me—explain
thyself, thou young Hittite. What church dost thee mean? answer me.”

Finding myself thus hard pushed, I replied. “I mean, sir, the same
ancient Catholic Church to which you and I, and Captain Peleg there,
and Queequeg here, and all of us, and every mother’s son and soul of us
belong; the great and everlasting First Congregation of this whole
worshipping world; we all belong to that; only some of us cherish some
queer crotchets no ways touching the grand belief; in _that_ we all
join hands.”

“Splice, thou mean’st _splice_ hands,” cried Peleg, drawing nearer.
“Young man, you’d better ship for a missionary, instead of a fore-mast
hand; I never heard a better sermon. Deacon Deuteronomy—why Father
Mapple himself couldn’t beat it, and he’s reckoned something. Come
aboard, come aboard; never mind about the papers. I say, tell Quohog
there—what’s that you call him? tell Quohog to step along. By the great
anchor, what a harpoon he’s got there! looks like good stuff that; and
he handles it about right. I say, Quohog, or whatever your name is, did
you ever stand in the head of a whale-boat? did you ever strike a
fish?”

Without saying a word, Queequeg, in his wild sort of way, jumped upon
the bulwarks, from thence into the bows of one of the whale-boats
hanging to the side; and then bracing his left knee, and poising his
harpoon, cried out in some such way as this:—

“Cap’ain, you see him small drop tar on water dere? You see him? well,
spose him one whale eye, well, den!” and taking sharp aim at it, he
darted the iron right over old Bildad’s broad brim, clean across the
ship’s decks, and struck the glistening tar spot out of sight.

“Now,” said Queequeg, quietly hauling in the line, “spos-ee him whale-e
eye; why, dad whale dead.”

“Quick, Bildad,” said Peleg, his partner, who, aghast at the close
vicinity of the flying harpoon, had retreated towards the cabin
gangway. “Quick, I say, you Bildad, and get the ship’s papers. We must
have Hedgehog there, I mean Quohog, in one of our boats. Look ye,
Quohog, we’ll give ye the ninetieth lay, and that’s more than ever was
given a harpooneer yet out of Nantucket.”

So down we went into the cabin, and to my great joy Queequeg was soon
enrolled among the same ship’s company to which I myself belonged.

When all preliminaries were over and Peleg had got everything ready for
signing, he turned to me and said, “I guess, Quohog there don’t know
how to write, does he? I say, Quohog, blast ye! dost thou sign thy name
or make thy mark?”

But at this question, Queequeg, who had twice or thrice before taken
part in similar ceremonies, looked no ways abashed; but taking the
offered pen, copied upon the paper, in the proper place, an exact
counterpart of a queer round figure which was tattooed upon his arm; so
that through Captain Peleg’s obstinate mistake touching his
appellative, it stood something like this:—

Quohog. his X mark.

Meanwhile Captain Bildad sat earnestly and steadfastly eyeing Queequeg,
and at last rising solemnly and fumbling in the huge pockets of his
broad-skirted drab coat, took out a bundle of tracts, and selecting one
entitled “The Latter Day Coming; or No Time to Lose,” placed it in
Queequeg’s hands, and then grasping them and the book with both his,
looked earnestly into his eyes, and said, “Son of darkness, I must do
my duty by thee; I am part owner of this ship, and feel concerned for
the souls of all its crew; if thou still clingest to thy Pagan ways,
which I sadly fear, I beseech thee, remain not for aye a Belial
bondsman. Spurn the idol Bell, and the hideous dragon; turn from the
wrath to come; mind thine eye, I say; oh! goodness gracious! steer
clear of the fiery pit!”

Something of the salt sea yet lingered in old Bildad’s language,
heterogeneously mixed with Scriptural and domestic phrases.

“Avast there, avast there, Bildad, avast now spoiling our harpooneer,”
cried Peleg. “Pious harpooneers never make good voyagers—it takes the
shark out of ’em; no harpooneer is worth a straw who aint pretty
sharkish. There was young Nat Swaine, once the bravest boat-header out
of all Nantucket and the Vineyard; he joined the meeting, and never
came to good. He got so frightened about his plaguy soul, that he
shrinked and sheered away from whales, for fear of after-claps, in case
he got stove and went to Davy Jones.”

“Peleg! Peleg!” said Bildad, lifting his eyes and hands, “thou thyself,
as I myself, hast seen many a perilous time; thou knowest, Peleg, what
it is to have the fear of death; how, then, can’st thou prate in this
ungodly guise. Thou beliest thine own heart, Peleg. Tell me, when this
same Pequod here had her three masts overboard in that typhoon on
Japan, that same voyage when thou went mate with Captain Ahab, did’st
thou not think of Death and the Judgment then?”

“Hear him, hear him now,” cried Peleg, marching across the cabin, and
thrusting his hands far down into his pockets,—“hear him, all of ye.
Think of that! When every moment we thought the ship would sink! Death
and the Judgment then? What? With all three masts making such an
everlasting thundering against the side; and every sea breaking over
us, fore and aft. Think of Death and the Judgment then? No! no time to
think about Death then. Life was what Captain Ahab and I was thinking
of; and how to save all hands—how to rig jury-masts—how to get into the
nearest port; that was what I was thinking of.”

Bildad said no more, but buttoning up his coat, stalked on deck, where
we followed him. There he stood, very quietly overlooking some
sailmakers who were mending a top-sail in the waist. Now and then he
stooped to pick up a patch, or save an end of tarred twine, which
otherwise might have been wasted.


CHAPTER 19. The Prophet.

“Shipmates, have ye shipped in that ship?”

Queequeg and I had just left the Pequod, and were sauntering away from
the water, for the moment each occupied with his own thoughts, when the
above words were put to us by a stranger, who, pausing before us,
levelled his massive forefinger at the vessel in question. He was but
shabbily apparelled in faded jacket and patched trowsers; a rag of a
black handkerchief investing his neck. A confluent small-pox had in all
directions flowed over his face, and left it like the complicated
ribbed bed of a torrent, when the rushing waters have been dried up.

“Have ye shipped in her?” he repeated.

“You mean the ship Pequod, I suppose,” said I, trying to gain a little
more time for an uninterrupted look at him.

“Aye, the Pequod—that ship there,” he said, drawing back his whole arm,
and then rapidly shoving it straight out from him, with the fixed
bayonet of his pointed finger darted full at the object.

“Yes,” said I, “we have just signed the articles.”

“Anything down there about your souls?”

“About what?”

“Oh, perhaps you hav’n’t got any,” he said quickly. “No matter though,
I know many chaps that hav’n’t got any,—good luck to ’em; and they are
all the better off for it. A soul’s a sort of a fifth wheel to a
wagon.”

“What are you jabbering about, shipmate?” said I.

“_He’s_ got enough, though, to make up for all deficiencies of that
sort in other chaps,” abruptly said the stranger, placing a nervous
emphasis upon the word _he_.

“Queequeg,” said I, “let’s go; this fellow has broken loose from
somewhere; he’s talking about something and somebody we don’t know.”

“Stop!” cried the stranger. “Ye said true—ye hav’n’t seen Old Thunder
yet, have ye?”

“Who’s Old Thunder?” said I, again riveted with the insane earnestness
of his manner.

“Captain Ahab.”

“What! the captain of our ship, the Pequod?”

“Aye, among some of us old sailor chaps, he goes by that name. Ye
hav’n’t seen him yet, have ye?”

“No, we hav’n’t. He’s sick they say, but is getting better, and will be
all right again before long.”

“All right again before long!” laughed the stranger, with a solemnly
derisive sort of laugh. “Look ye; when Captain Ahab is all right, then
this left arm of mine will be all right; not before.”

“What do you know about him?”

“What did they _tell_ you about him? Say that!”

“They didn’t tell much of anything about him; only I’ve heard that he’s
a good whale-hunter, and a good captain to his crew.”

“That’s true, that’s true—yes, both true enough. But you must jump when
he gives an order. Step and growl; growl and go—that’s the word with
Captain Ahab. But nothing about that thing that happened to him off
Cape Horn, long ago, when he lay like dead for three days and nights;
nothing about that deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar
in Santa?—heard nothing about that, eh? Nothing about the silver
calabash he spat into? And nothing about his losing his leg last
voyage, according to the prophecy. Didn’t ye hear a word about them
matters and something more, eh? No, I don’t think ye did; how could ye?
Who knows it? Not all Nantucket, I guess. But hows’ever, mayhap, ye’ve
heard tell about the leg, and how he lost it; aye, ye have heard of
that, I dare say. Oh yes, _that_ every one knows a’most—I mean they
know he’s only one leg; and that a parmacetti took the other off.”

“My friend,” said I, “what all this gibberish of yours is about, I
don’t know, and I don’t much care; for it seems to me that you must be
a little damaged in the head. But if you are speaking of Captain Ahab,
of that ship there, the Pequod, then let me tell you, that I know all
about the loss of his leg.”

“_All_ about it, eh—sure you do?—all?”

“Pretty sure.”

With finger pointed and eye levelled at the Pequod, the beggar-like
stranger stood a moment, as if in a troubled reverie; then starting a
little, turned and said:—“Ye’ve shipped, have ye? Names down on the
papers? Well, well, what’s signed, is signed; and what’s to be, will
be; and then again, perhaps it won’t be, after all. Anyhow, it’s all
fixed and arranged a’ready; and some sailors or other must go with him,
I suppose; as well these as any other men, God pity ’em! Morning to ye,
shipmates, morning; the ineffable heavens bless ye; I’m sorry I stopped
ye.”

“Look here, friend,” said I, “if you have anything important to tell
us, out with it; but if you are only trying to bamboozle us, you are
mistaken in your game; that’s all I have to say.”

“And it’s said very well, and I like to hear a chap talk up that way;
you are just the man for him—the likes of ye. Morning to ye, shipmates,
morning! Oh! when ye get there, tell ’em I’ve concluded not to make one
of ’em.”

“Ah, my dear fellow, you can’t fool us that way—you can’t fool us. It
is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a
great secret in him.”

“Morning to ye, shipmates, morning.”

“Morning it is,” said I. “Come along, Queequeg, let’s leave this crazy
man. But stop, tell me your name, will you?”

“Elijah.”

Elijah! thought I, and we walked away, both commenting, after each
other’s fashion, upon this ragged old sailor; and agreed that he was
nothing but a humbug, trying to be a bugbear. But we had not gone
perhaps above a hundred yards, when chancing to turn a corner, and
looking back as I did so, who should be seen but Elijah following us,
though at a distance. Somehow, the sight of him struck me so, that I
said nothing to Queequeg of his being behind, but passed on with my
comrade, anxious to see whether the stranger would turn the same corner
that we did. He did; and then it seemed to me that he was dogging us,
but with what intent I could not for the life of me imagine. This
circumstance, coupled with his ambiguous, half-hinting, half-revealing,
shrouded sort of talk, now begat in me all kinds of vague wonderments
and half-apprehensions, and all connected with the Pequod; and Captain
Ahab; and the leg he had lost; and the Cape Horn fit; and the silver
calabash; and what Captain Peleg had said of him, when I left the ship
the day previous; and the prediction of the squaw Tistig; and the
voyage we had bound ourselves to sail; and a hundred other shadowy
things.

I was resolved to satisfy myself whether this ragged Elijah was really
dogging us or not, and with that intent crossed the way with Queequeg,
and on that side of it retraced our steps. But Elijah passed on,
without seeming to notice us. This relieved me; and once more, and
finally as it seemed to me, I pronounced him in my heart, a humbug.


CHAPTER 20. All Astir.

A day or two passed, and there was great activity aboard the Pequod.
Not only were the old sails being mended, but new sails were coming on
board, and bolts of canvas, and coils of rigging; in short, everything
betokened that the ship’s preparations were hurrying to a close.
Captain Peleg seldom or never went ashore, but sat in his wigwam
keeping a sharp look-out upon the hands: Bildad did all the purchasing
and providing at the stores; and the men employed in the hold and on
the rigging were working till long after night-fall.

On the day following Queequeg’s signing the articles, word was given at
all the inns where the ship’s company were stopping, that their chests
must be on board before night, for there was no telling how soon the
vessel might be sailing. So Queequeg and I got down our traps,
resolving, however, to sleep ashore till the last. But it seems they
always give very long notice in these cases, and the ship did not sail
for several days. But no wonder; there was a good deal to be done, and
there is no telling how many things to be thought of, before the Pequod
was fully equipped.

Every one knows what a multitude of things—beds, sauce-pans, knives and
forks, shovels and tongs, napkins, nut-crackers, and what not, are
indispensable to the business of housekeeping. Just so with whaling,
which necessitates a three-years’ housekeeping upon the wide ocean, far
from all grocers, costermongers, doctors, bakers, and bankers. And
though this also holds true of merchant vessels, yet not by any means
to the same extent as with whalemen. For besides the great length of
the whaling voyage, the numerous articles peculiar to the prosecution
of the fishery, and the impossibility of replacing them at the remote
harbors usually frequented, it must be remembered, that of all ships,
whaling vessels are the most exposed to accidents of all kinds, and
especially to the destruction and loss of the very things upon which
the success of the voyage most depends. Hence, the spare boats, spare
spars, and spare lines and harpoons, and spare everythings, almost, but
a spare Captain and duplicate ship.

At the period of our arrival at the Island, the heaviest storage of the
Pequod had been almost completed; comprising her beef, bread, water,
fuel, and iron hoops and staves. But, as before hinted, for some time
there was a continual fetching and carrying on board of divers odds and
ends of things, both large and small.

Chief among those who did this fetching and carrying was Captain
Bildad’s sister, a lean old lady of a most determined and indefatigable
spirit, but withal very kindhearted, who seemed resolved that, if _she_
could help it, nothing should be found wanting in the Pequod, after
once fairly getting to sea. At one time she would come on board with a
jar of pickles for the steward’s pantry; another time with a bunch of
quills for the chief mate’s desk, where he kept his log; a third time
with a roll of flannel for the small of some one’s rheumatic back.
Never did any woman better deserve her name, which was Charity—Aunt
Charity, as everybody called her. And like a sister of charity did this
charitable Aunt Charity bustle about hither and thither, ready to turn
her hand and heart to anything that promised to yield safety, comfort,
and consolation to all on board a ship in which her beloved brother
Bildad was concerned, and in which she herself owned a score or two of
well-saved dollars.

But it was startling to see this excellent hearted Quakeress coming on
board, as she did the last day, with a long oil-ladle in one hand, and
a still longer whaling lance in the other. Nor was Bildad himself nor
Captain Peleg at all backward. As for Bildad, he carried about with him
a long list of the articles needed, and at every fresh arrival, down
went his mark opposite that article upon the paper. Every once in a
while Peleg came hobbling out of his whalebone den, roaring at the men
down the hatchways, roaring up to the riggers at the mast-head, and
then concluded by roaring back into his wigwam.

During these days of preparation, Queequeg and I often visited the
craft, and as often I asked about Captain Ahab, and how he was, and
when he was going to come on board his ship. To these questions they
would answer, that he was getting better and better, and was expected
aboard every day; meantime, the two captains, Peleg and Bildad, could
attend to everything necessary to fit the vessel for the voyage. If I
had been downright honest with myself, I would have seen very plainly
in my heart that I did but half fancy being committed this way to so
long a voyage, without once laying my eyes on the man who was to be the
absolute dictator of it, so soon as the ship sailed out upon the open
sea. But when a man suspects any wrong, it sometimes happens that if he
be already involved in the matter, he insensibly strives to cover up
his suspicions even from himself. And much this way it was with me. I
said nothing, and tried to think nothing.

At last it was given out that some time next day the ship would
certainly sail. So next morning, Queequeg and I took a very early
start.


CHAPTER 21. Going Aboard.

It was nearly six o’clock, but only grey imperfect misty dawn, when we
drew nigh the wharf.

“There are some sailors running ahead there, if I see right,” said I to
Queequeg, “it can’t be shadows; she’s off by sunrise, I guess; come
on!”

“Avast!” cried a voice, whose owner at the same time coming close
behind us, laid a hand upon both our shoulders, and then insinuating
himself between us, stood stooping forward a little, in the uncertain
twilight, strangely peering from Queequeg to me. It was Elijah.

“Going aboard?”

“Hands off, will you,” said I.

“Lookee here,” said Queequeg, shaking himself, “go ’way!”

“Ain’t going aboard, then?”

“Yes, we are,” said I, “but what business is that of yours? Do you
know, Mr. Elijah, that I consider you a little impertinent?”

“No, no, no; I wasn’t aware of that,” said Elijah, slowly and
wonderingly looking from me to Queequeg, with the most unaccountable
glances.

“Elijah,” said I, “you will oblige my friend and me by withdrawing. We
are going to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and would prefer not to be
detained.”

“Ye be, be ye? Coming back afore breakfast?”

“He’s cracked, Queequeg,” said I, “come on.”

“Holloa!” cried stationary Elijah, hailing us when we had removed a few
paces.

“Never mind him,” said I, “Queequeg, come on.”

But he stole up to us again, and suddenly clapping his hand on my
shoulder, said—“Did ye see anything looking like men going towards that
ship a while ago?”

Struck by this plain matter-of-fact question, I answered, saying, “Yes,
I thought I did see four or five men; but it was too dim to be sure.”

“Very dim, very dim,” said Elijah. “Morning to ye.”

Once more we quitted him; but once more he came softly after us; and
touching my shoulder again, said, “See if you can find ’em now, will
ye?

“Find who?”

“Morning to ye! morning to ye!” he rejoined, again moving off. “Oh! I
was going to warn ye against—but never mind, never mind—it’s all one,
all in the family too;—sharp frost this morning, ain’t it? Good-bye to
ye. Shan’t see ye again very soon, I guess; unless it’s before the
Grand Jury.” And with these cracked words he finally departed, leaving
me, for the moment, in no small wonderment at his frantic impudence.

At last, stepping on board the Pequod, we found everything in profound
quiet, not a soul moving. The cabin entrance was locked within; the
hatches were all on, and lumbered with coils of rigging. Going forward
to the forecastle, we found the slide of the scuttle open. Seeing a
light, we went down, and found only an old rigger there, wrapped in a
tattered pea-jacket. He was thrown at whole length upon two chests, his
face downwards and inclosed in his folded arms. The profoundest slumber
slept upon him.

“Those sailors we saw, Queequeg, where can they have gone to?” said I,
looking dubiously at the sleeper. But it seemed that, when on the
wharf, Queequeg had not at all noticed what I now alluded to; hence I
would have thought myself to have been optically deceived in that
matter, were it not for Elijah’s otherwise inexplicable question. But I
beat the thing down; and again marking the sleeper, jocularly hinted to
Queequeg that perhaps we had best sit up with the body; telling him to
establish himself accordingly. He put his hand upon the sleeper’s rear,
as though feeling if it was soft enough; and then, without more ado,
sat quietly down there.

“Gracious! Queequeg, don’t sit there,” said I.

“Oh! perry dood seat,” said Queequeg, “my country way; won’t hurt him
face.”

“Face!” said I, “call that his face? very benevolent countenance then;
but how hard he breathes, he’s heaving himself; get off, Queequeg, you
are heavy, it’s grinding the face of the poor. Get off, Queequeg! Look,
he’ll twitch you off soon. I wonder he don’t wake.”

Queequeg removed himself to just beyond the head of the sleeper, and
lighted his tomahawk pipe. I sat at the feet. We kept the pipe passing
over the sleeper, from one to the other. Meanwhile, upon questioning
him in his broken fashion, Queequeg gave me to understand that, in his
land, owing to the absence of settees and sofas of all sorts, the king,
chiefs, and great people generally, were in the custom of fattening
some of the lower orders for ottomans; and to furnish a house
comfortably in that respect, you had only to buy up eight or ten lazy
fellows, and lay them round in the piers and alcoves. Besides, it was
very convenient on an excursion; much better than those garden-chairs
which are convertible into walking-sticks; upon occasion, a chief
calling his attendant, and desiring him to make a settee of himself
under a spreading tree, perhaps in some damp marshy place.

While narrating these things, every time Queequeg received the tomahawk
from me, he flourished the hatchet-side of it over the sleeper’s head.

“What’s that for, Queequeg?”

“Perry easy, kill-e; oh! perry easy!”

He was going on with some wild reminiscences about his tomahawk-pipe,
which, it seemed, had in its two uses both brained his foes and soothed
his soul, when we were directly attracted to the sleeping rigger. The
strong vapor now completely filling the contracted hole, it began to
tell upon him. He breathed with a sort of muffledness; then seemed
troubled in the nose; then revolved over once or twice; then sat up and
rubbed his eyes.

“Holloa!” he breathed at last, “who be ye smokers?”

“Shipped men,” answered I, “when does she sail?”

“Aye, aye, ye are going in her, be ye? She sails to-day. The Captain
came aboard last night.”

“What Captain?—Ahab?”

“Who but him indeed?”

I was going to ask him some further questions concerning Ahab, when we
heard a noise on deck.

“Holloa! Starbuck’s astir,” said the rigger. “He’s a lively chief mate,
that; good man, and a pious; but all alive now, I must turn to.” And so
saying he went on deck, and we followed.

It was now clear sunrise. Soon the crew came on board in twos and
threes; the riggers bestirred themselves; the mates were actively
engaged; and several of the shore people were busy in bringing various
last things on board. Meanwhile Captain Ahab remained invisibly
enshrined within his cabin.


CHAPTER 22. Merry Christmas.

At length, towards noon, upon the final dismissal of the ship’s
riggers, and after the Pequod had been hauled out from the wharf, and
after the ever-thoughtful Charity had come off in a whale-boat, with
her last gift—a night-cap for Stubb, the second mate, her
brother-in-law, and a spare Bible for the steward—after all this, the
two Captains, Peleg and Bildad, issued from the cabin, and turning to
the chief mate, Peleg said:

“Now, Mr. Starbuck, are you sure everything is right? Captain Ahab is
all ready—just spoke to him—nothing more to be got from shore, eh?
Well, call all hands, then. Muster ’em aft here—blast ’em!”

“No need of profane words, however great the hurry, Peleg,” said
Bildad, “but away with thee, friend Starbuck, and do our bidding.”

How now! Here upon the very point of starting for the voyage, Captain
Peleg and Captain Bildad were going it with a high hand on the
quarter-deck, just as if they were to be joint-commanders at sea, as
well as to all appearances in port. And, as for Captain Ahab, no sign
of him was yet to be seen; only, they said he was in the cabin. But
then, the idea was, that his presence was by no means necessary in
getting the ship under weigh, and steering her well out to sea. Indeed,
as that was not at all his proper business, but the pilot’s; and as he
was not yet completely recovered—so they said—therefore, Captain Ahab
stayed below. And all this seemed natural enough; especially as in the
merchant service many captains never show themselves on deck for a
considerable time after heaving up the anchor, but remain over the
cabin table, having a farewell merry-making with their shore friends,
before they quit the ship for good with the pilot.

But there was not much chance to think over the matter, for Captain
Peleg was now all alive. He seemed to do most of the talking and
commanding, and not Bildad.

“Aft here, ye sons of bachelors,” he cried, as the sailors lingered at
the main-mast. “Mr. Starbuck, drive ’em aft.”

“Strike the tent there!”—was the next order. As I hinted before, this
whalebone marquee was never pitched except in port; and on board the
Pequod, for thirty years, the order to strike the tent was well known
to be the next thing to heaving up the anchor.

“Man the capstan! Blood and thunder!—jump!”—was the next command, and
the crew sprang for the handspikes.

Now in getting under weigh, the station generally occupied by the pilot
is the forward part of the ship. And here Bildad, who, with Peleg, be
it known, in addition to his other officers, was one of the licensed
pilots of the port—he being suspected to have got himself made a pilot
in order to save the Nantucket pilot-fee to all the ships he was
concerned in, for he never piloted any other craft—Bildad, I say, might
now be seen actively engaged in looking over the bows for the
approaching anchor, and at intervals singing what seemed a dismal stave
of psalmody, to cheer the hands at the windlass, who roared forth some
sort of a chorus about the girls in Booble Alley, with hearty good
will. Nevertheless, not three days previous, Bildad had told them that
no profane songs would be allowed on board the Pequod, particularly in
getting under weigh; and Charity, his sister, had placed a small choice
copy of Watts in each seaman’s berth.

Meantime, overseeing the other part of the ship, Captain Peleg ripped
and swore astern in the most frightful manner. I almost thought he
would sink the ship before the anchor could be got up; involuntarily I
paused on my handspike, and told Queequeg to do the same, thinking of
the perils we both ran, in starting on the voyage with such a devil for
a pilot. I was comforting myself, however, with the thought that in
pious Bildad might be found some salvation, spite of his seven hundred
and seventy-seventh lay; when I felt a sudden sharp poke in my rear,
and turning round, was horrified at the apparition of Captain Peleg in
the act of withdrawing his leg from my immediate vicinity. That was my
first kick.

“Is that the way they heave in the marchant service?” he roared.
“Spring, thou sheep-head; spring, and break thy backbone! Why don’t ye
spring, I say, all of ye—spring! Quohog! spring, thou chap with the red
whiskers; spring there, Scotch-cap; spring, thou green pants. Spring, I
say, all of ye, and spring your eyes out!” And so saying, he moved
along the windlass, here and there using his leg very freely, while
imperturbable Bildad kept leading off with his psalmody. Thinks I,
Captain Peleg must have been drinking something to-day.

At last the anchor was up, the sails were set, and off we glided. It
was a short, cold Christmas; and as the short northern day merged into
night, we found ourselves almost broad upon the wintry ocean, whose
freezing spray cased us in ice, as in polished armor. The long rows of
teeth on the bulwarks glistened in the moonlight; and like the white
ivory tusks of some huge elephant, vast curving icicles depended from
the bows.

Lank Bildad, as pilot, headed the first watch, and ever and anon, as
the old craft deep dived into the green seas, and sent the shivering
frost all over her, and the winds howled, and the cordage rang, his
steady notes were heard,—


_“Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood, Stand dressed in living
green. So to the Jews old Canaan stood, While Jordan rolled between.”_



Never did those sweet words sound more sweetly to me than then. They
were full of hope and fruition. Spite of this frigid winter night in
the boisterous Atlantic, spite of my wet feet and wetter jacket, there
was yet, it then seemed to me, many a pleasant haven in store; and
meads and glades so eternally vernal, that the grass shot up by the
spring, untrodden, unwilted, remains at midsummer.

At last we gained such an offing, that the two pilots were needed no
longer. The stout sail-boat that had accompanied us began ranging
alongside.

It was curious and not unpleasing, how Peleg and Bildad were affected
at this juncture, especially Captain Bildad. For loath to depart, yet;
very loath to leave, for good, a ship bound on so long and perilous a
voyage—beyond both stormy Capes; a ship in which some thousands of his
hard earned dollars were invested; a ship, in which an old shipmate
sailed as captain; a man almost as old as he, once more starting to
encounter all the terrors of the pitiless jaw; loath to say good-bye to
a thing so every way brimful of every interest to him,—poor old Bildad
lingered long; paced the deck with anxious strides; ran down into the
cabin to speak another farewell word there; again came on deck, and
looked to windward; looked towards the wide and endless waters, only
bounded by the far-off unseen Eastern Continents; looked towards the
land; looked aloft; looked right and left; looked everywhere and
nowhere; and at last, mechanically coiling a rope upon its pin,
convulsively grasped stout Peleg by the hand, and holding up a lantern,
for a moment stood gazing heroically in his face, as much as to say,
“Nevertheless, friend Peleg, I can stand it; yes, I can.”

As for Peleg himself, he took it more like a philosopher; but for all
his philosophy, there was a tear twinkling in his eye, when the lantern
came too near. And he, too, did not a little run from cabin to deck—now
a word below, and now a word with Starbuck, the chief mate.

But, at last, he turned to his comrade, with a final sort of look about
him,—“Captain Bildad—come, old shipmate, we must go. Back the main-yard
there! Boat ahoy! Stand by to come close alongside, now! Careful,
careful!—come, Bildad, boy—say your last. Luck to ye, Starbuck—luck to
ye, Mr. Stubb—luck to ye, Mr. Flask—good-bye and good luck to ye
all—and this day three years I’ll have a hot supper smoking for ye in
old Nantucket. Hurrah and away!”

“God bless ye, and have ye in His holy keeping, men,” murmured old
Bildad, almost incoherently. “I hope ye’ll have fine weather now, so
that Captain Ahab may soon be moving among ye—a pleasant sun is all he
needs, and ye’ll have plenty of them in the tropic voyage ye go. Be
careful in the hunt, ye mates. Don’t stave the boats needlessly, ye
harpooneers; good white cedar plank is raised full three per cent.
within the year. Don’t forget your prayers, either. Mr. Starbuck, mind
that cooper don’t waste the spare staves. Oh! the sail-needles are in
the green locker! Don’t whale it too much a’ Lord’s days, men; but
don’t miss a fair chance either, that’s rejecting Heaven’s good gifts.
Have an eye to the molasses tierce, Mr. Stubb; it was a little leaky, I
thought. If ye touch at the islands, Mr. Flask, beware of fornication.
Good-bye, good-bye! Don’t keep that cheese too long down in the hold,
Mr. Starbuck; it’ll spoil. Be careful with the butter—twenty cents the
pound it was, and mind ye, if—”

“Come, come, Captain Bildad; stop palavering,—away!” and with that,
Peleg hurried him over the side, and both dropt into the boat.

Ship and boat diverged; the cold, damp night breeze blew between; a
screaming gull flew overhead; the two hulls wildly rolled; we gave
three heavy-hearted cheers, and blindly plunged like fate into the lone
Atlantic.


CHAPTER 23. The Lee Shore.

Some chapters back, one Bulkington was spoken of, a tall, newlanded
mariner, encountered in New Bedford at the inn.

When on that shivering winter’s night, the Pequod thrust her vindictive
bows into the cold malicious waves, who should I see standing at her
helm but Bulkington! I looked with sympathetic awe and fearfulness upon
the man, who in mid-winter just landed from a four years’ dangerous
voyage, could so unrestingly push off again for still another
tempestuous term. The land seemed scorching to his feet. Wonderfullest
things are ever the unmentionable; deep memories yield no epitaphs;
this six-inch chapter is the stoneless grave of Bulkington. Let me only
say that it fared with him as with the storm-tossed ship, that
miserably drives along the leeward land. The port would fain give
succor; the port is pitiful; in the port is safety, comfort,
hearthstone, supper, warm blankets, friends, all that’s kind to our
mortalities. But in that gale, the port, the land, is that ship’s
direst jeopardy; she must fly all hospitality; one touch of land,
though it but graze the keel, would make her shudder through and
through. With all her might she crowds all sail off shore; in so doing,
fights ’gainst the very winds that fain would blow her homeward; seeks
all the lashed sea’s landlessness again; for refuge’s sake forlornly
rushing into peril; her only friend her bitterest foe!

Know ye now, Bulkington? Glimpses do ye seem to see of that mortally
intolerable truth; that all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid
effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the
wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the
treacherous, slavish shore?

But as in landlessness alone resides highest truth, shoreless,
indefinite as God—so, better is it to perish in that howling infinite,
than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee, even if that were safety! For
worm-like, then, oh! who would craven crawl to land! Terrors of the
terrible! is all this agony so vain? Take heart, take heart, O
Bulkington! Bear thee grimly, demigod! Up from the spray of thy
ocean-perishing—straight up, leaps thy apotheosis!


CHAPTER 24. The Advocate.

As Queequeg and I are now fairly embarked in this business of whaling;
and as this business of whaling has somehow come to be regarded among
landsmen as a rather unpoetical and disreputable pursuit; therefore, I
am all anxiety to convince ye, ye landsmen, of the injustice hereby
done to us hunters of whales.

In the first place, it may be deemed almost superfluous to establish
the fact, that among people at large, the business of whaling is not
accounted on a level with what are called the liberal professions. If a
stranger were introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitan society,
it would but slightly advance the general opinion of his merits, were
he presented to the company as a harpooneer, say; and if in emulation
of the naval officers he should append the initials S.W.F. (Sperm Whale
Fishery) to his visiting card, such a procedure would be deemed
pre-eminently presuming and ridiculous.

Doubtless one leading reason why the world declines honoring us
whalemen, is this: they think that, at best, our vocation amounts to a
butchering sort of business; and that when actively engaged therein, we
are surrounded by all manner of defilements. Butchers we are, that is
true. But butchers, also, and butchers of the bloodiest badge have been
all Martial Commanders whom the world invariably delights to honor. And
as for the matter of the alleged uncleanliness of our business, ye
shall soon be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally
unknown, and which, upon the whole, will triumphantly plant the sperm
whale-ship at least among the cleanliest things of this tidy earth. But
even granting the charge in question to be true; what disordered
slippery decks of a whale-ship are comparable to the unspeakable
carrion of those battle-fields from which so many soldiers return to
drink in all ladies’ plaudits? And if the idea of peril so much
enhances the popular conceit of the soldier’s profession; let me assure
ye that many a veteran who has freely marched up to a battery, would
quickly recoil at the apparition of the sperm whale’s vast tail,
fanning into eddies the air over his head. For what are the
comprehensible terrors of man compared with the interlinked terrors and
wonders of God!

But, though the world scouts at us whale hunters, yet does it
unwittingly pay us the profoundest homage; yea, an all-abounding
adoration! for almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn
round the globe, burn, as before so many shrines, to our glory!

But look at this matter in other lights; weigh it in all sorts of
scales; see what we whalemen are, and have been.

Why did the Dutch in De Witt’s time have admirals of their whaling
fleets? Why did Louis XVI. of France, at his own personal expense, fit
out whaling ships from Dunkirk, and politely invite to that town some
score or two of families from our own island of Nantucket? Why did
Britain between the years 1750 and 1788 pay to her whalemen in bounties
upwards of £1,000,000? And lastly, how comes it that we whalemen of
America now outnumber all the rest of the banded whalemen in the world;
sail a navy of upwards of seven hundred vessels; manned by eighteen
thousand men; yearly consuming 4,000,000 of dollars; the ships worth,
at the time of sailing, $20,000,000! and every year importing into our
harbors a well reaped harvest of $7,000,000. How comes all this, if
there be not something puissant in whaling?

But this is not the half; look again.

I freely assert, that the cosmopolite philosopher cannot, for his life,
point out one single peaceful influence, which within the last sixty
years has operated more potentially upon the whole broad world, taken
in one aggregate, than the high and mighty business of whaling. One way
and another, it has begotten events so remarkable in themselves, and so
continuously momentous in their sequential issues, that whaling may
well be regarded as that Egyptian mother, who bore offspring themselves
pregnant from her womb. It would be a hopeless, endless task to
catalogue all these things. Let a handful suffice. For many years past
the whale-ship has been the pioneer in ferreting out the remotest and
least known parts of the earth. She has explored seas and archipelagoes
which had no chart, where no Cook or Vancouver had ever sailed. If
American and European men-of-war now peacefully ride in once savage
harbors, let them fire salutes to the honor and glory of the
whale-ship, which originally showed them the way, and first interpreted
between them and the savages. They may celebrate as they will the
heroes of Exploring Expeditions, your Cooks, your Krusensterns; but I
say that scores of anonymous Captains have sailed out of Nantucket,
that were as great, and greater than your Cook and your Krusenstern.
For in their succourless empty-handedness, they, in the heathenish
sharked waters, and by the beaches of unrecorded, javelin islands,
battled with virgin wonders and terrors that Cook with all his marines
and muskets would not willingly have dared. All that is made such a
flourish of in the old South Sea Voyages, those things were but the
life-time commonplaces of our heroic Nantucketers. Often, adventures
which Vancouver dedicates three chapters to, these men accounted
unworthy of being set down in the ship’s common log. Ah, the world! Oh,
the world!

Until the whale fishery rounded Cape Horn, no commerce but colonial,
scarcely any intercourse but colonial, was carried on between Europe
and the long line of the opulent Spanish provinces on the Pacific
coast. It was the whaleman who first broke through the jealous policy
of the Spanish crown, touching those colonies; and, if space permitted,
it might be distinctly shown how from those whalemen at last eventuated
the liberation of Peru, Chili, and Bolivia from the yoke of Old Spain,
and the establishment of the eternal democracy in those parts.

That great America on the other side of the sphere, Australia, was
given to the enlightened world by the whaleman. After its first
blunder-born discovery by a Dutchman, all other ships long shunned
those shores as pestiferously barbarous; but the whale-ship touched
there. The whale-ship is the true mother of that now mighty colony.
Moreover, in the infancy of the first Australian settlement, the
emigrants were several times saved from starvation by the benevolent
biscuit of the whale-ship luckily dropping an anchor in their waters.
The uncounted isles of all Polynesia confess the same truth, and do
commercial homage to the whale-ship, that cleared the way for the
missionary and the merchant, and in many cases carried the primitive
missionaries to their first destinations. If that double-bolted land,
Japan, is ever to become hospitable, it is the whale-ship alone to whom
the credit will be due; for already she is on the threshold.

But if, in the face of all this, you still declare that whaling has no
æsthetically noble associations connected with it, then am I ready to
shiver fifty lances with you there, and unhorse you with a split helmet
every time.

The whale has no famous author, and whaling no famous chronicler, you
will say.

_The whale no famous author, and whaling no famous chronicler?_ Who
wrote the first account of our Leviathan? Who but mighty Job! And who
composed the first narrative of a whaling-voyage? Who, but no less a
prince than Alfred the Great, who, with his own royal pen, took down
the words from Other, the Norwegian whale-hunter of those times! And
who pronounced our glowing eulogy in Parliament? Who, but Edmund Burke!

True enough, but then whalemen themselves are poor devils; they have no
good blood in their veins.

_No good blood in their veins?_ They have something better than royal
blood there. The grandmother of Benjamin Franklin was Mary Morrel;
afterwards, by marriage, Mary Folger, one of the old settlers of
Nantucket, and the ancestress to a long line of Folgers and
harpooneers—all kith and kin to noble Benjamin—this day darting the
barbed iron from one side of the world to the other.

Good again; but then all confess that somehow whaling is not
respectable.

_Whaling not respectable?_ Whaling is imperial! By old English
statutory law, the whale is declared “a royal fish.” *

Oh, that’s only nominal! The whale himself has never figured in any
grand imposing way.

_The whale never figured in any grand imposing way?_ In one of the
mighty triumphs given to a Roman general upon his entering the world’s
capital, the bones of a whale, brought all the way from the Syrian
coast, were the most conspicuous object in the cymballed procession.*

*See subsequent chapters for something more on this head.

Grant it, since you cite it; but, say what you will, there is no real
dignity in whaling.

_No dignity in whaling?_ The dignity of our calling the very heavens
attest. Cetus is a constellation in the South! No more! Drive down your
hat in presence of the Czar, and take it off to Queequeg! No more! I
know a man that, in his lifetime, has taken three hundred and fifty
whales. I account that man more honorable than that great captain of
antiquity who boasted of taking as many walled towns.

And, as for me, if, by any possibility, there be any as yet
undiscovered prime thing in me; if I shall ever deserve any real repute
in that small but high hushed world which I might not be unreasonably
ambitious of; if hereafter I shall do anything that, upon the whole, a
man might rather have done than to have left undone; if, at my death,
my executors, or more properly my creditors, find any precious MSS. in
my desk, then here I prospectively ascribe all the honor and the glory
to whaling; for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.


CHAPTER 25. Postscript.

In behalf of the dignity of whaling, I would fain advance naught but
substantiated facts. But after embattling his facts, an advocate who
should wholly suppress a not unreasonable surmise, which might tell
eloquently upon his cause—such an advocate, would he not be
blameworthy?

It is well known that at the coronation of kings and queens, even
modern ones, a certain curious process of seasoning them for their
functions is gone through. There is a saltcellar of state, so called,
and there may be a castor of state. How they use the salt,
precisely—who knows? Certain I am, however, that a king’s head is
solemnly oiled at his coronation, even as a head of salad. Can it be,
though, that they anoint it with a view of making its interior run
well, as they anoint machinery? Much might be ruminated here,
concerning the essential dignity of this regal process, because in
common life we esteem but meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints
his hair, and palpably smells of that anointing. In truth, a mature man
who uses hair-oil, unless medicinally, that man has probably got a
quoggy spot in him somewhere. As a general rule, he can’t amount to
much in his totality.

But the only thing to be considered here, is this—what kind of oil is
used at coronations? Certainly it cannot be olive oil, nor macassar
oil, nor castor oil, nor bear’s oil, nor train oil, nor cod-liver oil.
What then can it possibly be, but sperm oil in its unmanufactured,
unpolluted state, the sweetest of all oils?

Think of that, ye loyal Britons! we whalemen supply your kings and
queens with coronation stuff!


CHAPTER 26. Knights and Squires.

The chief mate of the Pequod was Starbuck, a native of Nantucket, and a
Quaker by descent. He was a long, earnest man, and though born on an
icy coast, seemed well adapted to endure hot latitudes, his flesh being
hard as twice-baked biscuit. Transported to the Indies, his live blood
would not spoil like bottled ale. He must have been born in some time
of general drought and famine, or upon one of those fast days for which
his state is famous. Only some thirty arid summers had he seen; those
summers had dried up all his physical superfluousness. But this, his
thinness, so to speak, seemed no more the token of wasting anxieties
and cares, than it seemed the indication of any bodily blight. It was
merely the condensation of the man. He was by no means ill-looking;
quite the contrary. His pure tight skin was an excellent fit; and
closely wrapped up in it, and embalmed with inner health and strength,
like a revivified Egyptian, this Starbuck seemed prepared to endure for
long ages to come, and to endure always, as now; for be it Polar snow
or torrid sun, like a patent chronometer, his interior vitality was
warranted to do well in all climates. Looking into his eyes, you seemed
to see there the yet lingering images of those thousand-fold perils he
had calmly confronted through life. A staid, steadfast man, whose life
for the most part was a telling pantomime of action, and not a tame
chapter of sounds. Yet, for all his hardy sobriety and fortitude, there
were certain qualities in him which at times affected, and in some
cases seemed well nigh to overbalance all the rest. Uncommonly
conscientious for a seaman, and endued with a deep natural reverence,
the wild watery loneliness of his life did therefore strongly incline
him to superstition; but to that sort of superstition, which in some
organizations seems rather to spring, somehow, from intelligence than
from ignorance. Outward portents and inward presentiments were his. And
if at times these things bent the welded iron of his soul, much more
did his far-away domestic memories of his young Cape wife and child,
tend to bend him still more from the original ruggedness of his nature,
and open him still further to those latent influences which, in some
honest-hearted men, restrain the gush of dare-devil daring, so often
evinced by others in the more perilous vicissitudes of the fishery. “I
will have no man in my boat,” said Starbuck, “who is not afraid of a
whale.” By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and
useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the
encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more
dangerous comrade than a coward.

“Aye, aye,” said Stubb, the second mate, “Starbuck, there, is as
careful a man as you’ll find anywhere in this fishery.” But we shall
ere long see what that word “careful” precisely means when used by a
man like Stubb, or almost any other whale hunter.

Starbuck was no crusader after perils; in him courage was not a
sentiment; but a thing simply useful to him, and always at hand upon
all mortally practical occasions. Besides, he thought, perhaps, that in
this business of whaling, courage was one of the great staple outfits
of the ship, like her beef and her bread, and not to be foolishly
wasted. Wherefore he had no fancy for lowering for whales after
sun-down; nor for persisting in fighting a fish that too much persisted
in fighting him. For, thought Starbuck, I am here in this critical
ocean to kill whales for my living, and not to be killed by them for
theirs; and that hundreds of men had been so killed Starbuck well knew.
What doom was his own father’s? Where, in the bottomless deeps, could
he find the torn limbs of his brother?

With memories like these in him, and, moreover, given to a certain
superstitiousness, as has been said; the courage of this Starbuck which
could, nevertheless, still flourish, must indeed have been extreme. But
it was not in reasonable nature that a man so organized, and with such
terrible experiences and remembrances as he had; it was not in nature
that these things should fail in latently engendering an element in
him, which, under suitable circumstances, would break out from its
confinement, and burn all his courage up. And brave as he might be, it
was that sort of bravery chiefly, visible in some intrepid men, which,
while generally abiding firm in the conflict with seas, or winds, or
whales, or any of the ordinary irrational horrors of the world, yet
cannot withstand those more terrific, because more spiritual terrors,
which sometimes menace you from the concentrating brow of an enraged
and mighty man.

But were the coming narrative to reveal in any instance, the complete
abasement of poor Starbuck’s fortitude, scarce might I have the heart
to write it; for it is a thing most sorrowful, nay shocking, to expose
the fall of valour in the soul. Men may seem detestable as joint
stock-companies and nations; knaves, fools, and murderers there may be;
men may have mean and meagre faces; but man, in the ideal, is so noble
and so sparkling, such a grand and glowing creature, that over any
ignominious blemish in him all his fellows should run to throw their
costliest robes. That immaculate manliness we feel within ourselves, so
far within us, that it remains intact though all the outer character
seem gone; bleeds with keenest anguish at the undraped spectacle of a
valor-ruined man. Nor can piety itself, at such a shameful sight,
completely stifle her upbraidings against the permitting stars. But
this august dignity I treat of, is not the dignity of kings and robes,
but that abounding dignity which has no robed investiture. Thou shalt
see it shining in the arm that wields a pick or drives a spike; that
democratic dignity which, on all hands, radiates without end from God;
Himself! The great God absolute! The centre and circumference of all
democracy! His omnipresence, our divine equality!

If, then, to meanest mariners, and renegades and castaways, I shall
hereafter ascribe high qualities, though dark; weave round them tragic
graces; if even the most mournful, perchance the most abased, among
them all, shall at times lift himself to the exalted mounts; if I shall
touch that workman’s arm with some ethereal light; if I shall spread a
rainbow over his disastrous set of sun; then against all mortal critics
bear me out in it, thou just Spirit of Equality, which hast spread one
royal mantle of humanity over all my kind! Bear me out in it, thou
great democratic God! who didst not refuse to the swart convict,
Bunyan, the pale, poetic pearl; Thou who didst clothe with doubly
hammered leaves of finest gold, the stumped and paupered arm of old
Cervantes; Thou who didst pick up Andrew Jackson from the pebbles; who
didst hurl him upon a war-horse; who didst thunder him higher than a
throne! Thou who, in all Thy mighty, earthly marchings, ever cullest
Thy selectest champions from the kingly commons; bear me out in it, O
God!


CHAPTER 27. Knights and Squires.

Stubb was the second mate. He was a native of Cape Cod; and hence,
according to local usage, was called a Cape-Cod-man. A happy-go-lucky;
neither craven nor valiant; taking perils as they came with an
indifferent air; and while engaged in the most imminent crisis of the
chase, toiling away, calm and collected as a journeyman joiner engaged
for the year. Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his
whale-boat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his
crew all invited guests. He was as particular about the comfortable
arrangement of his part of the boat, as an old stage-driver is about
the snugness of his box. When close to the whale, in the very
death-lock of the fight, he handled his unpitying lance coolly and
off-handedly, as a whistling tinker his hammer. He would hum over his
old rigadig tunes while flank and flank with the most exasperated
monster. Long usage had, for this Stubb, converted the jaws of death
into an easy chair. What he thought of death itself, there is no
telling. Whether he ever thought of it at all, might be a question;
but, if he ever did chance to cast his mind that way after a
comfortable dinner, no doubt, like a good sailor, he took it to be a
sort of call of the watch to tumble aloft, and bestir themselves there,
about something which he would find out when he obeyed the order, and
not sooner.

What, perhaps, with other things, made Stubb such an easy-going,
unfearing man, so cheerily trudging off with the burden of life in a
world full of grave pedlars, all bowed to the ground with their packs;
what helped to bring about that almost impious good-humor of his; that
thing must have been his pipe. For, like his nose, his short, black
little pipe was one of the regular features of his face. You would
almost as soon have expected him to turn out of his bunk without his
nose as without his pipe. He kept a whole row of pipes there ready
loaded, stuck in a rack, within easy reach of his hand; and, whenever
he turned in, he smoked them all out in succession, lighting one from
the other to the end of the chapter; then loading them again to be in
readiness anew. For, when Stubb dressed, instead of first putting his
legs into his trowsers, he put his pipe into his mouth.

I say this continual smoking must have been one cause, at least, of his
peculiar disposition; for every one knows that this earthly air,
whether ashore or afloat, is terribly infected with the nameless
miseries of the numberless mortals who have died exhaling it; and as in
time of the cholera, some people go about with a camphorated
handkerchief to their mouths; so, likewise, against all mortal
tribulations, Stubb’s tobacco smoke might have operated as a sort of
disinfecting agent.

The third mate was Flask, a native of Tisbury, in Martha’s Vineyard. A
short, stout, ruddy young fellow, very pugnacious concerning whales,
who somehow seemed to think that the great leviathans had personally
and hereditarily affronted him; and therefore it was a sort of point of
honor with him, to destroy them whenever encountered. So utterly lost
was he to all sense of reverence for the many marvels of their majestic
bulk and mystic ways; and so dead to anything like an apprehension of
any possible danger from encountering them; that in his poor opinion,
the wondrous whale was but a species of magnified mouse, or at least
water-rat, requiring only a little circumvention and some small
application of time and trouble in order to kill and boil. This
ignorant, unconscious fearlessness of his made him a little waggish in
the matter of whales; he followed these fish for the fun of it; and a
three years’ voyage round Cape Horn was only a jolly joke that lasted
that length of time. As a carpenter’s nails are divided into wrought
nails and cut nails; so mankind may be similarly divided. Little Flask
was one of the wrought ones; made to clinch tight and last long. They
called him King-Post on board of the Pequod; because, in form, he could
be well likened to the short, square timber known by that name in
Arctic whalers; and which by the means of many radiating side timbers
inserted into it, serves to brace the ship against the icy concussions
of those battering seas.

Now these three mates—Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask, were momentous men.
They it was who by universal prescription commanded three of the
Pequod’s boats as headsmen. In that grand order of battle in which
Captain Ahab would probably marshal his forces to descend on the
whales, these three headsmen were as captains of companies. Or, being
armed with their long keen whaling spears, they were as a picked trio
of lancers; even as the harpooneers were flingers of javelins.

And since in this famous fishery, each mate or headsman, like a Gothic
Knight of old, is always accompanied by his boat-steerer or harpooneer,
who in certain conjunctures provides him with a fresh lance, when the
former one has been badly twisted, or elbowed in the assault; and
moreover, as there generally subsists between the two, a close intimacy
and friendliness; it is therefore but meet, that in this place we set
down who the Pequod’s harpooneers were, and to what headsman each of
them belonged.

First of all was Queequeg, whom Starbuck, the chief mate, had selected
for his squire. But Queequeg is already known.

Next was Tashtego, an unmixed Indian from Gay Head, the most westerly
promontory of Martha’s Vineyard, where there still exists the last
remnant of a village of red men, which has long supplied the
neighboring island of Nantucket with many of her most daring
harpooneers. In the fishery, they usually go by the generic name of
Gay-Headers. Tashtego’s long, lean, sable hair, his high cheek bones,
and black rounding eyes—for an Indian, Oriental in their largeness, but
Antarctic in their glittering expression—all this sufficiently
proclaimed him an inheritor of the unvitiated blood of those proud
warrior hunters, who, in quest of the great New England moose, had
scoured, bow in hand, the aboriginal forests of the main. But no longer
snuffing in the trail of the wild beasts of the woodland, Tashtego now
hunted in the wake of the great whales of the sea; the unerring harpoon
of the son fitly replacing the infallible arrow of the sires. To look
at the tawny brawn of his lithe snaky limbs, you would almost have
credited the superstitions of some of the earlier Puritans, and
half-believed this wild Indian to be a son of the Prince of the Powers
of the Air. Tashtego was Stubb the second mate’s squire.

Third among the harpooneers was Daggoo, a gigantic, coal-black
negro-savage, with a lion-like tread—an Ahasuerus to behold. Suspended
from his ears were two golden hoops, so large that the sailors called
them ring-bolts, and would talk of securing the top-sail halyards to
them. In his youth Daggoo had voluntarily shipped on board of a whaler,
lying in a lonely bay on his native coast. And never having been
anywhere in the world but in Africa, Nantucket, and the pagan harbors
most frequented by whalemen; and having now led for many years the bold
life of the fishery in the ships of owners uncommonly heedful of what
manner of men they shipped; Daggoo retained all his barbaric virtues,
and erect as a giraffe, moved about the decks in all the pomp of six
feet five in his socks. There was a corporeal humility in looking up at
him; and a white man standing before him seemed a white flag come to
beg truce of a fortress. Curious to tell, this imperial negro,
Ahasuerus Daggoo, was the Squire of little Flask, who looked like a
chess-man beside him. As for the residue of the Pequod’s company, be it
said, that at the present day not one in two of the many thousand men
before the mast employed in the American whale fishery, are Americans
born, though pretty nearly all the officers are. Herein it is the same
with the American whale fishery as with the American army and military
and merchant navies, and the engineering forces employed in the
construction of the American Canals and Railroads. The same, I say,
because in all these cases the native American liberally provides the
brains, the rest of the world as generously supplying the muscles. No
small number of these whaling seamen belong to the Azores, where the
outward bound Nantucket whalers frequently touch to augment their crews
from the hardy peasants of those rocky shores. In like manner, the
Greenland whalers sailing out of Hull or London, put in at the Shetland
Islands, to receive the full complement of their crew. Upon the passage
homewards, they drop them there again. How it is, there is no telling,
but Islanders seem to make the best whalemen. They were nearly all
Islanders in the Pequod, _Isolatoes_ too, I call such, not
acknowledging the common continent of men, but each _Isolato_ living on
a separate continent of his own. Yet now, federated along one keel,
what a set these Isolatoes were! An Anacharsis Clootz deputation from
all the isles of the sea, and all the ends of the earth, accompanying
Old Ahab in the Pequod to lay the world’s grievances before that bar
from which not very many of them ever come back. Black Little Pip—he
never did—oh, no! he went before. Poor Alabama boy! On the grim
Pequod’s forecastle, ye shall ere long see him, beating his tambourine;
prelusive of the eternal time, when sent for, to the great quarter-deck
on high, he was bid strike in with angels, and beat his tambourine in
glory; called a coward here, hailed a hero there!


CHAPTER 28. Ahab.

For several days after leaving Nantucket, nothing above hatches was
seen of Captain Ahab. The mates regularly relieved each other at the
watches, and for aught that could be seen to the contrary, they seemed
to be the only commanders of the ship; only they sometimes issued from
the cabin with orders so sudden and peremptory, that after all it was
plain they but commanded vicariously. Yes, their supreme lord and
dictator was there, though hitherto unseen by any eyes not permitted to
penetrate into the now sacred retreat of the cabin.

Every time I ascended to the deck from my watches below, I instantly
gazed aft to mark if any strange face were visible; for my first vague
disquietude touching the unknown captain, now in the seclusion of the
sea, became almost a perturbation. This was strangely heightened at
times by the ragged Elijah’s diabolical incoherences uninvitedly
recurring to me, with a subtle energy I could not have before conceived
of. But poorly could I withstand them, much as in other moods I was
almost ready to smile at the solemn whimsicalities of that outlandish
prophet of the wharves. But whatever it was of apprehensiveness or
uneasiness—to call it so—which I felt, yet whenever I came to look
about me in the ship, it seemed against all warrantry to cherish such
emotions. For though the harpooneers, with the great body of the crew,
were a far more barbaric, heathenish, and motley set than any of the
tame merchant-ship companies which my previous experiences had made me
acquainted with, still I ascribed this—and rightly ascribed it—to the
fierce uniqueness of the very nature of that wild Scandinavian vocation
in which I had so abandonedly embarked. But it was especially the
aspect of the three chief officers of the ship, the mates, which was
most forcibly calculated to allay these colourless misgivings, and
induce confidence and cheerfulness in every presentment of the voyage.
Three better, more likely sea-officers and men, each in his own
different way, could not readily be found, and they were every one of
them Americans; a Nantucketer, a Vineyarder, a Cape man. Now, it being
Christmas when the ship shot from out her harbor, for a space we had
biting Polar weather, though all the time running away from it to the
southward; and by every degree and minute of latitude which we sailed,
gradually leaving that merciless winter, and all its intolerable
weather behind us. It was one of those less lowering, but still grey
and gloomy enough mornings of the transition, when with a fair wind the
ship was rushing through the water with a vindictive sort of leaping
and melancholy rapidity, that as I mounted to the deck at the call of
the forenoon watch, so soon as I levelled my glance towards the
taffrail, foreboding shivers ran over me. Reality outran apprehension;
Captain Ahab stood upon his quarter-deck.

There seemed no sign of common bodily illness about him, nor of the
recovery from any. He looked like a man cut away from the stake, when
the fire has overrunningly wasted all the limbs without consuming them,
or taking away one particle from their compacted aged robustness. His
whole high, broad form, seemed made of solid bronze, and shaped in an
unalterable mould, like Cellini’s cast Perseus. Threading its way out
from among his grey hairs, and continuing right down one side of his
tawny scorched face and neck, till it disappeared in his clothing, you
saw a slender rod-like mark, lividly whitish. It resembled that
perpendicular seam sometimes made in the straight, lofty trunk of a
great tree, when the upper lightning tearingly darts down it, and
without wrenching a single twig, peels and grooves out the bark from
top to bottom, ere running off into the soil, leaving the tree still
greenly alive, but branded. Whether that mark was born with him, or
whether it was the scar left by some desperate wound, no one could
certainly say. By some tacit consent, throughout the voyage little or
no allusion was made to it, especially by the mates. But once
Tashtego’s senior, an old Gay-Head Indian among the crew,
superstitiously asserted that not till he was full forty years old did
Ahab become that way branded, and then it came upon him, not in the
fury of any mortal fray, but in an elemental strife at sea. Yet, this
wild hint seemed inferentially negatived, by what a grey Manxman
insinuated, an old sepulchral man, who, having never before sailed out
of Nantucket, had never ere this laid eye upon wild Ahab. Nevertheless,
the old sea-traditions, the immemorial credulities, popularly invested
this old Manxman with preternatural powers of discernment. So that no
white sailor seriously contradicted him when he said that if ever
Captain Ahab should be tranquilly laid out—which might hardly come to
pass, so he muttered—then, whoever should do that last office for the
dead, would find a birth-mark on him from crown to sole.

So powerfully did the whole grim aspect of Ahab affect me, and the
livid brand which streaked it, that for the first few moments I hardly
noted that not a little of this overbearing grimness was owing to the
barbaric white leg upon which he partly stood. It had previously come
to me that this ivory leg had at sea been fashioned from the polished
bone of the sperm whale’s jaw. “Aye, he was dismasted off Japan,” said
the old Gay-Head Indian once; “but like his dismasted craft, he shipped
another mast without coming home for it. He has a quiver of ’em.”

I was struck with the singular posture he maintained. Upon each side of
the Pequod’s quarter deck, and pretty close to the mizzen shrouds,
there was an auger hole, bored about half an inch or so, into the
plank. His bone leg steadied in that hole; one arm elevated, and
holding by a shroud; Captain Ahab stood erect, looking straight out
beyond the ship’s ever-pitching prow. There was an infinity of firmest
fortitude, a determinate, unsurrenderable wilfulness, in the fixed and
fearless, forward dedication of that glance. Not a word he spoke; nor
did his officers say aught to him; though by all their minutest
gestures and expressions, they plainly showed the uneasy, if not
painful, consciousness of being under a troubled master-eye. And not
only that, but moody stricken Ahab stood before them with a crucifixion
in his face; in all the nameless regal overbearing dignity of some
mighty woe.

Ere long, from his first visit in the air, he withdrew into his cabin.
But after that morning, he was every day visible to the crew; either
standing in his pivot-hole, or seated upon an ivory stool he had; or
heavily walking the deck. As the sky grew less gloomy; indeed, began to
grow a little genial, he became still less and less a recluse; as if,
when the ship had sailed from home, nothing but the dead wintry
bleakness of the sea had then kept him so secluded. And, by and by, it
came to pass, that he was almost continually in the air; but, as yet,
for all that he said, or perceptibly did, on the at last sunny deck, he
seemed as unnecessary there as another mast. But the Pequod was only
making a passage now; not regularly cruising; nearly all whaling
preparatives needing supervision the mates were fully competent to, so
that there was little or nothing, out of himself, to employ or excite
Ahab, now; and thus chase away, for that one interval, the clouds that
layer upon layer were piled upon his brow, as ever all clouds choose
the loftiest peaks to pile themselves upon.

Nevertheless, ere long, the warm, warbling persuasiveness of the
pleasant, holiday weather we came to, seemed gradually to charm him
from his mood. For, as when the red-cheeked, dancing girls, April and
May, trip home to the wintry, misanthropic woods; even the barest,
ruggedest, most thunder-cloven old oak will at least send forth some
few green sprouts, to welcome such glad-hearted visitants; so Ahab did,
in the end, a little respond to the playful allurings of that girlish
air. More than once did he put forth the faint blossom of a look,
which, in any other man, would have soon flowered out in a smile.


CHAPTER 29. Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb.

Some days elapsed, and ice and icebergs all astern, the Pequod now went
rolling through the bright Quito spring, which, at sea, almost
perpetually reigns on the threshold of the eternal August of the
Tropic. The warmly cool, clear, ringing, perfumed, overflowing,
redundant days, were as crystal goblets of Persian sherbet, heaped
up—flaked up, with rose-water snow. The starred and stately nights
seemed haughty dames in jewelled velvets, nursing at home in lonely
pride, the memory of their absent conquering Earls, the golden helmeted
suns! For sleeping man, ’twas hard to choose between such winsome days
and such seducing nights. But all the witcheries of that unwaning
weather did not merely lend new spells and potencies to the outward
world. Inward they turned upon the soul, especially when the still mild
hours of eve came on; then, memory shot her crystals as the clear ice
most forms of noiseless twilights. And all these subtle agencies, more
and more they wrought on Ahab’s texture.

Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less
man has to do with aught that looks like death. Among sea-commanders,
the old greybeards will oftenest leave their berths to visit the
night-cloaked deck. It was so with Ahab; only that now, of late, he
seemed so much to live in the open air, that truly speaking, his visits
were more to the cabin, than from the cabin to the planks. “It feels
like going down into one’s tomb,”—he would mutter to himself—“for an
old captain like me to be descending this narrow scuttle, to go to my
grave-dug berth.”

So, almost every twenty-four hours, when the watches of the night were
set, and the band on deck sentinelled the slumbers of the band below;
and when if a rope was to be hauled upon the forecastle, the sailors
flung it not rudely down, as by day, but with some cautiousness dropt
it to its place for fear of disturbing their slumbering shipmates; when
this sort of steady quietude would begin to prevail, habitually, the
silent steersman would watch the cabin-scuttle; and ere long the old
man would emerge, gripping at the iron banister, to help his crippled
way. Some considering touch of humanity was in him; for at times like
these, he usually abstained from patrolling the quarter-deck; because
to his wearied mates, seeking repose within six inches of his ivory
heel, such would have been the reverberating crack and din of that bony
step, that their dreams would have been on the crunching teeth of
sharks. But once, the mood was on him too deep for common regardings;
and as with heavy, lumber-like pace he was measuring the ship from
taffrail to mainmast, Stubb, the old second mate, came up from below,
with a certain unassured, deprecating humorousness, hinted that if
Captain Ahab was pleased to walk the planks, then, no one could say
nay; but there might be some way of muffling the noise; hinting
something indistinctly and hesitatingly about a globe of tow, and the
insertion into it, of the ivory heel. Ah! Stubb, thou didst not know
Ahab then.

“Am I a cannon-ball, Stubb,” said Ahab, “that thou wouldst wad me that
fashion? But go thy ways; I had forgot. Below to thy nightly grave;
where such as ye sleep between shrouds, to use ye to the filling one at
last.—Down, dog, and kennel!”

Starting at the unforseen concluding exclamation of the so suddenly
scornful old man, Stubb was speechless a moment; then said excitedly,
“I am not used to be spoken to that way, sir; I do but less than half
like it, sir.”

“Avast! gritted Ahab between his set teeth, and violently moving away,
as if to avoid some passionate temptation.

“No, sir; not yet,” said Stubb, emboldened, “I will not tamely be
called a dog, sir.”

“Then be called ten times a donkey, and a mule, and an ass, and begone,
or I’ll clear the world of thee!”

As he said this, Ahab advanced upon him with such overbearing terrors
in his aspect, that Stubb involuntarily retreated.

“I was never served so before without giving a hard blow for it,”
muttered Stubb, as he found himself descending the cabin-scuttle. “It’s
very queer. Stop, Stubb; somehow, now, I don’t well know whether to go
back and strike him, or—what’s that?—down here on my knees and pray for
him? Yes, that was the thought coming up in me; but it would be the
first time I ever _did_ pray. It’s queer; very queer; and he’s queer
too; aye, take him fore and aft, he’s about the queerest old man Stubb
ever sailed with. How he flashed at me!—his eyes like powder-pans! is
he mad? Anyway there’s something on his mind, as sure as there must be
something on a deck when it cracks. He aint in his bed now, either,
more than three hours out of the twenty-four; and he don’t sleep then.
Didn’t that Dough-Boy, the steward, tell me that of a morning he always
finds the old man’s hammock clothes all rumpled and tumbled, and the
sheets down at the foot, and the coverlid almost tied into knots, and
the pillow a sort of frightful hot, as though a baked brick had been on
it? A hot old man! I guess he’s got what some folks ashore call a
conscience; it’s a kind of Tic-Dolly-row they say—worse nor a
toothache. Well, well; I don’t know what it is, but the Lord keep me
from catching it. He’s full of riddles; I wonder what he goes into the
after hold for, every night, as Dough-Boy tells me he suspects; what’s
that for, I should like to know? Who’s made appointments with him in
the hold? Ain’t that queer, now? But there’s no telling, it’s the old
game—Here goes for a snooze. Damn me, it’s worth a fellow’s while to be
born into the world, if only to fall right asleep. And now that I think
of it, that’s about the first thing babies do, and that’s a sort of
queer, too. Damn me, but all things are queer, come to think of ’em.
But that’s against my principles. Think not, is my eleventh
commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth—So here goes again.
But how’s that? didn’t he call me a dog? blazes! he called me ten times
a donkey, and piled a lot of jackasses on top of _that!_ He might as
well have kicked me, and done with it. Maybe he _did_ kick me, and I
didn’t observe it, I was so taken all aback with his brow, somehow. It
flashed like a bleached bone. What the devil’s the matter with me? I
don’t stand right on my legs. Coming afoul of that old man has a sort
of turned me wrong side out. By the Lord, I must have been dreaming,
though—How? how? how?—but the only way’s to stash it; so here goes to
hammock again; and in the morning, I’ll see how this plaguey juggling
thinks over by daylight.”


CHAPTER 30. The Pipe.

When Stubb had departed, Ahab stood for a while leaning over the
bulwarks; and then, as had been usual with him of late, calling a
sailor of the watch, he sent him below for his ivory stool, and also
his pipe. Lighting the pipe at the binnacle lamp and planting the stool
on the weather side of the deck, he sat and smoked.

In old Norse times, the thrones of the sea-loving Danish kings were
fabricated, saith tradition, of the tusks of the narwhale. How could
one look at Ahab then, seated on that tripod of bones, without
bethinking him of the royalty it symbolized? For a Khan of the plank,
and a king of the sea, and a great lord of Leviathans was Ahab.

Some moments passed, during which the thick vapor came from his mouth
in quick and constant puffs, which blew back again into his face. “How
now,” he soliloquized at last, withdrawing the tube, “this smoking no
longer soothes. Oh, my pipe! hard must it go with me if thy charm be
gone! Here have I been unconsciously toiling, not pleasuring—aye, and
ignorantly smoking to windward all the while; to windward, and with
such nervous whiffs, as if, like the dying whale, my final jets were
the strongest and fullest of trouble. What business have I with this
pipe? This thing that is meant for sereneness, to send up mild white
vapors among mild white hairs, not among torn iron-grey locks like
mine. I’ll smoke no more—”

He tossed the still lighted pipe into the sea. The fire hissed in the
waves; the same instant the ship shot by the bubble the sinking pipe
made. With slouched hat, Ahab lurchingly paced the planks.


CHAPTER 31. Queen Mab.

Next morning Stubb accosted Flask.

“Such a queer dream, King-Post, I never had. You know the old man’s
ivory leg, well I dreamed he kicked me with it; and when I tried to
kick back, upon my soul, my little man, I kicked my leg right off! And
then, presto! Ahab seemed a pyramid, and I, like a blazing fool, kept
kicking at it. But what was still more curious, Flask—you know how
curious all dreams are—through all this rage that I was in, I somehow
seemed to be thinking to myself, that after all, it was not much of an
insult, that kick from Ahab. ‘Why,’ thinks I, ‘what’s the row? It’s not
a real leg, only a false leg.’ And there’s a mighty difference between
a living thump and a dead thump. That’s what makes a blow from the
hand, Flask, fifty times more savage to bear than a blow from a cane.
The living member—that makes the living insult, my little man. And
thinks I to myself all the while, mind, while I was stubbing my silly
toes against that cursed pyramid—so confoundedly contradictory was it
all, all the while, I say, I was thinking to myself, ‘what’s his leg
now, but a cane—a whalebone cane. Yes,’ thinks I, ‘it was only a
playful cudgelling—in fact, only a whaleboning that he gave me—not a
base kick. Besides,’ thinks I, ‘look at it once; why, the end of it—the
foot part—what a small sort of end it is; whereas, if a broad footed
farmer kicked me, _there’s_ a devilish broad insult. But this insult is
whittled down to a point only.’ But now comes the greatest joke of the
dream, Flask. While I was battering away at the pyramid, a sort of
badger-haired old merman, with a hump on his back, takes me by the
shoulders, and slews me round. ‘What are you ’bout?’ says he. Slid!
man, but I was frightened. Such a phiz! But, somehow, next moment I was
over the fright. ‘What am I about?’ says I at last. ‘And what business
is that of yours, I should like to know, Mr. Humpback? Do _you_ want a
kick?’ By the lord, Flask, I had no sooner said that, than he turned
round his stern to me, bent over, and dragging up a lot of seaweed he
had for a clout—what do you think, I saw?—why thunder alive, man, his
stern was stuck full of marlinspikes, with the points out. Says I, on
second thoughts, ‘I guess I won’t kick you, old fellow.’ ‘Wise Stubb,’
said he, ‘wise Stubb;’ and kept muttering it all the time, a sort of
eating of his own gums like a chimney hag. Seeing he wasn’t going to
stop saying over his ‘wise Stubb, wise Stubb,’ I thought I might as
well fall to kicking the pyramid again. But I had only just lifted my
foot for it, when he roared out, ‘Stop that kicking!’ ‘Halloa,’ says I,
‘what’s the matter now, old fellow?’ ‘Look ye here,’ says he; ‘let’s
argue the insult. Captain Ahab kicked ye, didn’t he?’ ‘Yes, he did,’
says I—‘right _here_ it was.’ ‘Very good,’ says he—‘he used his ivory
leg, didn’t he?’ ‘Yes, he did,’ says I. ‘Well then,’ says he, ‘wise
Stubb, what have you to complain of? Didn’t he kick with right good
will? it wasn’t a common pitch pine leg he kicked with, was it? No, you
were kicked by a great man, and with a beautiful ivory leg, Stubb. It’s
an honor; I consider it an honor. Listen, wise Stubb. In old England
the greatest lords think it great glory to be slapped by a queen, and
made garter-knights of; but, be _your_ boast, Stubb, that ye were
kicked by old Ahab, and made a wise man of. Remember what I say; _be_
kicked by him; account his kicks honors; and on no account kick back;
for you can’t help yourself, wise Stubb. Don’t you see that pyramid?’
With that, he all of a sudden seemed somehow, in some queer fashion, to
swim off into the air. I snored; rolled over; and there I was in my
hammock! Now, what do you think of that dream, Flask?”

“I don’t know; it seems a sort of foolish to me, tho.’”

“May be; may be. But it’s made a wise man of me, Flask. D’ye see Ahab
standing there, sideways looking over the stern? Well, the best thing
you can do, Flask, is to let the old man alone; never speak to him,
whatever he says. Halloa! What’s that he shouts? Hark!”

“Mast-head, there! Look sharp, all of ye! There are whales hereabouts!

“If ye see a white one, split your lungs for him!

“What do you think of that now, Flask? ain’t there a small drop of
something queer about that, eh? A white whale—did ye mark that, man?
Look ye—there’s something special in the wind. Stand by for it, Flask.
Ahab has that that’s bloody on his mind. But, mum; he comes this way.”


CHAPTER 32. Cetology.

Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost
in its unshored, harbourless immensities. Ere that come to pass; ere
the Pequod’s weedy hull rolls side by side with the barnacled hulls of
the leviathan; at the outset it is but well to attend to a matter
almost indispensable to a thorough appreciative understanding of the
more special leviathanic revelations and allusions of all sorts which
are to follow.

It is some systematized exhibition of the whale in his broad genera,
that I would now fain put before you. Yet is it no easy task. The
classification of the constituents of a chaos, nothing less is here
essayed. Listen to what the best and latest authorities have laid down.

“No branch of Zoology is so much involved as that which is entitled
Cetology,” says Captain Scoresby, A.D. 1820.

“It is not my intention, were it in my power, to enter into the inquiry
as to the true method of dividing the cetacea into groups and families.
* * * Utter confusion exists among the historians of this animal”
(sperm whale), says Surgeon Beale, A.D. 1839.

“Unfitness to pursue our research in the unfathomable waters.”
“Impenetrable veil covering our knowledge of the cetacea.” “A field
strewn with thorns.” “All these incomplete indications but serve to
torture us naturalists.”

Thus speak of the whale, the great Cuvier, and John Hunter, and Lesson,
those lights of zoology and anatomy. Nevertheless, though of real
knowledge there be little, yet of books there are a plenty; and so in
some small degree, with cetology, or the science of whales. Many are
the men, small and great, old and new, landsmen and seamen, who have at
large or in little, written of the whale. Run over a few:—The Authors
of the Bible; Aristotle; Pliny; Aldrovandi; Sir Thomas Browne; Gesner;
Ray; Linnæus; Rondeletius; Willoughby; Green; Artedi; Sibbald; Brisson;
Marten; Lacépède; Bonneterre; Desmarest; Baron Cuvier; Frederick
Cuvier; John Hunter; Owen; Scoresby; Beale; Bennett; J. Ross Browne;
the Author of Miriam Coffin; Olmstead; and the Rev. T. Cheever. But to
what ultimate generalizing purpose all these have written, the above
cited extracts will show.

Of the names in this list of whale authors, only those following Owen
ever saw living whales; and but one of them was a real professional
harpooneer and whaleman. I mean Captain Scoresby. On the separate
subject of the Greenland or right-whale, he is the best existing
authority. But Scoresby knew nothing and says nothing of the great
sperm whale, compared with which the Greenland whale is almost unworthy
mentioning. And here be it said, that the Greenland whale is an usurper
upon the throne of the seas. He is not even by any means the largest of
the whales. Yet, owing to the long priority of his claims, and the
profound ignorance which, till some seventy years back, invested the
then fabulous or utterly unknown sperm-whale, and which ignorance to
this present day still reigns in all but some few scientific retreats
and whale-ports; this usurpation has been every way complete. Reference
to nearly all the leviathanic allusions in the great poets of past
days, will satisfy you that the Greenland whale, without one rival, was
to them the monarch of the seas. But the time has at last come for a
new proclamation. This is Charing Cross; hear ye! good people all,—the
Greenland whale is deposed,—the great sperm whale now reigneth!

There are only two books in being which at all pretend to put the
living sperm whale before you, and at the same time, in the remotest
degree succeed in the attempt. Those books are Beale’s and Bennett’s;
both in their time surgeons to English South-Sea whale-ships, and both
exact and reliable men. The original matter touching the sperm whale to
be found in their volumes is necessarily small; but so far as it goes,
it is of excellent quality, though mostly confined to scientific
description. As yet, however, the sperm whale, scientific or poetic,
lives not complete in any literature. Far above all other hunted
whales, his is an unwritten life.

Now the various species of whales need some sort of popular
comprehensive classification, if only an easy outline one for the
present, hereafter to be filled in all its departments by subsequent
laborers. As no better man advances to take this matter in hand, I
hereupon offer my own poor endeavors. I promise nothing complete;
because any human thing supposed to be complete, must for that very
reason infallibly be faulty. I shall not pretend to a minute anatomical
description of the various species, or—in this place at least—to much
of any description. My object here is simply to project the draught of
a systematization of cetology. I am the architect, not the builder.

But it is a ponderous task; no ordinary letter-sorter in the
Post-Office is equal to it. To grope down into the bottom of the sea
after them; to have one’s hands among the unspeakable foundat

am glad to find that you do
not depend on her serving you.”

Mrs. Bennet deigned not to make any reply; but, unable to contain
herself, began scolding one of her daughters.

“Don’t keep coughing so, Kitty, for heaven’s sake! Have a little
compassion on my nerves. You tear them to pieces.”

“Kitty has no discretion in her coughs,” said her father; “she times
them ill.”

“I do not cough for my own amusement,” replied Kitty, fretfully. “When
is your next ball to be, Lizzy?”

“To-morrow fortnight.”

“Ay, so it is,” cried her mother, “and Mrs. Long does not come back till
the day before; so, it will be impossible for her to introduce him, for
she will not know him herself.”

“Then, my dear, you may have the advantage of your friend, and introduce
Mr. Bingley to _her_.”

“Impossible, Mr. Bennet, impossible, when I am not acquainted with him
myself; how can you be so teasing?”

“I honour your circumspection. A fortnight’s acquaintance is certainly
very little. One cannot know what a man really is by the end of a
fortnight. But if _we_ do not venture, somebody else will; and after
all, Mrs. Long and her nieces must stand their chance; and, therefore,
as she will think it an act of kindness, if you decline the office, I
will take it on myself.”

The girls stared at their father. Mrs. Bennet said only, “Nonsense,
nonsense!”

“What can be the meaning of that emphatic exclamation?” cried he. “Do
you consider the forms of introduction, and the stress that is laid on
them, as nonsense? I cannot quite agree with you _there_. What say you,
Mary? For you are a young lady of deep reflection, I know, and read
great books, and make extracts.”

Mary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how.

“While Mary is adjusting her ideas,” he continued, “let us return to Mr.
Bingley.”

“I am sick of Mr. Bingley,” cried his wife.

“I am sorry to hear _that_; but why did you not tell me so before? If I
had known as much this morning, I certainly would not have called on
him. It is very unlucky; but as I have actually paid the visit, we
cannot escape the acquaintance now.”

The astonishment of the ladies was just what he wished--that of Mrs.
Bennet perhaps surpassing the rest; though when the first tumult of joy
was over, she began to declare that it was what she had expected all the
while.

“How good it was in you, my dear Mr. Bennet! But I knew I should
persuade you at last. I was sure you loved your girls too well to
neglect such an acquaintance. Well, how pleased I am! And it is such a
good joke, too, that you should have gone this morning, and never said a
word about it till now.”

“Now, Kitty, you may cough as much as you choose,” said Mr. Bennet; and,
as he spoke, he left the room, fatigued with the raptures of his wife.

“What an excellent father you have, girls,” said she, when the door was
shut. “I do not know how you will ever make him amends for his kindness;
or me either, for that matter. At our time of life, it is not so
pleasant, I can tell you, to be making new acquaintances every day; but
for your sakes we would do anything. Lydia, my love, though you _are_
the youngest, I dare say Mr. Bingley will dance with you at the next
ball.”

“Oh,” said Lydia, stoutly, “I am not afraid; for though I _am_ the
youngest, I’m the tallest.”

The rest of the evening was spent in conjecturing how soon he would
return Mr. Bennet’s visit, and determining when they should ask him to
dinner.

[Illustration: “I’m the tallest”]




[Illustration:

     “He rode a black horse”
]




CHAPTER III.


[Illustration]

Not all that Mrs. Bennet, however, with the assistance of her five
daughters, could ask on the subject, was sufficient to draw from her
husband any satisfactory description of Mr. Bingley. They attacked him
in various ways, with barefaced questions, ingenious suppositions, and
distant surmises; but he eluded the skill of them all; and they were at
last obliged to accept the second-hand intelligence of their neighbour,
Lady Lucas. Her report was highly favourable. Sir William had been
delighted with him. He was quite young, wonderfully handsome, extremely
agreeable, and, to crown the whole, he meant to be at the next assembly
with a large party. Nothing could be more delightful! To be fond of
dancing was a certain step towards falling in love; and very lively
hopes of Mr. Bingley’s heart were entertained.

“If I can but see one of my daughters happily settled at Netherfield,”
said Mrs. Bennet to her husband, “and all the others equally well
married, I shall have nothing to wish for.”

In a few days Mr. Bingley returned Mr. Bennet’s visit, and sat about ten
minutes with him in his library. He had entertained hopes of being
admitted to a sight of the young ladies, of whose beauty he had heard
much; but he saw only the father. The ladies were somewhat more
fortunate, for they had the advantage of ascertaining, from an upper
window, that he wore a blue coat and rode a black horse.

An invitation to dinner was soon afterwards despatched; and already had
Mrs. Bennet planned the courses that were to do credit to her
housekeeping, when an answer arrived which deferred it all. Mr. Bingley
was obliged to be in town the following day, and consequently unable to
accept the honour of their invitation, etc. Mrs. Bennet was quite
disconcerted. She could not imagine what business he could have in town
so soon after his arrival in Hertfordshire; and she began to fear that
he might always be flying about from one place to another, and never
settled at Netherfield as he ought to be. Lady Lucas quieted her fears a
little by starting the idea of his

[Illustration:

     “When the Party entered”

[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]

being gone to London only to get a large party for the ball; and a
report soon followed that Mr. Bingley was to bring twelve ladies and
seven gentlemen with him to the assembly. The girls grieved over such a
number of ladies; but were comforted the day before the ball by hearing
that, instead of twelve, he had brought only six with him from London,
his five sisters and a cousin. And when the party entered the
assembly-room, it consisted of only five altogether: Mr. Bingley, his
two sisters, the husband of the eldest, and another young man.

Mr. Bingley was good-looking and gentlemanlike: he had a pleasant
countenance, and easy, unaffected manners. His sisters were fine women,
with an air of decided fashion. His brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst, merely
looked the gentleman; but his friend Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention
of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and
the report, which was in general circulation within five minutes after
his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year. The gentlemen
pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was
much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great
admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust
which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be
proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his
large estate in Derbyshire could save him from having a most forbidding,
disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his
friend.

Mr. Bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal
people in the room: he was lively and unreserved, danced every dance,
was angry that the ball closed so early, and talked of giving one
himself at Netherfield. Such amiable qualities must speak for
themselves. What a contrast between him and his friend! Mr. Darcy danced
only once with Mrs. Hurst and once with Miss Bingley, declined being
introduced to any other lady, and spent the rest of the evening in
walking about the room, speaking occasionally to one of his own party.
His character was decided. He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in
the world, and everybody hoped that he would never come there again.
Amongst the most violent against him was Mrs. Bennet, whose dislike of
his general behaviour was sharpened into particular resentment by his
having slighted one of her daughters.

Elizabeth Bennet had been obliged, by the scarcity of gentlemen, to sit
down for two dances; and during part of that time, Mr. Darcy had been
standing near enough for her to overhear a conversation between him and
Mr. Bingley, who came from the dance for a few minutes to press his
friend to join it.

“Come, Darcy,” said he, “I must have you dance. I hate to see you
standing about by yourself in this stupid manner. You had much better
dance.”

“I certainly shall not. You know how I detest it, unless I am
particularly acquainted with my partner. At such an assembly as this, it
would be insupportable. Your sisters are engaged, and there is not
another woman in the room whom it would not be a punishment to me to
stand up with.”

“I would not be so fastidious as you are,” cried Bingley, “for a
kingdom! Upon my honour, I never met with so many pleasant girls in my
life as I have this evening; and there are several of them, you see,
uncommonly pretty.”

“_You_ are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room,” said Mr.
Darcy, looking at the eldest Miss Bennet.

“Oh, she is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld! But there is one
of her sisters sitting down just behind you, who is very pretty, and I
dare say very agreeable. Do let me ask my partner to introduce you.”

[Illustration:

“She is tolerable”

[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]

“Which do you mean?” and turning round, he looked for a moment at
Elizabeth, till, catching her eye, he withdrew his own, and coldly said,
“She is tolerable: but not handsome enough to tempt _me_; and I am in no
humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted
by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her
smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.”

Mr. Bingley followed his advice. Mr. Darcy walked off; and Elizabeth
remained with no very cordial feelings towards him. She told the story,
however, with great spirit among her friends; for she had a lively,
playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous.

The evening altogether passed off pleasantly to the whole family. Mrs.
Bennet had seen her eldest daughter much admired by the Netherfield
party. Mr. Bingley had danced with her twice, and she had been
distinguished by his sisters. Jane was as much gratified by this as her
mother could be, though in a quieter way. Elizabeth felt Jane’s
pleasure. Mary had heard herself mentioned to Miss Bingley as the most
accomplished girl in the neighbourhood; and Catherine and Lydia had been
fortunate enough to be never without partners, which was all that they
had yet learnt to care for at a ball. They returned, therefore, in good
spirits to Longbourn, the village where they lived, and of which they
were the principal inhabitants. They found Mr. Bennet still up. With a
book, he was regardless of time; and on the present occasion he had a
good deal of curiosity as to the event of an evening which had raised
such splendid expectations. He had rather hoped that all his wife’s
views on the stranger would be disappointed; but he soon found that he
had a very different story to hear.

“Oh, my dear Mr. Bennet,” as she entered the room, “we have had a most
delightful evening, a most excellent ball. I wish you had been there.
Jane was so admired, nothing could be like it. Everybody said how well
she looked; and Mr. Bingley thought her quite beautiful, and danced with
her twice. Only think of _that_, my dear: he actually danced with her
twice; and she was the only creature in the room that he asked a second
time. First of all, he asked Miss Lucas. I was so vexed to see him stand
up with her; but, however, he did not admire her at all; indeed, nobody
can, you know; and he seemed quite struck with Jane as she was going
down the dance. So he inquired who she was, and got introduced, and
asked her for the two next. Then, the two third he danced with Miss
King, and the two fourth with Maria Lucas, and the two fifth with Jane
again, and the two sixth with Lizzy, and the _Boulanger_----”

“If he had had any compassion for _me_,” cried her husband impatiently,
“he would not have danced half so much! For God’s sake, say no more of
his partners. O that he had sprained his ancle in the first dance!”

“Oh, my dear,” continued Mrs. Bennet, “I am quite delighted with him. He
is so excessively handsome! and his sisters are charming women. I never
in my life saw anything more elegant than their dresses. I dare say the
lace upon Mrs. Hurst’s gown----”

Here she was interrupted again. Mr. Bennet protested against any
description of finery. She was therefore obliged to seek another branch
of the subject, and related, with much bitterness of spirit, and some
exaggeration, the shocking rudeness of Mr. Darcy.

“But I can assure you,” she added, “that Lizzy does not lose much by not
suiting _his_ fancy; for he is a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at
all worth pleasing. So high and so conceited, that there was no enduring
him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very
great! Not handsome enough to dance with! I wish you had been there, my
dear, to have given him one of your set-downs. I quite detest the man.”




[Illustration]




CHAPTER IV.


[Illustration]

When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the former, who had been cautious in
her praise of Mr. Bingley before, expressed to her sister how very much
she admired him.

“He is just what a young-man ought to be,” said she, “sensible,
good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! so much ease,
with such perfect good breeding!”

“He is also handsome,” replied Elizabeth, “which a young man ought
likewise to be if he possibly can. His character is thereby complete.”

“I was very much flattered by his asking me to dance a second time. I
did not expect such a compliment.”

“Did not you? _I_ did for you. But that is one great difference between
us. Compliments always take _you_ by surprise, and _me_ never. What
could be more natural than his asking you again? He could not help
seeing that you were about five times as pretty as every other woman in
the room. No thanks to his gallantry for that. Well, he certainly is
very agreeable, and I give you leave to like him. You have liked many a
stupider person.”

“Dear Lizzy!”

“Oh, you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general.
You never see a fault in anybody. All the world are good and agreeable
in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in my life.”

“I would wish not to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always speak
what I think.”

“I know you do: and it is _that_ which makes the wonder. With _your_
good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of
others! Affectation of candour is common enough; one meets with it
everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design,--to take the
good of everybody’s character and make it still better, and say nothing
of the bad,--belongs to you alone. And so, you like this man’s sisters,
too, do you? Their manners are not equal to his.”

“Certainly not, at first; but they are very pleasing women when you
converse with them. Miss Bingley is to live with her brother, and keep
his house; and I am much mistaken if we shall not find a very charming
neighbour in her.”

Elizabeth listened in silence, but was not convinced: their behaviour at
the assembly had not been calculated to please in general; and with more
quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and
with a judgment, too, unassailed by any attention to herself, she was
very little disposed to approve them. They were, in fact, very fine
ladies; not deficient in good-humour when they were pleased, nor in the
power of being agreeable where they chose it; but proud and conceited.
They were rather handsome; had been educated in one of the first private
seminaries in town; had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds; were in the
habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people
of rank; and were, therefore, in every respect entitled to think well of
themselves and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in
the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their
memories than that their brother’s fortune and their own had been
acquired by trade.

Mr. Bingley inherited property to the amount of nearly a hundred
thousand pounds from his father, who had intended to purchase an estate,
but did not live to do it. Mr. Bingley intended it likewise, and
sometimes made choice of his county; but, as he was now provided with a
good house and the liberty of a manor, it was doubtful to many of those
who best knew the easiness of his temper, whether he might not spend the
remainder of his days at Netherfield, and leave the next generation to
purchase.

His sisters were very anxious for his having an estate of his own; but
though he was now established only as a tenant, Miss Bingley was by no
means unwilling to preside at his table; nor was Mrs. Hurst, who had
married a man of more fashion than fortune, less disposed to consider
his house as her home when it suited her. Mr. Bingley had not been of
age two years when he was tempted, by an accidental recommendation, to
look at Netherfield House. He did look at it, and into it, for half an
hour; was pleased with the situation and the principal rooms, satisfied
with what the owner said in its praise, and took it immediately.

Between him and Darcy there was a very steady friendship, in spite of a
great opposition of character. Bingley was endeared to Darcy by the
easiness, openness, and ductility of his temper, though no disposition
could offer a greater contrast to his own, and though with his own he
never appeared dissatisfied. On the strength of Darcy’s regard, Bingley
had the firmest reliance, and of his judgment the highest opinion. In
understanding, Darcy was the superior. Bingley was by no means
deficient; but Darcy was clever. He was at the same time haughty,
reserved, and fastidious; and his manners, though well bred, were not
inviting. In that respect his friend had greatly the advantage. Bingley
was sure of being liked wherever he appeared; Darcy was continually
giving offence.

The manner in which they spoke of the Meryton assembly was sufficiently
characteristic. Bingley had never met with pleasanter people or prettier
girls in his life; everybody had been most kind and attentive to him;
there had been no formality, no stiffness; he had soon felt acquainted
with all the room; and as to Miss Bennet, he could not conceive an angel
more beautiful. Darcy, on the contrary, had seen a collection of people
in whom there was little beauty and no fashion, for none of whom he had
felt the smallest interest, and from none received either attention or
pleasure. Miss Bennet he acknowledged to be pretty; but she smiled too
much.

Mrs. Hurst and her sister allowed it to be so; but still they admired
her and liked her, and pronounced her to be a sweet girl, and one whom
they should not object to know more of. Miss Bennet was therefore
established as a sweet girl; and their brother felt authorized by such
commendation to think of her as he chose.




[Illustration: [_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]




CHAPTER V.


[Illustration]

Within a short walk of Longbourn lived a family with whom the Bennets
were particularly intimate. Sir William Lucas had been formerly in trade
in Meryton, where he had made a tolerable fortune, and risen to the
honour of knighthood by an address to the king during his mayoralty. The
distinction had, perhaps, been felt too strongly. It had given him a
disgust to his business and to his residence in a small market town;
and, quitting them both, he had removed with his family to a house about
a mile from Meryton, denominated from that period Lucas Lodge; where he
could think with pleasure of his own importance, and, unshackled by
business, occupy himself solely in being civil to all the world. For,
though elated by his rank, it did not render him supercilious; on the
contrary, he was all attention to everybody. By nature inoffensive,
friendly, and obliging, his presentation at St. James’s had made him
courteous.

Lady Lucas was a very good kind of woman, not too clever to be a
valuable neighbour to Mrs. Bennet. They had several children. The eldest
of them, a sensible, intelligent young woman, about twenty-seven, was
Elizabeth’s intimate friend.

That the Miss Lucases and the Miss Bennets should meet to talk over a
ball was absolutely necessary; and the morning after the assembly
brought the former to Longbourn to hear and to communicate.

“_You_ began the evening well, Charlotte,” said Mrs. Bennet, with civil
self-command, to Miss Lucas. “_You_ were Mr. Bingley’s first choice.”

“Yes; but he seemed to like his second better.”

“Oh, you mean Jane, I suppose, because he danced with her twice. To be
sure that _did_ seem as if he admired her--indeed, I rather believe he
_did_--I heard something about it--but I hardly know what--something
about Mr. Robinson.”

“Perhaps you mean what I overheard between him and Mr. Robinson: did not
I mention it to you? Mr. Robinson’s asking him how he liked our Meryton
assemblies, and whether he did not think there were a great many pretty
women in the room, and _which_ he thought the prettiest? and his
answering immediately to the last question, ‘Oh, the eldest Miss Bennet,
beyond a doubt: there cannot be two opinions on that point.’”

“Upon my word! Well, that was very decided, indeed--that does seem as
if--but, however, it may all come to nothing, you know.”

“_My_ overhearings were more to the purpose than _yours_, Eliza,” said
Charlotte. “Mr. Darcy is not so well worth listening to as his friend,
is he? Poor Eliza! to be only just _tolerable_.”

“I beg you will not put it into Lizzy’s head to be vexed by his
ill-treatment, for he is such a disagreeable man that it would be quite
a misfortune to be liked by him. Mrs. Long told me last night that he
sat close to her for half an hour without once opening his lips.”

[Illustration: “Without once opening his lips”

[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]

“Are you quite sure, ma’am? Is not there a little mistake?” said Jane.
“I certainly saw Mr. Darcy speaking to her.”

“Ay, because she asked him at last how he liked Netherfield, and he
could not help answering her; but she said he seemed very angry at being
spoke to.”

“Miss Bingley told me,” said Jane, “that he never speaks much unless
among his intimate acquaintance. With _them_ he is remarkably
agreeable.”

“I do not believe a word of it, my dear. If he had been so very
agreeable, he would have talked to Mrs. Long. But I can guess how it
was; everybody says that he is eat up with pride, and I dare say he had
heard somehow that Mrs. Long does not keep a carriage, and had to come
to the ball in a hack chaise.”

“I do not mind his not talking to Mrs. Long,” said Miss Lucas, “but I
wish he had danced with Eliza.”

“Another time, Lizzy,” said her mother, “I would not dance with _him_,
if I were you.”

“I believe, ma’am, I may safely promise you _never_ to dance with him.”

“His pride,” said Miss Lucas, “does not offend _me_ so much as pride
often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so
very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour,
should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a _right_
to be proud.”

“That is very true,” replied Elizabeth, “and I could easily forgive
_his_ pride, if he had not mortified _mine_.”

“Pride,” observed Mary, who piqued herself upon the solidity of her
reflections, “is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have
ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human
nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us
who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some
quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different
things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be
proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of
ourselves; vanity to what we would have others think of us.”

“If I were as rich as Mr. Darcy,” cried a young Lucas, who came with his
sisters, “I should not care how proud I was. I would keep a pack of
foxhounds, and drink a bottle of wine every day.”

“Then you would drink a great deal more than you ought,” said Mrs.
Bennet; “and if I were to see you at it, I should take away your bottle
directly.”

The boy protested that she should not; she continued to declare that she
would; and the argument ended only with the visit.

[Illustration]




[Illustration]




CHAPTER VI.


[Illustration]

The ladies of Longbourn soon waited on those of Netherfield. The visit
was returned in due form. Miss Bennet’s pleasing manners grew on the
good-will of Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley; and though the mother was
found to be intolerable, and the younger sisters not worth speaking to,
a wish of being better acquainted with _them_ was expressed towards the
two eldest. By Jane this attention was received with the greatest
pleasure; but Elizabeth still saw superciliousness in their treatment of
everybody, hardly excepting even her sister, and could not like them;
though their kindness to Jane, such as it was, had a value, as arising,
in all probability, from the influence of their brother’s admiration. It
was generally evident, whenever they met, that he _did_ admire her; and
to _her_ it was equally evident that Jane was yielding to the preference
which she had begun to entertain for him from the first, and was in a
way to be very much in love; but she considered with pleasure that it
was not likely to be discovered by the world in general, since Jane
united with great strength of feeling, a composure of temper and an
uniform cheerfulness of manner, which would guard her from the
suspicions of the impertinent. She mentioned this to her friend, Miss
Lucas.

“It may, perhaps, be pleasant,” replied Charlotte, “to be able to impose
on the public in such a case; but it is sometimes a disadvantage to be
so very guarded. If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill
from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and
it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the
dark. There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every
attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself. We can all
_begin_ freely--a slight preference is natural enough; but there are
very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without
encouragement. In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show _more_
affection than she feels. Bingley likes your sister undoubtedly; but he
may never do more than like her, if she does not help him on.”

“But she does help him on, as much as her nature will allow. If _I_ can
perceive her regard for him, he must be a simpleton indeed not to
discover it too.”

“Remember, Eliza, that he does not know Jane’s disposition as you do.”

“But if a woman is partial to a man, and does not endeavor to conceal
it, he must find it out.”

“Perhaps he must, if he sees enough of her. But though Bingley and Jane
meet tolerably often, it is never for many hours together; and as they
always see each other in large mixed parties, it is impossible that
every moment should be employed in conversing together. Jane should
therefore make the most of every half hour in which she can command his
attention. When she is secure of him, there will be leisure for falling
in love as much as she chooses.”

“Your plan is a good one,” replied Elizabeth, “where nothing is in
question but the desire of being well married; and if I were determined
to get a rich husband, or any husband, I dare say I should adopt it. But
these are not Jane’s feelings; she is not acting by design. As yet she
cannot even be certain of the degree of her own regard, nor of its
reasonableness. She has known him only a fortnight. She danced four
dances with him at Meryton; she saw him one morning at his own house,
and has since dined in company with him four times. This is not quite
enough to make her understand his character.”

“Not as you represent it. Had she merely _dined_ with him, she might
only have discovered whether he had a good appetite; but you must
remember that four evenings have been also spent together--and four
evenings may do a great deal.”

“Yes: these four evenings have enabled them to ascertain that they both
like Vingt-un better than Commerce, but with respect to any other
leading characteristic, I do not imagine that much has been unfolded.”

“Well,” said Charlotte, “I wish Jane success with all my heart; and if
she were married to him to-morrow, I should think she had as good a
chance of happiness as if she were to be studying his character for a
twelvemonth. Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If
the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other, or
ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the
least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to
have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as
possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your
life.”

“You make me laugh, Charlotte; but it is not sound. You know it is not
sound, and that you would never act in this way yourself.”

Occupied in observing Mr. Bingley’s attention to her sister, Elizabeth
was far from suspecting that she was herself becoming an object of some
interest in the eyes of his friend. Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely
allowed her to be pretty: he had looked at her without admiration at the
ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticise. But no
sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she had
hardly a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered
uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To
this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying. Though he had
detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect symmetry
in her form, he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and
pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those
of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness. Of
this she was perfectly unaware: to her he was only the man who made
himself agreeable nowhere, and who had not thought her handsome enough
to dance with.

He began to wish to know more of her; and, as a step towards conversing
with her himself, attended to her conversation with others. His doing so
drew her notice. It was at Sir William Lucas’s, where a large party were
assembled.

“What does Mr. Darcy mean,” said she to Charlotte, “by listening to my
conversation with Colonel Forster?”

“That is a question which Mr. Darcy only can answer.”

“But if he does it any more, I shall certainly let him know that I see
what he is about. He has a very satirical eye, and if I do not begin by
being impertinent myself, I shall soon grow afraid of him.”

[Illustration: “The entreaties of several” [_Copyright 1894 by George
Allen._]]

On his approaching them soon afterwards, though without seeming to have
any intention of speaking, Miss Lucas defied her friend to mention such
a subject to him, which immediately provoking Elizabeth to do it, she
turned to him and said,--

“Did not you think, Mr. Darcy, that I expressed myself uncommonly well
just now, when I was teasing Colonel Forster to give us a ball at
Meryton?”

“With great energy; but it is a subject which always makes a lady
energetic.”

“You are severe on us.”

“It will be _her_ turn soon to be teased,” said Miss Lucas. “I am going
to open the instrument, Eliza, and you know what follows.”

“You are a very strange creature by way of a friend!--always wanting me
to play and sing before anybody and everybody! If my vanity had taken a
musical turn, you would have been invaluable; but as it is, I would
really rather not sit down before those who must be in the habit of
hearing the very best performers.” On Miss Lucas’s persevering, however,
she added, “Very well; if it must be so, it must.” And gravely glancing
at Mr. Darcy, “There is a very fine old saying, which everybody here is
of course familiar with--‘Keep your breath to cool your porridge,’--and
I shall keep mine to swell my song.”

Her performance was pleasing, though by no means capital. After a song
or two, and before she could reply to the entreaties of several that she
would sing again, she was eagerly succeeded at the instrument by her
sister Mary, who having, in consequence of being the only plain one in
the family, worked hard for knowledge and accomplishments, was always
impatient for display.

Mary had neither genius nor taste; and though vanity had given her
application, it had given her likewise a pedantic air and conceited
manner, which would have injured a higher degree of excellence than she
had reached. Elizabeth, easy and unaffected, had been listened to with
much more pleasure, though not playing half so well; and Mary, at the
end of a long concerto, was glad to purchase praise and gratitude by
Scotch and Irish airs, at the request of her younger sisters, who with
some of the Lucases, and two or three officers, joined eagerly in
dancing at one end of the room.

Mr. Darcy stood near them in silent indignation at such a mode of
passing the evening, to the exclusion of all conversation, and was too
much engrossed by his own thoughts to perceive that Sir William Lucas
was his neighbour, till Sir William thus began:--

“What a charming amusement for young people this is, Mr. Darcy! There is
nothing like dancing, after all. I consider it as one of the first
refinements of polished societies.”

“Certainly, sir; and it has the advantage also of being in vogue amongst
the less polished societies of the world: every savage can dance.”

Sir William only smiled. “Your friend performs delightfully,” he
continued, after a pause, on seeing Bingley join the group; “and I doubt
not that you are an adept in the science yourself, Mr. Darcy.”

“You saw me dance at Meryton, I believe, sir.”

“Yes, indeed, and received no inconsiderable pleasure from the sight. Do
you often dance at St. James’s?”

“Never, sir.”

“Do you not think it would be a proper compliment to the place?”

“It is a compliment which I never pay to any place if I can avoid it.”

“You have a house in town, I conclude?”

Mr. Darcy bowed.

“I had once some thoughts of fixing in town myself, for I am fond of
superior society; but I did not feel quite certain that the air of
London would agree with Lady Lucas.”

He paused in hopes of an answer: but his companion was not disposed to
make any; and Elizabeth at that instant moving towards them, he was
struck with the notion of doing a very gallant thing, and called out to
her,--

“My dear Miss Eliza, why are not you dancing? Mr. Darcy, you must allow
me to present this young lady to you as a very desirable partner. You
cannot refuse to dance, I am sure, when so much beauty is before you.”
And, taking her hand, he would have given it to Mr. Darcy, who, though
extremely surprised, was not unwilling to receive it, when she instantly
drew back, and said with some discomposure to Sir William,--

“Indeed, sir, I have not the least intention of dancing. I entreat you
not to suppose that I moved this way in order to beg for a partner.”

Mr. Darcy, with grave propriety, requested to be allowed the honour of
her hand, but in vain. Elizabeth was determined; nor did Sir William at
all shake her purpose by his attempt at persuasion.

“You excel so much in the dance, Miss Eliza, that it is cruel to deny me
the happiness of seeing you; and though this gentleman dislikes the
amusement in general, he can have no objection, I am sure, to oblige us
for one half hour.”

“Mr. Darcy is all politeness,” said Elizabeth, smiling.

“He is, indeed: but considering the inducement, my dear Miss Eliza, we
cannot wonder at his complaisance; for who would object to such a
partner?”

Elizabeth looked archly, and turned away. Her resistance had not injured
her with the gentleman, and he was thinking of her with some
complacency, when thus accosted by Miss Bingley,--

“I can guess the subject of your reverie.”

“I should imagine not.”

“You are considering how insupportable it would be to pass many
evenings in this manner,--in such society; and, indeed, I am quite of
your opinion. I was never more annoyed! The insipidity, and yet the
noise--the nothingness, and yet the self-importance, of all these
people! What would I give to hear your strictures on them!”

“Your conjecture is totally wrong, I assure you. My mind was more
agreeably engaged. I have been meditating on the very great pleasure
which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.”

Miss Bingley immediately fixed her eyes on his face, and desired he
would tell her what lady had the credit of inspiring such reflections.
Mr. Darcy replied, with great intrepidity,--

“Miss Elizabeth Bennet.”

“Miss Elizabeth Bennet!” repeated Miss Bingley. “I am all astonishment.
How long has she been such a favourite? and pray when am I to wish you
joy?”

“That is exactly the question which I expected you to ask. A lady’s
imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love
to matrimony, in a moment. I knew you would be wishing me joy.”

“Nay, if you are so serious about it, I shall consider the matter as
absolutely settled. You will have a charming mother-in-law, indeed, and
of course she will be always at Pemberley with you.”

He listened to her with perfect indifference, while she chose to
entertain herself in this manner; and as his composure convinced her
that all was safe, her wit flowed along.




[Illustration:

     “A note for Miss Bennet”

[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]




CHAPTER VII.


[Illustration]

Mr. Bennet’s property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two
thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed,
in default of heirs male, on a distant relation; and their mother’s
fortune, though ample for her situation in life, could but ill supply
the deficiency of his. Her father had been an attorney in Meryton, and
had left her four thousand pounds.

She had a sister married to a Mr. Philips, who had been a clerk to their
father and succeeded him in the business, and a brother settled in
London in a respectable line of trade.

The village of Longbourn was only one mile from Meryton; a most
convenient distance for the young ladies, who were usually tempted
thither three or four times a week, to pay their duty to their aunt, and
to a milliner’s shop just over the way. The two youngest of the family,
Catherine and Lydia, were particularly frequent in these attentions:
their minds were more vacant than their sisters’, and when nothing
better offered, a walk to Meryton was necessary to amuse their morning
hours and furnish conversation for the evening; and, however bare of
news the country in general might be, they always contrived to learn
some from their aunt. At present, indeed, they were well supplied both
with news and happiness by the recent arrival of a militia regiment in
the neighbourhood; it was to remain the whole winter, and Meryton was
the head-quarters.

Their visits to Mrs. Philips were now productive of the most interesting
intelligence. Every day added something to their knowledge of the
officers’ names and connections. Their lodgings were not long a secret,
and at length they began to know the officers themselves. Mr. Philips
visited them all, and this opened to his nieces a source of felicity
unknown before. They could talk of nothing but officers; and Mr.
Bingley’s large fortune, the mention of which gave animation to their
mother, was worthless in their eyes when opposed to the regimentals of
an ensign.

After listening one morning to their effusions on this subject, Mr.
Bennet coolly observed,--

“From all that I can collect by your manner of talking, you must be two
of the silliest girls in the country. I have suspected it some time, but
I am now convinced.”

Catherine was disconcerted, and made no answer; but Lydia, with perfect
indifference, continued to express her admiration of Captain Carter, and
her hope of seeing him in the course of the day, as he was going the
next morning to London.

“I am astonished, my dear,” said Mrs. Bennet, “that you should be so
ready to think your own children silly. If I wished to think slightingly
of anybody’s children, it should not be of my own, however.”

“If my children are silly, I must hope to be always sensible of it.”

“Yes; but as it happens, they are all of them very clever.”

“This is the only point, I flatter myself, on which we do not agree. I
had hoped that our sentiments coincided in every particular, but I must
so far differ from you as to think our two youngest daughters uncommonly
foolish.”

“My dear Mr. Bennet, you must not expect such girls to have the sense of
their father and mother. When they get to our age, I dare say they will
not think about officers any more than we do. I remember the time when I
liked a red coat myself very well--and, indeed, so I do still at my
heart; and if a smart young colonel, with five or six thousand a year,
should want one of my girls, I shall not say nay to him; and I thought
Colonel Forster looked very becoming the other night at Sir William’s in
his regimentals.”

“Mamma,” cried Lydia, “my aunt says that Colonel Forster and Captain
Carter do not go so often to Miss Watson’s as they did when they first
came; she sees them now very often standing in Clarke’s library.”

Mrs. Bennet was prevented replying by the entrance of the footman with a
note for Miss Bennet; it came from Netherfield, and the servant waited
for an answer. Mrs. Bennet’s eyes sparkled with pleasure, and she was
eagerly calling out, while her daughter read,--

“Well, Jane, who is it from? What is it about? What does he say? Well,
Jane, make haste and tell us; make haste, my love.”

“It is from Miss Bingley,” said Jane, and then read it aloud.

     /* NIND “My dear friend, */

     “If you are not so compassionate as to dine to-day with Louisa and
     me, we shall be in danger of hating each other for the rest of our
     lives; for a whole day’s _tête-à-tête_ between two women can never
     end without a quarrel. Come as soon as you can on the receipt of
     this. My brother and the gentlemen are to dine with the officers.
     Yours ever,

“CAROLINE BINGLEY.”

“With the officers!” cried Lydia: “I wonder my aunt did not tell us of
_that_.”

“Dining out,” said Mrs. Bennet; “that is very unlucky.”

“Can I have the carriage?” said Jane.

“No, my dear, you had better go on horseback, because it seems likely to
rain; and then you must stay all night.”

“That would be a good scheme,” said Elizabeth, “if you were sure that
they would not offer to send her home.”

“Oh, but the gentlemen will have Mr. Bingley’s chaise to go to Meryton;
and the Hursts have no horses to theirs.”

“I had much rather go in the coach.”

“But, my dear, your father cannot spare the horses, I am sure. They are
wanted in the farm, Mr. Bennet, are not they?”

[Illustration: Cheerful prognostics]

“They are wanted in the farm much oftener than I can get them.”

“But if you have got them to-day,” said Elizabeth, “my mother’s purpose
will be answered.”

She did at last extort from her father an acknowledgment that the horses
were engaged; Jane was therefore obliged to go on horseback, and her
mother attended her to the door with many cheerful prognostics of a bad
day. Her hopes were answered; Jane had not been gone long before it
rained hard. Her sisters were uneasy for her, but her mother was
delighted. The rain continued the whole evening without intermission;
Jane certainly could not come back.

“This was a lucky idea of mine, indeed!” said Mrs. Bennet, more than
once, as if the credit of making it rain were all her own. Till the next
morning, however, she was not aware of all the felicity of her
contrivance. Breakfast was scarcely over when a servant from Netherfield
brought the following note for Elizabeth:--

     /* NIND “My dearest Lizzie, */

     “I find myself very unwell this morning, which, I suppose, is to be
     imputed to my getting wet through yesterday. My kind friends will
     not hear of my returning home till I am better. They insist also on
     my seeing Mr. Jones--therefore do not be alarmed if you should hear
     of his having been to me--and, excepting a sore throat and a
     headache, there is not much the matter with me.

“Yours, etc.”

“Well, my dear,” said Mr. Bennet, when Elizabeth had read the note
aloud, “if your daughter should have a dangerous fit of illness--if she
should die--it would be a comfort to know that it was all in pursuit of
Mr. Bingley, and under your orders.”

“Oh, I am not at all afraid of her dying. People do not die of little
trifling colds. She will be taken good care of. As long as she stays
there, it is all very well. I would go and see her if I could have the
carriage.”

Elizabeth, feeling really anxious, determined to go to her, though the
carriage was not to be had: and as she was no horsewoman, walking was
her only alternative. She declared her resolution.

“How can you be so silly,” cried her mother, “as to think of such a
thing, in all this dirt! You will not be fit to be seen when you get
there.”

“I shall be very fit to see Jane--which is all I want.”

“Is this a hint to me, Lizzy,” said her father, “to send for the
horses?”

“No, indeed. I do not wish to avoid the walk. The distance is nothing,
when one has a motive; only three miles. I shall be back by dinner.”

“I admire the activity of your benevolence,” observed Mary, “but every
impulse of feeling should be guided by reason; and, in my opinion,
exertion should always be in proportion to what is required.”

“We will go as far as Meryton with you,” said Catherine and Lydia.
Elizabeth accepted their company, and the three young ladies set off
together.

“If we make haste,” said Lydia, as they walked along, “perhaps we may
see something of Captain Carter, before he goes.”

In Meryton they parted: the two youngest repaired to the lodgings of one
of the officers’ wives, and Elizabeth continued her walk alone, crossing
field after field at a quick pace, jumping over stiles and springing
over puddles, with impatient activity, and finding herself at last
within view of the house, with weary ancles, dirty stockings, and a face
glowing with the warmth of exercise.

She was shown into the breakfast parlour, where all but Jane were
assembled, and where her appearance created a great deal of surprise.
That she should have walked three miles so early in the day in such
dirty weather, and by herself, was almost incredible to Mrs. Hurst and
Miss Bingley; and Elizabeth was convinced that they held her in contempt
for it. She was received, however, very politely by them; and in their
brother’s manners there was something better than politeness--there was
good-humour and kindness. Mr. Darcy said very little, and Mr. Hurst
nothing at all. The former was divided between admiration of the
brilliancy which exercise had given to her complexion and doubt as to
the occasion’s justifying her coming so far alone. The latter was
thinking only of his breakfast.

Her inquiries after her sister were not very favourably answered. Miss
Bennet had slept ill, and though up, was very feverish, and not well
enough to leave her room. Elizabeth was glad to be taken to her
immediately; and Jane, who had only been withheld by the fear of giving
alarm or inconvenience, from expressing in her note how much she longed
for such a visit, was delighted at her entrance. She was not equal,
however, to much conversation; and when Miss Bingley left them together,
could attempt little beside expressions of gratitude for the
extraordinary kindness she was treated with. Elizabeth silently attended
her.

When breakfast was over, they were joined by the sisters; and Elizabeth
began to like them herself, when she saw how much affection and
solicitude they showed for Jane. The apothecary came; and having
examined his patient, said, as might be supposed, that she had caught a
violent cold, and that they must endeavour to get the better of it;
advised her to return to bed, and promised her some draughts. The advice
was followed readily, for the feverish symptoms increased, and her head
ached acutely. Elizabeth did not quit her room for a moment, nor were
the other ladies often absent; the gentlemen being out, they had in fact
nothing to do elsewhere.

When the clock struck three, Elizabeth felt that she must go, and very
unwillingly said so. Miss Bingley offered her the carriage, and she only
wanted a little pressing to accept it, when Jane testified such concern
at parting with her that Miss Bingley was obliged to convert the offer
of the chaise into an invitation to remain at Netherfield for the
present. Elizabeth most thankfully consented, and a servant was
despatched to Longbourn, to acquaint the family with her stay, and bring
back a supply of clothes.

[Illustration:

“The Apothecary came”
]




[Illustration:

“covering a screen”
]




CHAPTER VIII.


[Illustration]

At five o’clock the two ladies retired to dress, and at half-past six
Elizabeth was summoned to dinner. To the civil inquiries which then
poured in, and amongst which she had the pleasure of distinguishing the
much superior solicitude of Mr. Bingley, she could not make a very
favourable answer. Jane was by no means better. The sisters, on hearing
this, repeated three or four times how much they were grieved, how
shocking it was to have a bad cold, and how excessively they disliked
being ill themselves; and then thought no more of the matter: and their
indifference towards Jane, when not immediately before them, restored
Elizabeth to the enjoyment of all her original dislike.

Their brother, indeed, was the only one of the party whom she could
regard with any complacency. His anxiety for Jane was evident, and his
attentions to herself most pleasing; and they prevented her feeling
herself so much an intruder as she believed she was considered by the
others. She had very little notice from any but him. Miss Bingley was
engrossed by Mr. Darcy, her sister scarcely less so; and as for Mr.
Hurst, by whom Elizabeth sat, he was an indolent man, who lived only to
eat, drink, and play at cards, who, when he found her prefer a plain
dish to a ragout, had nothing to say to her.

When dinner was over, she returned directly to Jane, and Miss Bingley
began abusing her as soon as she was out of the room. Her manners were
pronounced to be very bad indeed,--a mixture of pride and impertinence:
she had no conversation, no style, no taste, no beauty. Mrs. Hurst
thought the same, and added,--

“She has nothing, in short, to recommend her, but being an excellent
walker. I shall never forget her appearance this morning. She really
looked almost wild.”

“She did indeed, Louisa. I could hardly keep my countenance. Very
nonsensical to come at all! Why must _she_ be scampering about the
country, because her sister had a cold? Her hair so untidy, so blowzy!”

“Yes, and her petticoat; I hope you saw her petticoat, six inches deep
in mud, I am absolutely certain, and the gown which had been let down to
hide it not doing its office.”

“Your picture may be very exact, Louisa,” said Bingley; “but this was
all lost upon me. I thought Miss Elizabeth Bennet looked remarkably well
when she came into the room this morning. Her dirty petticoat quite
escaped my notice.”

“_You_ observed it, Mr. Darcy, I am sure,” said Miss Bingley; “and I am
inclined to think that you would not wish to see _your sister_ make such
an exhibition.”

“Certainly not.”

“To walk three miles, or four miles, or five miles, or whatever it is,
above her ancles in dirt, and alone, quite alone! what could she mean by
it? It seems to me to show an abominable sort of conceited independence,
a most country-town indifference to decorum.”

“It shows an affection for her sister that is very pleasing,” said
Bingley.

“I am afraid, Mr. Darcy,” observed Miss Bingley, in a half whisper,
“that this adventure has rather affected your admiration of her fine
eyes.”

“Not at all,” he replied: “they were brightened by the exercise.” A
short pause followed this speech, and Mrs. Hurst began again,--

“I have an excessive regard for Jane Bennet,--she is really a very sweet
girl,--and I wish with all my heart she were well settled. But with such
a father and mother, and such low connections, I am afraid there is no
chance of it.”

“I think I have heard you say that their uncle is an attorney in
Meryton?”

“Yes; and they have another, who lives somewhere near Cheapside.”

“That is capital,” added her sister; and they both laughed heartily.

“If they had uncles enough to fill _all_ Cheapside,” cried Bingley, “it
would not make them one jot less agreeable.”

“But it must very materially lessen their chance of marrying men of any
consideration in the world,” replied Darcy.

To this speech Bingley made no answer; but his sisters gave it their
hearty assent, and indulged their mirth for some time at the expense of
their dear friend’s vulgar relations.

With a renewal of tenderness, however, they repaired to her room on
leaving the dining-parlour, and sat with her till summoned to coffee.
She was still very poorly, and Elizabeth would not quit her at all, till
late in the evening, when she had the comfort of seeing her asleep, and
when it appeared to her rather right than pleasant that she should go
down stairs herself. On entering the drawing-room, she found the whole
party at loo, and was immediately invited to join them; but suspecting
them to be playing high, she declined it, and making her sister the
excuse, said she would amuse herself, for the short time she could stay
below, with a book. Mr. Hurst looked at her with astonishment.

“Do you prefer reading to cards?” said he; “that is rather singular.”

“Miss Eliza Bennet,” said Miss Bingley, “despises cards. She is a great
reader, and has no pleasure in anything else.”

“I deserve neither such praise nor such censure,” cried Elizabeth; “I
am _not_ a great reader, and I have pleasure in many things.”

“In nursing your sister I am sure you have pleasure,” said Bingley; “and
I hope it will soon be increased by seeing her quite well.”

Elizabeth thanked him from her heart, and then walked towards a table
where a few books were lying. He immediately offered to fetch her
others; all that his library afforded.

“And I wish my collection were larger for your benefit and my own
credit; but I am an idle fellow; and though I have not many, I have more
than I ever looked into.”

Elizabeth assured him that she could suit herself perfectly with those
in the room.

“I am astonished,” said Miss Bingley, “that my father should have left
so small a collection of books. What a delightful library you have at
Pemberley, Mr. Darcy!”

“It ought to be good,” he replied: “it has been the work of many
generations.”

“And then you have added so much to it yourself--you are always buying
books.”

“I cannot comprehend the neglect of a family library in such days as
these.”

“Neglect! I am sure you neglect nothing that can add to the beauties of
that noble place. Charles, when you build _your_ house, I wish it may be
half as delightful as Pemberley.”

“I wish it may.”

“But I would really advise you to make your purchase in that
neighbourhood, and take Pemberley for a kind of model. There is not a
finer county in England than Derbyshire.”

“With all my heart: I will buy Pemberley itself, if Darcy will sell it.”

“I am talking of possibilities, Charles.”

“Upon my word, Caroline, I should think it more possible to get
Pemberley by purchase than by imitation.”

Elizabeth was so much caught by what passed, as to leave her very little
attention for her book; and, soon laying it wholly aside, she drew near
the card-table, and stationed herself between Mr. Bingley and his eldest
sister, to observe the game.

“Is Miss Darcy much grown since the spring?” said Miss Bingley: “will
she be as tall as I am?”

“I think she will. She is now about Miss Elizabeth Bennet’s height, or
rather taller.”

“How I long to see her again! I never met with anybody who delighted me
so much. Such a countenance, such manners, and so extremely accomplished
for her age! Her performance on the pianoforte is exquisite.”

“It is amazing to me,” said Bingley, “how young ladies can have patience
to be so very accomplished as they all are.”

“All young ladies accomplished! My dear Charles, what do you mean?”

“Yes, all of them, I think. They all paint tables, cover screens, and
net purses. I scarcely know any one who cannot do all this; and I am
sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time, without
being informed that she was very accomplished.”

“Your list of the common extent of accomplishments,” said Darcy, “has
too much truth. The word is applied to many a woman who deserves it no
otherwise than by netting a purse or covering a screen; but I am very
far from agreeing with you in your estimation of ladies in general. I
cannot boast of knowing more than half-a-dozen in the whole range of my
acquaintance that are really accomplished.”

“Nor I, I am sure,” said Miss Bingley.

“Then,” observed Elizabeth, “you must comprehend a great deal in your
idea of an accomplished woman.”

“Yes; I do comprehend a great deal in it.”

“Oh, certainly,” cried his faithful assistant, “no one can be really
esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met
with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing,
dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and, besides all
this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of
walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word
will be but half deserved.”

“All this she must possess,” added Darcy; “and to all she must yet add
something more substantial in the improvement of her mind by extensive
reading.”

“I am no longer surprised at your knowing _only_ six accomplished women.
I rather wonder now at your knowing _any_.”

“Are you so severe upon your own sex as to doubt the possibility of all
this?”

“_I_ never saw such a woman. _I_ never saw such capacity, and taste, and
application, and elegance, as you describe, united.”

Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley both cried out against the injustice of her
implied doubt, and were both protesting that they knew many women who
answered this description, when Mr. Hurst called them to order, with
bitter complaints of their inattention to what was going forward. As all
conversation was thereby at an end, Elizabeth soon afterwards left the
room.

“Eliza Bennet,” said Miss Bingley, when the door was closed on her, “is
one of those young ladies who seek to recommend themselves to the other
sex by undervaluing their own; and with many men, I daresay, it
succeeds; but, in my opinion, it is a paltry device, a very mean art.”

“Undoubtedly,” replied Darcy, to whom this remark was chiefly addressed,
“there is meanness in _all_ the arts which ladies sometimes condescend
to employ for captivation. Whatever bears affinity to cunning is
despicable.”

Miss Bingley was not so entirely satisfied with this reply as to
continue the subject.

Elizabeth joined them again only to say that her sister was worse, and
that she could not leave her. Bingley urged Mr. Jones’s being sent for
immediately; while his sisters, convinced that no country advice could
be of any service, recommended an express to town for one of the most
eminent physicians. This she would not hear of; but she was not so
unwilling to comply with their brother’s proposal; and it was settled
that Mr. Jones should be sent for early in the morning, if Miss Bennet
were not decidedly better. Bingley was quite uncomfortable; his sisters
declared that they were miserable. They solaced their wretchedness,
however, by duets after supper; while he could find no better relief to
his feelings than by giving his housekeeper directions that every
possible attention might be paid to the sick lady and her sister.




[Illustration:

M^{rs} Bennet and her two youngest girls

[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]




CHAPTER IX.


[Illustration]

Elizabeth passed the chief of the night in her sister’s room, and in the
morning had the pleasure of being able to send a tolerable answer to the
inquiries which she very early received from Mr. Bingley by a housemaid,
and some time afterwards from the two elegant ladies who waited on his
sisters. In spite of this amendment, however, she requested to have a
note sent to Longbourn, desiring her mother to visit Jane, and form her
own judgment of her situation. The note was immediately despatched, and
its contents as quickly complied with. Mrs. Bennet, accompanied by her
two youngest girls, reached Netherfield soon after the family breakfast.

Had she found Jane in any apparent danger, Mrs. Bennet would have been
very miserable; but being satisfied on seeing her that her illness was
not alarming, she had no wish of her recovering immediately, as her
restoration to health would probably remove her from Netherfield. She
would not listen, therefore, to her daughter’s proposal of being carried
home; neither did the apothecary, who arrived about the same time, think
it at all advisable. After sitting a little while with Jane, on Miss
Bingley’s appearance and invitation, the mother and three daughters all
attended her into the breakfast parlour. Bingley met them with hopes
that Mrs. Bennet had not found Miss Bennet worse than she expected.

“Indeed I have, sir,” was her answer. “She is a great deal too ill to be
moved. Mr. Jones says we must not think of moving her. We must trespass
a little longer on your kindness.”

“Removed!” cried Bingley. “It must not be thought of. My sister, I am
sure, will not hear of her removal.”

“You may depend upon it, madam,” said Miss Bingley, with cold civility,
“that Miss Bennet shall receive every possible attention while she
remains with us.”

Mrs. Bennet was profuse in her acknowledgments.

“I am sure,” she added, “if it was not for such good friends, I do not
know what would become of her, for she is very ill indeed, and suffers a
vast deal, though with the greatest patience in the world, which is
always the way with her, for she has, without exception, the sweetest
temper I ever met with. I often tell my other girls they are nothing to
_her_. You have a sweet room here, Mr. Bingley, and a charming prospect
over that gravel walk. I do not know a place in the country that is
equal to Netherfield. You will not think of quitting it in a hurry, I
hope, though you have but a short lease.”

“Whatever I do is done in a hurry,” replied he; “and therefore if I
should resolve to quit Netherfield, I should probably be off in five
minutes. At present, however, I consider myself as quite fixed here.”

“That is exactly what I should have supposed of you,” said Elizabeth.

“You begin to comprehend me, do you?” cried he, turning towards her.

“Oh yes--I understand you perfectly.”

“I wish I might take this for a compliment; but to be so easily seen
through, I am afraid, is pitiful.”

“That is as it happens. It does not necessarily follow that a deep,
intricate character is more or less estimable than such a one as yours.”

“Lizzy,” cried her mother, “remember where you are, and do not run on in
the wild manner that you are suffered to do at home.”

“I did not know before,” continued Bingley, immediately, “that you were
a studier of character. It must be an amusing study.”

“Yes; but intricate characters are the _most_ amusing. They have at
least that advantage.”

“The country,” said Darcy, “can in general supply but few subjects for
such a study. In a country neighbourhood you move in a very confined and
unvarying society.”

“But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be
observed in them for ever.”

“Yes, indeed,” cried Mrs. Bennet, offended by his manner of mentioning a
country neighbourhood. “I assure you there is quite as much of _that_
going on in the country as in town.”

Everybody was surprised; and Darcy, after looking at her for a moment,
turned silently away. Mrs. Bennet, who fancied she had gained a complete
victory over him, continued her triumph,--

“I cannot see that London has any great advantage over the country, for
my part, except the shops and public places. The country is a vast deal
pleasanter, is not it, Mr. Bingley?”

“When I am in the country,” he replied, “I never wish to leave it; and
when I am in town, it is pretty much the same. They have each their
advantages, and I can be equally happy in either.”

“Ay, that is because you have the right disposition. But that
gentleman,” looking at Darcy, “seemed to think the country was nothing
at all.”

“Indeed, mamma, you are mistaken,” said Elizabeth, blushing for her
mother. “You quite mistook Mr. Darcy. He only meant that there was not
such a variety of people to be met with in the country as in town, which
you must acknowledge to be true.”

“Certainly, my dear, nobody said there were; but as to not meeting with
many people in this neighbourhood, I believe there are few
neighbourhoods larger. I know we dine with four-and-twenty families.”

Nothing but concern for Elizabeth could enable Bingley to keep his
countenance. His sister was less delicate, and directed her eye towards
Mr. Darcy with a very expressive smile. Elizabeth, for the sake of
saying something that might turn her mother’s thoughts, now asked her if
Charlotte Lucas had been at Longbourn since _her_ coming away.

“Yes, she called yesterday with her father. What an agreeable man Sir
William is, Mr. Bingley--is not he? so much the man of fashion! so
genteel and so easy! He has always something to say to everybody. _That_
is my idea of good breeding; and those persons who fancy themselves very
important and never open their mouths quite mistake the matter.”

“Did Charlotte dine with you?”

“No, she would go home. I fancy she was wanted about the mince-pies. For
my part, Mr. Bingley, _I_ always keep servants that can do their own
work; _my_ daughters are brought up differently. But everybody is to
judge for themselves, and the Lucases are a very good sort of girls, I
assure you. It is a pity they are not handsome! Not that _I_ think
Charlotte so _very_ plain; but then she is our particular friend.”

“She seems a very pleasant young woman,” said Bingley.

“Oh dear, yes; but you must own she is very plain. Lady Lucas herself
has often said so, and envied me Jane’s beauty. I do not like to boast
of my own child; but to be sure, Jane--one does not often see anybody
better looking. It is what everybody says. I do not trust my own
partiality. When she was only fifteen there was a gentleman at my
brother Gardiner’s in town so much in love with her, that my
sister-in-law was sure he would make her an offer before we came away.
But, however, he did not. Perhaps he thought her too young. However, he
wrote some verses on her, and very pretty they were.”

“And so ended his affection,” said Elizabeth, impatiently. “There has
been many a one, I fancy, overcome in the same way. I wonder who first
discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!”

“I have been used to consider poetry as the _food_ of love,” said Darcy.

“Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is
strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I
am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”

Darcy only smiled; and the general pause which ensued made Elizabeth
tremble lest her mother should be exposing herself again. She longed to
speak, but could think of nothing to say; and after a short silence Mrs.
Bennet began repeating her thanks to Mr. Bingley for his kindness to
Jane, with an apology for troubling him also with Lizzy. Mr. Bingley was
unaffectedly civil in his answer, and forced his younger sister to be
civil also, and say what the occasion required. She performed her part,
indeed, without much graciousness, but Mrs. Bennet was satisfied, and
soon afterwards ordered her carriage. Upon this signal, the youngest of
her daughters put herself forward. The two girls had been whispering to
each other during the whole visit; and the result of it was, that the
youngest should tax Mr. Bingley with having promised on his first coming
into the country to give a ball at Netherfield.

Lydia was a stout, well-grown girl of fifteen, with a fine complexion
and good-humoured countenance; a favourite with her mother, whose
affection had brought her into public at an early age. She had high
animal spirits, and a sort of natural self-consequence, which the
attentions of the officers, to whom her uncle’s good dinners and her
own easy manners recommended her, had increased into assurance. She was
very equal, therefore, to address Mr. Bingley on the subject of the
ball, and abruptly reminded him of his promise; adding, that it would be
the most shameful thing in the world if he did not keep it. His answer
to this sudden attack was delightful to her mother’s ear.

“I am perfectly ready, I assure you, to keep my engagement; and, when
your sister is recovered, you shall, if you please, name the very day of
the ball. But you would not wish to be dancing while she is ill?”

Lydia declared herself satisfied. “Oh yes--it would be much better to
wait till Jane was well; and by that time, most likely, Captain Carter
would be at Meryton again. And when you have given _your_ ball,” she
added, “I shall insist on their giving one also. I shall tell Colonel
Forster it will be quite a shame if he does not.”

Mrs. Bennet and her daughters then departed, and Elizabeth returned
instantly to Jane, leaving her own and her relations’ behaviour to the
remarks of the two ladies and Mr. Darcy; the latter of whom, however,
could not be prevailed on to join in their censure of _her_, in spite of
all Miss Bingley’s witticisms on _fine eyes_.




[Illustration]




CHAPTER X.


[Illustration]

The day passed much as the day before had done. Mrs. Hurst and Miss
Bingley had spent some hours of the morning with the invalid, who
continued, though slowly, to mend; and, in the evening, Elizabeth joined
their party in the drawing-room. The loo table, however, did not appear.
Mr. Darcy was writing, and Miss Bingley, seated near him, was watching
the progress of his letter, and repeatedly calling off his attention by
messages to his sister. Mr. Hurst and Mr. Bingley were at piquet, and
Mrs. Hurst was observing their game.

Elizabeth took up some needlework, and was sufficiently amused in
attending to what passed between Darcy and his companion. The perpetual
commendations of the lady either on his hand-writing, or on the evenness
of his lines, or on the length of his letter, with the perfect unconcern
with which her praises were received, formed a curious dialogue, and was
exactly in unison with her opinion of each.

“How delighted Miss Darcy will be to receive such a letter!”

He made no answer.

“You write uncommonly fast.”

“You are mistaken. I write rather slowly.”

“How many letters you must have occasion to write in the course of a
year! Letters of business, too! How odious I should think them!”

“It is fortunate, then, that they fall to my lot instead of to yours.”

“Pray tell your sister that I long to see her.”

“I have already told her so once, by your desire.”

“I am afraid you do not like your pen. Let me mend it for you. I mend
pens remarkably well.”

“Thank you--but I always mend my own.”

“How can you contrive to write so even?”

He was silent.

“Tell your sister I am delighted to hear of her improvement on the harp,
and pray let her know that I am quite in raptures with her beautiful
little design for a table, and I think it infinitely superior to Miss
Grantley’s.”

“Will you give me leave to defer your raptures till I write again? At
present I have not room to do them justice.”

“Oh, it is of no consequence. I shall see her in January. But do you
always write such charming long letters to her, Mr. Darcy?”

“They are generally long; but whether always charming, it is not for me
to determine.”

“It is a rule with me, that a person who can write a long letter with
ease cannot write ill.”

“That will not do for a compliment to Darcy, Caroline,” cried her
brother, “because he does _not_ write with ease. He studies too much
for words of four syllables. Do not you, Darcy?”

“My style of writing is very different from yours.”

“Oh,” cried Miss Bingley, “Charles writes in the most careless way
imaginable. He leaves out half his words, and blots the rest.”

“My ideas flow so rapidly that I have not time to express them; by which
means my letters sometimes convey no ideas at all to my correspondents.”

“Your humility, Mr. Bingley,” said Elizabeth, “must disarm reproof.”

“Nothing is more deceitful,” said Darcy, “than the appearance of
humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an
indirect boast.”

“And which of the two do you call _my_ little recent piece of modesty?”

“The indirect boast; for you are really proud of your defects in
writing, because you consider them as proceeding from a rapidity of
thought and carelessness of execution, which, if not estimable, you
think at least highly interesting. The power of doing anything with
quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any
attention to the imperfection of the performance. When you told Mrs.
Bennet this morning, that if you ever resolved on quitting Netherfield
you should be gone in five minutes, you meant it to be a sort of
panegyric, of compliment to yourself; and yet what is there so very
laudable in a precipitance which must leave very necessary business
undone, and can be of no real advantage to yourself or anyone else?”

“Nay,” cried Bingley, “this is too much, to remember at night all the
foolish things that were said in the morning. And yet, upon my honour, I
believed what I said of myself to be true, and I believe it at this
moment. At least, therefore, I did not assume the character of needless
precipitance merely to show off before the ladies.”

“I daresay you believed it; but I am by no means convinced that you
would be gone with such celerity. Your conduct would be quite as
dependent on chance as that of any man I know; and if, as you were
mounting your horse, a friend were to say, ‘Bingley, you had better stay
till next week,’ you would probably do it--you would probably not
go--and, at another word, might stay a month.”

“You have only proved by this,” cried Elizabeth, “that Mr. Bingley did
not do justice to his own disposition. You have shown him off now much
more than he did himself.”

“I am exceedingly gratified,” said Bingley, “by your converting what my
friend says into a compliment on the sweetness of my temper. But I am
afraid you are giving it a turn which that gentleman did by no means
intend; for he would certainly think the better of me if, under such a
circumstance, I were to give a flat denial, and ride off as fast as I
could.”

“Would Mr. Darcy then consider the rashness of your original intention
as atoned for by your obstinacy in adhering to it?”

“Upon my word, I cannot exactly explain the matter--Darcy must speak for
himself.”

“You expect me to account for opinions which you choose to call mine,
but which I have never acknowledged. Allowing the case, however, to
stand according to your representation, you must remember, Miss Bennet,
that the friend who is supposed to desire his return to the house, and
the delay of his plan, has merely desired it, asked it without offering
one argument in favour of its propriety.”

“To yield readily--easily--to the _persuasion_ of a friend is no merit
with you.”

“To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of
either.”

“You appear to me, Mr. Darcy, to allow nothing for the influence of
friendship and affection. A regard for the requester would often make
one readily yield to a request, without waiting for arguments to reason
one into it. I am not particularly speaking of such a case as you have
supposed about Mr. Bingley. We may as well wait, perhaps, till the
circumstance occurs, before we discuss the discretion of his behaviour
thereupon. But in general and ordinary cases, between friend and friend,
where one of them is desired by the other to change a resolution of no
very great moment, should you think ill of that person for complying
with the desire, without waiting to be argued into it?”

“Will it not be advisable, before we proceed on this subject, to arrange
with rather more precision the degree of importance which is to
appertain to this request, as well as the degree of intimacy subsisting
between the parties?”

“By all means,” cried Bingley; “let us hear all the particulars, not
forgetting their comparative height and size, for that will have more
weight in the argument, Miss Bennet, than you may be aware of. I assure
you that if Darcy were not such a great tall fellow, in comparison with
myself, I should not pay him half so much deference. I declare I do not
know a more awful object than Darcy on particular occasions, and in
particular places; at his own house especially, and of a Sunday evening,
when he has nothing to do.”

Mr. Darcy smiled; but Elizabeth thought she could perceive that he was
rather offended, and therefore checked her laugh. Miss Bingley warmly
resented the indignity he had received, in an expostulation with her
brother for talking such nonsense.

“I see your design, Bingley,” said his friend. “You dislike an argument,
and want to silence this.”

“Perhaps I do. Arguments are too much like disputes. If you and Miss
Bennet will defer yours till I am out of the room, I shall be very
thankful; and then you may say whatever you like of me.”

“What you ask,” said Elizabeth, “is no sacrifice on my side; and Mr.
Darcy had much better finish his letter.”

Mr. Darcy took her advice, and did finish his letter.

When that business was over, he applied to Miss Bingley and Elizabeth
for the indulgence of some music. Miss Bingley moved with alacrity to
the pianoforte, and after a polite request that Elizabeth would lead the
way, which the other as politely and more earnestly negatived, she
seated herself.

Mrs. Hurst sang with her sister; and while they were thus employed,
Elizabeth could not help observing, as she turned over some music-books
that lay on the instrument, how frequently Mr. Darcy’s eyes were fixed
on her. She hardly knew how to suppose that she could be an object of
admiration to so great a man, and yet that he should look at her because
he disliked her was still more strange. She could only imagine, however,
at last, that she drew his notice because there was something about her
more wrong and reprehensible, according to his ideas of right, than in
any other person present. The supposition did not pain her. She liked
him too little to care for his approbation.

After playing some Italian songs, Miss Bingley varied the charm by a
lively Scotch air; and soon afterwards Mr. Darcy, drawing near
Elizabeth, said to her,--

“Do you not feel a great inclination, Miss Bennet, to seize such an
opportunity of dancing a reel?”

She smiled, but made no answer. He repeated the question, with some
surprise at her silence.

“Oh,” said she, “I heard you before; but I could not immediately
determine what to say in reply. You wanted me, I know, to say ‘Yes,’
that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste; but I always
delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes, and cheating a person of
their premeditated contempt. I have, therefore, made up my mind to tell
you that I do not want to dance a reel at all; and now despise me if you
dare.”

“Indeed I do not dare.”

Elizabeth, having rather expected to affront him, was amazed at his
gallantry; but there was a mixture of sweetness and archness in her
manner which made it difficult for her to affront anybody, and Darcy had
never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her. He really
believed that, were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he
should be in some danger.

Miss Bingley saw, or suspected, enough to be jealous; and her great
anxiety for the recovery of her dear friend Jane received some
assistance from her desire of getting rid of Elizabeth.

She often tried to provoke Darcy into disliking her guest, by talking of
their supposed marriage, and planning his happiness in such an alliance.

“I hope,” said she, as they were walking together in the shrubbery the
next day, “you will give your mother-in-law a few hints, when this
desirable event takes place, as to the advantage of holding her tongue;
and if you can compass it, to cure the younger girls of running after
the officers. And, if I may mention so delicate a subject, endeavour to
check that little something, bordering on conceit and impertinence,
which your lady possesses.”

[Illustration:

     “No, no; stay where you are”

[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]

“Have you anything else to propose for my domestic felicity?”

“Oh yes. Do let the portraits of your uncle and aunt Philips be placed
in the gallery at Pemberley. Put them next to your great-uncle the
judge. They are in the same profession, you know, only in different
lines. As for your Elizabeth’s picture, you must not attempt to have it
taken, for what painter could do justice to those beautiful eyes?”

“It would not be easy, indeed, to catch their expression; but their
colour and shape, and the eyelashes, so remarkably fine, might be
copied.”

At that moment they were met from another walk by Mrs. Hurst and
Elizabeth herself.

“I did not know that you intended to walk,” said Miss Bingley, in some
confusion, lest they had been overheard.

“You used us abominably ill,” answered Mrs. Hurst, “running away without
telling us that you were coming out.”

Then taking the disengaged arm of Mr. Darcy, she left Elizabeth to walk
by herself. The path just admitted three. Mr. Darcy felt their rudeness,
and immediately said,--

“This walk is not wide enough for our party. We had better go into the
avenue.”

But Elizabeth, who had not the least inclination to remain with them,
laughingly answered,--

“No, no; stay where you are. You are charmingly grouped, and appear to
uncommon advantage. The picturesque would be spoilt by admitting a
fourth. Good-bye.”

She then ran gaily off, rejoicing, as she rambled about, in the hope of
being at home again in a day or two. Jane was already so much recovered
as to intend leaving her room for a couple of hours that evening.




[Illustration:

     “Piling up the fire”

[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]




CHAPTER XI.


[Illustration]

When the ladies removed after dinner Elizabeth ran up to her sister, and
seeing her well guarded from cold, attended her into the drawing-room,
where she was welcomed by her two friends with many professions of
pleasure; and Elizabeth had never seen them so agreeable as they were
during the hour which passed before the gentlemen appeared. Their powers
of conversation were considerable. They could describe an entertainment
with accuracy, relate an anecdote with humour, and laugh at their
acquaintance with spirit.

But when the gentlemen entered, Jane was no longer the first object;
Miss Bingley’s eyes were instantly turned towards Darcy, and she had
something to say to him before he had advanced many steps. He addressed
himself directly to Miss Bennet with a polite congratulation; Mr. Hurst
also made her a slight bow, and said he was “very glad;” but diffuseness
and warmth remained for Bingley’s salutation. He was full of joy and
attention. The first half hour was spent in piling up the fire, lest she
should suffer from the change of room; and she removed, at his desire,
to the other side of the fireplace, that she might be farther from the
door. He then sat down by her, and talked scarcely to anyone else.
Elizabeth, at work in the opposite corner, saw it all with great
delight.

When tea was over Mr. Hurst reminded his sister-in-law of the
card-table--but in vain. She had obtained private intelligence that Mr.
Darcy did not wish for cards, and Mr. Hurst soon found even his open
petition rejected. She assured him that no one intended to play, and the
silence of the whole party on the subject seemed to justify her. Mr.
Hurst had, therefore, nothing to do but to stretch himself on one of the
sofas and go to sleep. Darcy took up a book. Miss Bingley did the same;
and Mrs. Hurst, principally occupied in playing with her bracelets and
rings, joined now and then in her brother’s conversation with Miss
Bennet.

Miss Bingley’s attention was quite as much engaged in watching Mr.
Darcy’s progress through _his_ book, as in reading her own; and she was
perpetually either making some inquiry, or looking at his page. She
could not win him, however, to any conversation; he merely answered her
question and read on. At length, quite exhausted by the attempt to be
amused with her own book, which she had only chosen because it was the
second volume of his, she gave a great yawn and said, “How pleasant it
is to spend an evening in this way! I declare, after all, there is no
enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a
book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not
an excellent library.”

No one made any reply. She then yawned again, threw aside her book, and
cast her eyes round the room in quest of some amusement; when, hearing
her brother mentioning a ball to Miss Bennet, she turned suddenly
towards him and said,--

“By the bye Charles, are you really serious in meditating a dance at
Netherfield? I would advise you, before you determine on it, to consult
the wishes of the present party; I am much mistaken if there are not
some among us to whom a ball would be rather a punishment than a
pleasure.”

“If you mean Darcy,” cried her brother, “he may go to bed, if he
chooses, before it begins; but as for the ball, it is quite a settled
thing, and as soon as Nicholls has made white soup enough I shall send
round my cards.”

“I should like balls infinitely better,” she replied, “if they were
carried on in a different manner; but there is something insufferably
tedious in the usual process of such a meeting. It would surely be much
more rational if conversation instead of dancing made the order of the
day.”

“Much more rational, my dear Caroline, I dare say; but it would not be
near so much like a ball.”

Miss Bingley made no answer, and soon afterwards got up and walked about
the room. Her figure was elegant, and she walked well; but Darcy, at
whom it was all aimed, was still inflexibly studious. In the
desperation of her feelings, she resolved on one effort more; and,
turning to Elizabeth, said,--

“Miss Eliza Bennet, let me persuade you to follow my example, and take a
turn about the room. I assure you it is very refreshing after sitting so
long in one attitude.”

Elizabeth was surprised, but agreed to it immediately. Miss Bingley
succeeded no less in the real object of her civility: Mr. Darcy looked
up. He was as much awake to the novelty of attention in that quarter as
Elizabeth herself could be, and unconsciously closed his book. He was
directly invited to join their party, but he declined it, observing that
he could imagine but two motives for their choosing to walk up and down
the room together, with either of which motives his joining them would
interfere. What could he mean? She was dying to know what could be his
meaning--and asked Elizabeth whether she could at all understand him.

“Not at all,” was her answer; “but, depend upon it, he means to be
severe on us, and our surest way of disappointing him will be to ask
nothing about it.”

Miss Bingley, however, was incapable of disappointing Mr. Darcy in
anything, and persevered, therefore, in requiring an explanation of his
two motives.

“I have not the smallest objection to explaining them,” said he, as soon
as she allowed him to speak. “You either choose this method of passing
the evening because you are in each other’s confidence, and have secret
affairs to discuss, or because you are conscious that your figures
appear to the greatest advantage in walking: if the first, I should be
completely in your way; and if the second, I can admire you much better
as I sit by the fire.”

“Oh, shocking!” cried Miss Bingley. “I never heard anything so
abominable. How shall we punish him for such a speech?”

“Nothing so easy, if you have but the inclination,” said Elizabeth. “We
can all plague and punish one another. Tease him--laugh at him. Intimate
as you are, you must know how it is to be done.”

“But upon my honour I do _not_. I do assure you that my intimacy has not
yet taught me _that_. Tease calmness of temper and presence of mind! No,
no; I feel he may defy us there. And as to laughter, we will not expose
ourselves, if you please, by attempting to laugh without a subject. Mr.
Darcy may hug himself.”

“Mr. Darcy is not to be laughed at!” cried Elizabeth. “That is an
uncommon advantage, and uncommon I hope it will continue, for it would
be a great loss to _me_ to have many such acquaintance. I dearly love a
laugh.”

“Miss Bingley,” said he, “has given me credit for more than can be. The
wisest and best of men,--nay, the wisest and best of their actions,--may
be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a
joke.”

“Certainly,” replied Elizabeth, “there are such people, but I hope I am
not one of _them_. I hope I never ridicule what is wise or good. Follies
and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies, _do_ divert me, I own, and I
laugh at them whenever I can. But these, I suppose, are precisely what
you are without.”

“Perhaps that is not possible for anyone. But it has been the study of
my life to avoid those weaknesses which often expose a strong
understanding to ridicule.”

“Such as vanity and pride.”

“Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride--where there is a real
superiority of mind--pride will be always under good regulation.”

Elizabeth turned away to hide a smile.

“Your examination of Mr. Darcy is over, I presume,” said Miss Bingley;
“and pray what is the result?”

“I am perfectly convinced by it that Mr. Darcy has no defect. He owns it
himself without disguise.”

“No,” said Darcy, “I have made no such pretension. I have faults enough,
but they are not, I hope, of understanding. My temper I dare not vouch
for. It is, I believe, too little yielding; certainly too little for the
convenience of the world. I cannot forget the follies and vices of
others so soon as I ought, nor their offences against myself. My
feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to move them. My temper
would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost is lost for
ever.”

“_That_ is a failing, indeed!” cried Elizabeth. “Implacable resentment
_is_ a shade in a character. But you have chosen your fault well. I
really cannot _laugh_ at it. You are safe from me.”

“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular
evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.”

“And _your_ defect is a propensity to hate everybody.”

“And yours,” he replied, with a smile, “is wilfully to misunderstand
them.”

“Do let us have a little music,” cried Miss Bingley, tired of a
conversation in which she had no share. “Louisa, you will not mind my
waking Mr. Hurst.”

Her sister made not the smallest objection, and the pianoforte was
opened; and Darcy, after a few moments’ recollection, was not sorry for
it. He began to feel the danger of paying Elizabeth too much attention.




[Illustration]




CHAPTER XII.


[Illustration]

In consequence of an agreement between the sisters, Elizabeth wrote the
next morning to her mother, to beg that the carriage might be sent for
them in the course of the day. But Mrs. Bennet, who had calculated on
her daughters remaining at Netherfield till the following Tuesday, which
would exactly finish Jane’s week, could not bring herself to receive
them with pleasure before. Her answer, therefore, was not propitious, at
least not to Elizabeth’s wishes, for she was impatient to get home. Mrs.
Bennet sent them word that they could not possibly have the carriage
before Tuesday; and in her postscript it was added, that if Mr. Bingley
and his sister pressed them to stay longer, she could spare them very
well. Against staying longer, however, Elizabeth was positively
resolved--nor did she much expect it would be asked; and fearful, on the
contrary, of being considered as intruding themselves needlessly long,
she urged Jane to borrow Mr. Bingley’s carriage immediately, and at
length it was settled that their original design of leaving Netherfield
that morning should be mentioned, and the request made.

The communication excited many professions of concern; and enough was
said of wishing them to stay at least till the following day to work on
Jane; and till the morrow their going was deferred. Miss Bingley was
then sorry that she had proposed the delay; for her jealousy and dislike
of one sister much exceeded her affection for the other.

The master of the house heard with real sorrow that they were to go so
soon, and repeatedly tried to persuade Miss Bennet that it would not be
safe for her--that she was not enough recovered; but Jane was firm where
she felt herself to be right.

To Mr. Darcy it was welcome intelligence: Elizabeth had been at
Netherfield long enough. She attracted him more than he liked; and Miss
Bingley was uncivil to _her_ and more teasing than usual to himself. He
wisely resolved to be particularly careful that no sign of admiration
should _now_ escape him--nothing that could elevate her with the hope of
influencing his felicity; sensible that, if such an idea had been
suggested, his behaviour during the last day must have material weight
in confirming or crushing it. Steady to his purpose, he scarcely spoke
ten words to her through the whole of Saturday: and though they were at
one time left by themselves for half an hour, he adhered most
conscientiously to his book, and would not even look at her.

On Sunday, after morning service, the separation, so agreeable to almost
all, took place. Miss Bingley’s civility to Elizabeth increased at last
very rapidly, as well as her affection for Jane; and when they parted,
after assuring the latter of the pleasure it would always give her to
see her either at Longbourn or Netherfield, and embracing her most
tenderly, she even shook hands with the former. Elizabeth took leave of
the whole party in the liveliest spirits.

They were not welcomed home very cordially by their mother. Mrs. Bennet
wondered at their coming, and thought them very wrong to give so much
trouble, and was sure Jane would have caught cold again. But their
father, though very laconic in his expressions of pleasure, was really
glad to see them; he had felt their importance in the family circle. The
evening conversation, when they were all assembled, had lost much of its
animation, and almost all its sense, by the absence of Jane and
Elizabeth.

They found Mary, as usual, deep in the study of thorough bass and human
nature; and had some new extracts to admire and some new observations of
threadbare morality to listen to. Catherine and Lydia had information
for them of a different sort. Much had been done, and much had been said
in the regiment since the preceding Wednesday; several of the officers
had dined lately with their uncle; a private had been flogged; and it
had actually been hinted that Colonel Forster was going to be married.




[Illustration]




CHAPTER XIII


[Illustration]

“I hope, my dear,” said Mr. Bennet to his wife, as they were at
breakfast the next morning, “that you have ordered a good dinner to-day,
because I have reason to expect an addition to our family party.”

“Who do you mean, my dear? I know of nobody that is coming, I am sure,
unless Charlotte Lucas should happen to call in; and I hope _my_ dinners
are good enough for her. I do not believe she often sees such at home.”

“The person of whom I speak is a gentleman and a stranger.”

Mrs. Bennet’s eyes sparkled. “A gentleman and a stranger! It is Mr.
Bingley, I am sure. Why, Jane--you never dropped a word of this--you sly
thing! Well, I am sure I shall be extremely glad to see Mr. Bingley.
But--good Lord! how unlucky! there is not a bit of fish to be got
to-day. Lydia, my love, ring the bell. I must speak to Hill this
moment.”

“It is _not_ Mr. Bingley,” said her husband; “it is a person whom I
never saw in the whole course of my life.”

This roused a general astonishment; and he had the pleasure of being
eagerly questioned by his wife and five daughters at once.

After amusing himself some time with their curiosity, he thus
explained:--“About a month ago I received this letter, and about a
fortnight ago I answered it; for I thought it a case of some delicacy,
and requiring early attention. It is from my cousin, Mr. Collins, who,
when I am dead, may turn you all out of this house as soon as he
pleases.”

“Oh, my dear,” cried his wife, “I cannot bear to hear that mentioned.
Pray do not talk of that odious man. I do think it is the hardest thing
in the world, that your estate should be entailed away from your own
children; and I am sure, if I had been you, I should have tried long ago
to do something or other about it.”

Jane and Elizabeth attempted to explain to her the nature of an entail.
They had often attempted it before: but it was a subject on which Mrs.
Bennet was beyond the reach of reason; and she continued to rail
bitterly against the cruelty of settling an estate away from a family of
five daughters, in favour of a man whom nobody cared anything about.

“It certainly is a most iniquitous affair,” said Mr. Bennet; “and
nothing can clear Mr. Collins from the guilt of inheriting Longbourn.
But if you will listen to his letter, you may, perhaps, be a little
softened by his manner of expressing himself.”

“No, that I am sure I shall not: and I think it was very impertinent of
him to write to you at all, and very hypocritical. I hate such false
friends. Why could not he keep on quarrelling with you, as his father
did before him?”

“Why, indeed, he does seem to have had some filial scruples on that
head, as you will hear.”

     /* RIGHT “Hunsford, near Westerham, Kent, _15th October_. */

“Dear Sir,

     “The disagreement subsisting between yourself and my late honoured
     father always gave me much uneasiness; and, since I have had the
     misfortune to lose him, I have frequently wished to heal the
     breach: but, for some time, I was kept back by my own doubts,
     fearing lest it might seem disrespectful to his memory for me to be
     on good terms with anyone with whom it had always pleased him to be
     at variance.”--‘There, Mrs. Bennet.’--“My mind, however, is now
     made up on the subject; for, having received ordination at Easter,
     I have been so fortunate as to be distinguished by the patronage of
     the Right Honourable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, widow of Sir Lewis
     de Bourgh, whose bounty and beneficence has preferred me to the
     valuable rectory of this parish, where it shall be my earnest
     endeavour to demean myself with grateful respect towards her
     Ladyship, and be ever ready to perform those rites and ceremonies
     which are instituted by the Church of England. As a clergyman,
     moreover, I feel it my duty to promote and establish the blessing
     of peace in all families within the reach of my influence; and on
     these grounds I flatter myself that my present overtures of
     good-will are highly commendable, and that the circumstance of my
     being next in the entail of Longbourn estate will be kindly
     overlooked on your side, and not lead you to reject the offered
     olive branch. I cannot be otherwise than concerned at being the
     means of injuring your amiable daughters, and beg leave to
     apologize for it, as well as to assure you of my readiness to make
     them every possible amends; but of this hereafter. If you should
     have no objection to receive me into your house, I propose myself
     the satisfaction of waiting on you and your family, Monday,
     November 18th, by four o’clock, and shall probably trespass on your
     hospitality till the Saturday se’nnight following, which I can do
     without any inconvenience, as Lady Catherine is far from objecting
     to my occasional absence on a Sunday, provided that some other
     clergyman is engaged to do the duty of the day. I remain, dear sir,
     with respectful compliments to your lady and daughters, your
     well-wisher and friend,

“WILLIAM COLLINS.”

“At four o’clock, therefore, we may expect this peace-making gentleman,”
said Mr. Bennet, as he folded up the letter. “He seems to be a most
conscientious and polite young man, upon my word; and, I doubt not, will
prove a valuable acquaintance, especially if Lady Catherine should be so
indulgent as to let him come to us again.”

“There is some sense in what he says about the girls, however; and, if
he is disposed to make them any amends, I shall not be the person to
discourage him.”

“Though it is difficult,” said Jane, “to guess in what way he can mean
to make us the atonement he thinks our due, the wish is certainly to his
credit.”

Elizabeth was chiefly struck with his extraordinary deference for Lady
Catherine, and his kind intention of christening, marrying, and burying
his parishioners whenever it were required.

“He must be an oddity, I think,” said she. “I cannot make him out. There
is something very pompous in his style. And what can he mean by
apologizing for being next in the entail? We cannot suppose he would
help it, if he could. Can he be a sensible man, sir?”

“No, my dear; I think not. I have great hopes of finding him quite the
reverse. There is a mixture of servility and self-importance in his
letter which promises well. I am impatient to see him.”

“In point of composition,” said Mary, “his letter does not seem
defective. The idea of the olive branch perhaps is not wholly new, yet I
think it is well expressed.”

To Catherine and Lydia neither the letter nor its writer were in any
degree interesting. It was next to impossible that their cousin should
come in a scarlet coat, and it was now some weeks since they had
received pleasure from the society of a man in any other colour. As for
their mother, Mr. Collins’s letter had done away much of her ill-will,
and she was preparing to see him with a degree of composure which
astonished her husband and daughters.

Mr. Collins was punctual to his time, and was received with great
politeness by the whole family. Mr. Bennet indeed said little; but the
ladies were ready enough to talk, and Mr. Collins seemed neither in need
of encouragement, nor inclined to be silent himself. He was a tall,
heavy-looking young man of five-and-twenty. His air was grave and
stately, and his manners were very formal. He had not been long seated
before he complimented Mrs. Bennet on having so fine a family of
daughters, said he had heard much of their beauty, but that, in this
instance, fame had fallen short of the truth; and added, that he did not
doubt her seeing them all in due time well disposed of in marriage. This
gallantry was not much to the taste of some of his hearers; but Mrs.
Bennet, who quarrelled with no compliments, answered most readily,--

“You are very kind, sir, I am sure; and I wish with all my heart it may
prove so; for else they will be destitute enough. Things are settled so
oddly.”

“You allude, perhaps, to the entail of this estate.”

“Ah, sir, I do indeed. It is a grievous affair to my poor girls, you
must confess. Not that I mean to find fault with _you_, for such things,
I know, are all chance in this world. There is no knowing how estates
will go when once they come to be entailed.”

“I am very sensible, madam, of the hardship to my fair cousins, and
could say much on the subject, but that I am cautious of appearing
forward and precipitate. But I can assure the young ladies that I come
prepared to admire them. At present I will not say more, but, perhaps,
when we are better acquainted----”

He was interrupted by a summons to dinner; and the girls smiled on each
other. They were not the only objects of Mr. Collins’s admiration. The
hall, the dining-room, and all its furniture, were examined and praised;
and his commendation of everything would have touched Mrs. Bennet’s
heart, but for the mortifying supposition of his viewing it all as his
own future property. The dinner, too, in its turn, was highly admired;
and he begged to know to which of his fair cousins the excellence of its
cookery was owing. But here he was set right by Mrs. Bennet, who assured
him, with some asperity, that they were very well able to keep a good
cook, and that her daughters had nothing to do in the kitchen. He begged
pardon for having displeased her. In a softened tone she declared
herself not at all offended; but he continued to apologize for about a
quarter of an hour.




[Illustration]




CHAPTER XIV


[Illustration]

During dinner, Mr. Bennet scarcely spoke at all; but when the servants
were withdrawn, he thought it time to have some conversation with his
guest, and therefore started a subject in which he expected him to
shine, by observing that he seemed very fortunate in his patroness. Lady
Catherine de Bourgh’s attention to his wishes, and consideration for his
comfort, appeared very remarkable. Mr. Bennet could not have chosen
better. Mr. Collins was eloquent in her praise. The subject elevated him
to more than usual solemnity of manner; and with a most important aspect
he protested that he had never in his life witnessed such behaviour in a
person of rank--such affability and condescension, as he had himself
experienced from Lady Catherine. She had been graciously pleased to
approve of both the discourses which he had already had the honour of
preaching before her. She had also asked him twice to dine at Rosings,
and had sent for him only the Saturday before, to make up her pool of
quadrille in the evening. Lady Catherine was reckoned proud by many
people, he knew, but _he_ had never seen anything but affability in her.
She had always spoken to him as she would to any other gentleman; she
made not the smallest objection to his joining in the society of the
neighbourhood, nor to his leaving his parish occasionally for a week or
two to visit his relations. She had even condescended to advise him to
marry as soon as he could, provided he chose with discretion; and had
once paid him a visit in his humble parsonage, where she had perfectly
approved all the alterations he had been making, and had even vouchsafed
to suggest some herself,--some shelves in the closets upstairs.

“That is all very proper and civil, I am sure,” said Mrs. Bennet, “and I
dare say she is a very agreeable woman. It is a pity that great ladies
in general are not more like her. Does she live near you, sir?”

“The garden in which stands my humble abode is separated only by a lane
from Rosings Park, her Ladyship’s residence.”

“I think you said she was a widow, sir? has she any family?”

“She has one only daughter, the heiress of Rosings, and of very
extensive property.”

“Ah,” cried Mrs. Bennet, shaking her head, “then she is better off than
many girls. And what sort of young lady is she? Is she handsome?”

“She is a most charming young lady, indeed. Lady Catherine herself says
that, in point of true beauty, Miss de Bourgh is far superior to the
handsomest of her sex; because there is that in her features which marks
the young woman of distinguished birth. She is unfortunately of a sickly
constitution, which has prevented her making that progress in many
accomplishments which she could not otherwise have failed of, as I am
informed by the lady who superintended her education, and who still
resides with them. But she is perfectly amiable, and often condescends
to drive by my humble abode in her little phaeton and ponies.”

“Has she been presented? I do not remember her name among the ladies at
court.”

“Her indifferent state of health unhappily prevents her being in town;
and by that means, as I told Lady Catherine myself one day, has deprived
the British Court of its brightest ornament. Her Ladyship seemed pleased
with the idea; and you may imagine that I am happy on every occasion to
offer those little delicate compliments which are always acceptable to
ladies. I have more than once observed to Lady Catherine, that her
charming daughter seemed born to be a duchess; and that the most
elevated rank, instead of giving her consequence, would be adorned by
her. These are the kind of little things which please her Ladyship, and
it is a sort of attention which I conceive myself peculiarly bound to
pay.”

“You judge very properly,” said Mr. Bennet; “and it is happy for you
that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask
whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the
moment, or are the result of previous study?”

“They arise chiefly from what is passing at the time; and though I
sometimes amuse myself with suggesting and arranging such little elegant
compliments as may be adapted to ordinary occasions, I always wish to
give them as unstudied an air as possible.”

Mr. Bennet’s expectations were fully answered. His cousin was as absurd
as he had hoped; and he listened to him with the keenest enjoyment,
maintaining at the same time the most resolute composure of countenance,
and, except in an occasional glance at Elizabeth, requiring no partner
in his pleasure.

By tea-time, however, the dose had been enough, and Mr. Bennet was glad
to take his guest into the drawing-room again, and when tea was over,
glad to invite him

[Illustration:

“Protested
that he never read novels”      H.T Feb 94
]

to read aloud to the ladies. Mr. Collins readily assented, and a book
was produced; but on beholding it (for everything announced it to be
from a circulating library) he started back, and, begging pardon,
protested that he never read novels. Kitty stared at him, and Lydia
exclaimed. Other books were produced, and after some deliberation he
chose “Fordyce’s Sermons.” Lydia gaped as he opened the volume; and
before he had, with very monotonous solemnity, read three pages, she
interrupted him with,--

“Do you know, mamma, that my uncle Philips talks of turning away
Richard? and if he does, Colonel Forster will hire him. My aunt told me
so herself on Saturday. I shall walk to Meryton to-morrow to hear more
about it, and to ask when Mr. Denny comes back from town.”

Lydia was bid by her two eldest sisters to hold her tongue; but Mr.
Collins, much offended, laid aside his book, and said,--

“I have often observed how little young ladies are interested by books
of a serious stamp, though written solely for their benefit. It amazes
me, I confess; for certainly there can be nothing so advantageous to
them as instruction. But I will no longer importune my young cousin.”

Then, turning to Mr. Bennet, he offered himself as his antagonist at
backgammon. Mr. Bennet accepted the challenge, observing that he acted
very wisely in leaving the girls to their own trifling amusements. Mrs.
Bennet and her daughters apologized most civilly for Lydia’s
interruption, and promised that it should not occur again, if he would
resume his book; but Mr. Collins, after assuring them that he bore his
young cousin no ill-will, and should never resent her behaviour as any
affront, seated himself at another table with Mr. Bennet, and prepared
for backgammon.




[Illustration]




CHAPTER XV.


[Illustration]

Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had
been but little assisted by education or society; the greatest part of
his life having been spent under the guidance of an illiterate and
miserly father; and though he belonged to one of the universities, he
had merely kept the necessary terms without forming at it any useful
acquaintance. The subjection in which his father had brought him up had
given him originally great humility of manner; but it was now a good
deal counteracted by the self-conceit of a weak head, living in
retirement, and the consequential feelings of early and unexpected
prosperity. A fortunate chance had recommended him to Lady Catherine de
Bourgh when the living of Hunsford was vacant; and the respect which he
felt for her high rank, and his veneration for her as his patroness,
mingling with a very good opinion of himself, of his authority as a
clergyman, and his right as a rector, made him altogether a mixture of
pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility.

Having now a good house and a very sufficient income, he intended to
marry; and in seeking a reconciliation with the Longbourn family he had
a wife in view, as he meant to choose one of the daughters, if he found
them as handsome and amiable as they were represented by common report.
This was his plan of amends--of atonement--for inheriting their father’s
estate; and he thought it an excellent one, full of eligibility and
suitableness, and excessively generous and disinterested on his own
part.

His plan did not vary on seeing them. Miss Bennet’s lovely face
confirmed his views, and established all his strictest notions of what
was due to seniority; and for the first evening _she_ was his settled
choice. The next morning, however, made an alteration; for in a quarter
of an hour’s _tête-à-tête_ with Mrs. Bennet before breakfast, a
conversation beginning with his parsonage-house, and leading naturally
to the avowal of his hopes, that a mistress for it might be found at
Longbourn, produced from her, amid very complaisant smiles and general
encouragement, a caution against the very Jane he had fixed on. “As to
her _younger_ daughters, she could not take upon her to say--she could
not positively answer--but she did not _know_ of any prepossession;--her
_eldest_ daughter she must just mention--she felt it incumbent on her to
hint, was likely to be very soon engaged.”

Mr. Collins had only to change from Jane to Elizabeth--and it was soon
done--done while Mrs. Bennet was stirring the fire. Elizabeth, equally
next to Jane in birth and beauty, succeeded her of course.

Mrs. Bennet treasured up the hint, and trusted that she might soon have
two daughters married; and the man whom she could not bear to speak of
the day before, was now high in her good graces.

Lydia’s intention of walking to Meryton was not forgotten: every sister
except Mary agreed to go with her; and Mr. Collins was to attend them,
at the request of Mr. Bennet, who was most anxious to get rid of him,
and have his library to himself; for thither Mr. Collins had followed
him after breakfast, and there he would continue, nominally engaged with
one of the largest folios in the collection, but really talking to Mr.
Bennet, with little cessation, of his house and garden at Hunsford. Such
doings discomposed Mr. Bennet exceedingly. In his library he had been
always sure of leisure and tranquillity; and though prepared, as he told
Elizabeth, to meet with folly and conceit in every other room in the
house, he was used to be free from them there: his civility, therefore,
was most prompt in inviting Mr. Collins to join his daughters in their
walk; and Mr. Collins, being in fact much better fitted for a walker
than a reader, was extremely well pleased to close his large book, and
go.

In pompous nothings on his side, and civil assents on that of his
cousins, their time passed till they entered Meryton. The attention of
the younger ones was then no longer to be gained by _him_. Their eyes
were immediately wandering up the street in quest of the officers, and
nothing less than a very smart bonnet, indeed, or a really new muslin in
a shop window, could recall them.

But the attention of every lady was soon caught by a young man, whom
they had never seen before, of most gentlemanlike appearance, walking
with an officer on the other side of the way. The officer was the very
Mr. Denny concerning whose return from London Lydia came to inquire, and
he bowed as they passed. All were struck with the stranger’s air, all
wondered who he could be; and Kitty and Lydia, determined if possible
to find out, led the way across the street, under pretence of wanting
something in an opposite shop, and fortunately had just gained the
pavement, when the two gentlemen, turning back, had reached the same
spot. Mr. Denny addressed them directly, and entreated permission to
introduce his friend, Mr. Wickham, who had returned with him the day
before from town, and, he was happy to say, had accepted a commission in
their corps. This was exactly as it should be; for the young man wanted
only regimentals to make him completely charming. His appearance was
greatly in his favour: he had all the best parts of beauty, a fine
countenance, a good figure, and very pleasing address. The introduction
was followed up on his side by a happy readiness of conversation--a
readiness at the same time perfectly correct and unassuming; and the
whole party were still standing and talking together very agreeably,
when the sound of horses drew their notice, and Darcy and Bingley were
seen riding down the street. On distinguishing the ladies of the group
the two gentlemen came directly towards them, and began the usual
civilities. Bingley was the principal spokesman, and Miss Bennet the
principal object. He was then, he said, on his way to Longbourn on
purpose to inquire after her. Mr. Darcy corroborated it with a bow, and
was beginning to determine not to fix his eyes on Elizabeth, when they
were suddenly arrested by the sight of the stranger; and Elizabeth
happening to see the countenance of both as they looked at each other,
was all astonishment at the effect of the meeting. Both changed colour,
one looked white, the other red. Mr. Wickham, after a few moments,
touched his hat--a salutation which Mr. Darcy just deigned to return.
What could be the meaning of it? It was impossible to imagine; it was
impossible not to long to know.

In another minute Mr. Bingley, but without seeming to have noticed what
passed, took leave and rode on with his friend.

Mr. Denny and Mr. Wickham walked with the young ladies to the door of
Mr. Philips’s house, and then made their bows, in spite of Miss Lydia’s
pressing entreaties that they would come in, and even in spite of Mrs.
Philips’s throwing up the parlour window, and loudly seconding the
invitation.

Mrs. Philips was always glad to see her nieces; and the two eldest, from
their recent absence, were particularly welcome; and she was eagerly
expressing her surprise at their sudden return home, which, as their own
carriage had not fetched them, she should have known nothing about, if
she had not happened to see Mr. Jones’s shopboy in the street, who had
told her that they were not to send any more draughts to Netherfield,
because the Miss Bennets were come away, when her civility was claimed
towards Mr. Collins by Jane’s introduction of him. She received him with
her very best politeness, which he returned with as much more,
apologizing for his intrusion, without any previous acquaintance with
her, which he could not help flattering himself, however, might be
justified by his relationship to the young ladies who introduced him to
her notice. Mrs. Philips was quite awed by such an excess of good
breeding; but her contemplation of one stranger was soon put an end to
by exclamations and inquiries about the other, of whom, however, she
could only tell her nieces what they already knew, that Mr. Denny had
brought him from London, and that he was to have a lieutenant’s
commission in the ----shire. She had been watching him the last hour,
she said, as he walked up and down the street,--and had Mr. Wickham
appeared, Kitty and Lydia would certainly have continued the occupation;
but unluckily no one passed the windows now except a few of the
officers, who, in comparison with the stranger, were become “stupid,
disagreeable fellows.” Some of them were to dine with the Philipses the
next day, and their aunt promised to make her husband call on Mr.
Wickham, and give him an invitation also, if the family from Longbourn
would come in the evening. This was agreed to; and Mrs. Philips
protested that they would have a nice comfortable noisy game of lottery
tickets, and a little bit of hot supper afterwards. The prospect of such
delights was very cheering, and they parted in mutual good spirits. Mr.
Collins repeated his apologies in quitting the room, and was assured,
with unwearying civility, that they were perfectly needless.

As they walked home, Elizabeth related to Jane what she had seen pass
between the two gentlemen; but though Jane would have defended either or
both, had they appeared to be wrong, she could no more explain such
behaviour than her sister.

Mr. Collins on his return highly gratified Mrs. Bennet by admiring Mrs.
Philips’s manners and politeness. He protested that, except Lady
Catherine and her daughter, he had never seen a more elegant woman; for
she had not only received him with the utmost civility, but had even
pointedly included him in her invitation for the next evening, although
utterly unknown to her before. Something, he supposed, might be
attributed to his connection with them, but yet he had never met with so
much attention in the whole course of his life.




[Illustration]




CHAPTER XVI.


[Illustration]

As no objection was made to the young people’s engagement with their
aunt, and all Mr. Collins’s scruples of leaving Mr. and Mrs. Bennet for
a single evening during his visit were most steadily resisted, the coach
conveyed him and his five cousins at a suitable hour to Meryton; and the
girls had the pleasure of hearing, as they entered the drawing-room,
that Mr. Wickham had accepted their uncle’s invitation, and was then in
the house.

When this information was given, and they had all taken their seats, Mr.
Collins was at leisure to look around him and admire, and he was so much
struck with the size and furniture of the apartment, that he declared he
might almost have supposed himself in the small summer breakfast parlour
at Rosings; a comparison that did not at first convey much
gratification; but when Mrs. Philips understood from him what Rosings
was, and who was its proprietor, when she had listened to the
description of only one of Lady Catherine’s drawing-rooms, and found
that the chimney-piece alone had cost eight hundred pounds, she felt all
the force of the compliment, and would hardly have resented a comparison
with the housekeeper’s room.

In describing to her all the grandeur of Lady Catherine and her mansion,
with occasional digressions in praise of his own humble abode, and the
improvements it was receiving, he was happily employed until the
gentlemen joined them; and he found in Mrs. Philips a very attentive
listener, whose opinion of his consequence increased with what she
heard, and who was resolving to retail it all among her neighbours as
soon as she could. To the girls, who could not listen to their cousin,
and who had nothing to do but to wish for an instrument, and examine
their own indifferent imitations of china on the mantel-piece, the
interval of waiting appeared very long. It was over at last, however.
The gentlemen did approach: and when Mr. Wickham walked into the room,
Elizabeth felt that she had neither been seeing him before, nor thinking
of him since, with the smallest degree of unreasonable admiration. The
officers of the ----shire were in general a very creditable,
gentlemanlike set and the best of them were of the present party; but
Mr, Wickham was as far beyond them all in person, countenance, air, and
walk, as _they_ were superior to the broad-faced stuffy uncle Philips,
breathing port wine, who followed them into the room.

[Illustration:

“The officers of the ----shire”

[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]

Mr. Wickham was the happy man towards whom almost every female eye was
turned, and Elizabeth was the happy woman by whom he finally seated
himself; and the agreeable manner in which he immediately fell into
conversation, though it was only on its being a wet night, and on the
probability of a rainy season, made her feel that the commonest,
dullest, most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the
skill of the speaker.

With such rivals for the notice of the fair as Mr. Wickham and the
officers, Mr. Collins seemed to sink into insignificance; to the young
ladies he certainly was nothing; but he had still at intervals a kind
listener in Mrs. Philips, and was, by her watchfulness, most abundantly
supplied with coffee and muffin.

When the card tables were placed, he had an opportunity of obliging her,
in return, by sitting down to whist.

“I know little of the game at present,” said he, “but I shall be glad to
improve myself; for in my situation of life----” Mrs. Philips was very
thankful for his compliance, but could not wait for his reason.

Mr. Wickham did not play at whist, and with ready delight was he
received at the other table between Elizabeth and Lydia. At first there
seemed danger of Lydia’s engrossing him entirely, for she was a most
determined talker; but being likewise extremely fond of lottery tickets,
she soon grew too much interested in the game, too eager in making bets
and exclaiming after prizes, to have attention for anyone in particular.
Allowing for the common demands of the game, Mr. Wickham was therefore
at leisure to talk to Elizabeth, and she was very willing to hear him,
though what she chiefly wished to hear she could not hope to be told,
the history of his acquaintance with Mr. Darcy. She dared not even
mention that gentleman. Her curiosity, however, was unexpectedly
relieved. Mr. Wickham began the subject himself. He inquired how far
Netherfield was from Meryton; and, after receiving her answer, asked in
a hesitating manner how long Mr. Darcy had been staying there.

“About a month,” said Elizabeth; and then, unwilling to let the subject
drop, added, “he is a man of very large property in Derbyshire, I
understand.”

“Yes,” replied Wickham; “his estate there is a noble one. A clear ten
thousand per annum. You could not have met with a person more capable of
giving you certain information on that head than myself--for I have been
connected with his family, in a particular manner, from my infancy.”

Elizabeth could not but look surprised.

“You may well be surprised, Miss Bennet, at such an assertion, after
seeing, as you probably might, the very cold manner of our meeting
yesterday. Are you much acquainted with Mr. Darcy?”

“As much as I ever wish to be,” cried Elizabeth, warmly. “I have spent
four days in the same house with him, and I think him very
disagreeable.”

“I have no right to give _my_ opinion,” said Wickham, “as to his being
agreeable or otherwise. I am not qualified to form one. I have known him
too long and too well to be a fair judge. It is impossible for _me_ to
be impartial. But I believe your opinion of him would in general
astonish--and, perhaps, you would not express it quite so strongly
anywhere else. Here you are in your own family.”

“Upon my word I say no more _here_ than I might say in any house in the
neighbourhood, except Netherfield. He is not at all liked in
Hertfordshire. Everybody is disgusted with his pride. You will not find
him more favourably spoken of by anyone.”

“I cannot pretend to be sorry,” said Wickham, after a short
interruption, “that he or that any man should not be estimated beyond
their deserts; but with _him_ I believe it does not often happen. The
world is blinded by his fortune and consequence, or frightened by his
high and imposing manners, and sees him only as he chooses to be seen.”

“I should take him, even on _my_ slight acquaintance, to be an
ill-tempered man.”

Wickham only shook his head.

“I wonder,” said he, at the next opportunity of speaking, “whether he is
likely to be in this country much longer.”

“I do not at all know; but I _heard_ nothing of his going away when I
was at Netherfield. I hope your plans in favour of the ----shire will
not be affected by his being in the neighbourhood.”

“Oh no--it is not for _me_ to be driven away by Mr. Darcy. If _he_
wishes to avoid seeing _me_ he must go. We are not on friendly terms,
and it always gives me pain to meet him, but I have no reason for
avoiding _him_ but what I might proclaim to all the world--a sense of
very great ill-usage, and most painful regrets at his being what he is.
His father, Miss Bennet, the late Mr. Darcy, was one of the best men
that ever breathed, and the truest friend I ever had; and I can never be
in company with this Mr. Darcy without being grieved to the soul by a
thousand tender recollections. His behaviour to myself has been
scandalous; but I verily believe I could forgive him anything and
everything, rather than his disappointing the hopes and disgracing the
memory of his father.”

Elizabeth found the interest of the subject increase, and listened with
all her heart; but the delicacy of it prevented further inquiry.

Mr. Wickham began to speak on more general topics, Meryton, the
neighbourhood, the society, appearing highly pleased with all that he
had yet seen, and speaking of the latter, especially, with gentle but
very intelligible gallantry.

“It was the prospect of constant society, and good society,” he added,
“which was my chief inducement to enter the ----shire. I know it to be a
most respectable, agreeable corps; and my friend Denny tempted me
further by his account of their present quarters, and the very great
attentions and excellent acquaintance Meryton had procured them.
Society, I own, is necessary to me. I have been a disappointed man, and
my spirits will not bear solitude. I _must_ have employment and society.
A military life is not what I was intended for, but circumstances have
now made it eligible. The church _ought_ to have been my profession--I
was brought up for the church; and I should at this time have been in
possession of a most valuable living, had it pleased the gentleman we
were speaking of just now.”

“Indeed!”

“Yes--the late Mr. Darcy bequeathed me the next presentation of the best
living in his gift. He was my godfather, and excessively attached to me.
I cannot do justice to his kindness. He meant to provide for me amply,
and thought he had done it; but when the living fell, it was given
elsewhere.”

“Good heavens!” cried Elizabeth; “but how could _that_ be? How could his
will be disregarded? Why did not you seek legal redress?”

“There was just such an informality in the terms of the bequest as to
give me no hope from law. A man of honour could not have doubted the
intention, but Mr. Darcy chose to doubt it--or to treat it as a merely
conditional recommendation, and to assert that I had forfeited all claim
to it by extravagance, imprudence, in short, anything or nothing.
Certain it is that the living became vacant two years ago, exactly as I
was of an age to hold it, and that it was given to another man; and no
less certain is it, that I cannot accuse myself of having really done
anything to deserve to lose it. I have a warm unguarded temper, and I
may perhaps have sometimes spoken my opinion _of_ him, and _to_ him, too
freely. I can recall nothing worse. But the fact is, that we are very
different sort of men, and that he hates me.”

“This is quite shocking! He deserves to be publicly disgraced.”

“Some time or other he _will_ be--but it shall not be by _me_. Till I
can forget his father, I can never defy or expose _him_.”

Elizabeth honoured him for such feelings, and thought him handsomer than
ever as he expressed them.

“But what,” said she, after a pause, “can have been his motive? what can
have induced him to behave so cruelly?”

“A thorough, determined dislike of me--a dislike which I cannot but
attribute in some measure to jealousy. Had the late Mr. Darcy liked me
less, his son might have borne with me better; but his father’s uncommon
attachment to me irritated him, I believe, very early in life. He had
not a temper to bear the sort of competition in which we stood--the sort
of preference which was often given me.”

“I had not thought Mr. Darcy so bad as this--though I have never liked
him, I had not thought so very ill of him--I had supposed him to be
despising his fellow-creatures in general, but did not suspect him of
descending to such malicious revenge, such injustice, such inhumanity as
this!”

After a few minutes’ reflection, however, she continued, “I _do_
remember his boasting one day, at Netherfield, of the implacability of
his resentments, of his having an unforgiving temper. His disposition
must be dreadful.”

“I will not trust myself on the subject,” replied Wickham; “_I_ can
hardly be just to him.”

Elizabeth was again deep in thought, and after a time exclaimed, “To
treat in such a manner the godson, the friend, the favourite of his
father!” She could have added, “A young man, too, like _you_, whose very
countenance may vouch for your being amiable.” But she contented herself
with--“And one, too, who had probably been his own companion from
childhood, connected together, as I think you said, in the closest
manner.”

“We were born in the same parish, within the same park; the greatest
part of our youth was passed together: inmates of the same house,
sharing the same amusements, objects of the same parental care. _My_
father began life in the profession which your uncle, Mr. Philips,
appears to do so much credit to; but he gave up everything to be of use
to the late Mr. Darcy, and devoted all his time to the care of the
Pemberley property. He was most highly esteemed by Mr. Darcy, a most
intimate, confidential friend. Mr. Darcy often acknowledged himself to
be under the greatest obligations to my father’s active superintendence;
and when, immediately before my father’s death, Mr. Darcy gave him a
voluntary promise of providing for me, I am convinced that he felt it
to be as much a debt of gratitude to _him_ as of affection to myself.”

“How strange!” cried Elizabeth. “How abominable! I wonder that the very
pride of this Mr. Darcy has not made him just to you. If from no better
motive, that he should not have been too proud to be dishonest,--for
dishonesty I must call it.”

“It _is_ wonderful,” replied Wickham; “for almost all his actions may be
traced to pride; and pride has often been his best friend. It has
connected him nearer with virtue than any other feeling. But we are none
of us consistent; and in his behaviour to me there were stronger
impulses even than pride.”

“Can such abominable pride as his have ever done him good?”

“Yes; it has often led him to be liberal and generous; to give his money
freely, to display hospitality, to assist his tenants, and relieve the
poor. Family pride, and _filial_ pride, for he is very proud of what his
father was, have done this. Not to appear to disgrace his family, to
degenerate from the popular qualities, or lose the influence of the
Pemberley House, is a powerful motive. He has also _brotherly_ pride,
which, with _some_ brotherly affection, makes him a very kind and
careful guardian of his sister; and you will hear him generally cried up
as the most attentive and best of brothers.”

“What sort of a girl is Miss Darcy?”

He shook his head. “I wish I could call her amiable. It gives me pain to
speak ill of a Darcy; but she is too much like her brother,--very, very
proud. As a child, she was affectionate and pleasing, and extremely fond
of me; and I have devoted hours and hours to her amusement. But she is
nothing to me now. She is a handsome girl, about fifteen or sixteen,
and, I understand, highly accomplished. Since her father’s death her
home has been London, where a lady lives with her, and superintends her
education.”

After many pauses and many trials of other subjects, Elizabeth could not
help reverting once more to the first, and saying,--

“I am astonished at his intimacy with Mr. Bingley. How can Mr. Bingley,
who seems good-humour itself, and is, I really believe, truly amiable,
be in friendship with such a man? How can they suit each other? Do you
know Mr. Bingley?”

“Not at all.”

“He is a sweet-tempered, amiable, charming man. He cannot know what Mr.
Darcy is.”

“Probably not; but Mr. Darcy can please where he chooses. He does not
want abilities. He can be a conversible companion if he thinks it worth
his while. Among those who are at all his equals in consequence, he is a
very different man from what he is to the less prosperous. His pride
never deserts him; but with the rich he is liberal-minded, just,
sincere, rational, honourable, and, perhaps, agreeable,--allowing
something for fortune and figure.”

The whist party soon afterwards breaking up, the players gathered round
the other table, and Mr. Collins took his station between his cousin
Elizabeth and Mrs. Philips. The usual inquiries as to his success were
made by the latter. It had not been very great; he had lost every point;
but when Mrs. Philips began to express her concern thereupon, he assured
her, with much earnest gravity, that it was not of the least importance;
that he considered the money as a mere trifle, and begged she would not
make herself uneasy.

“I know very well, madam,” said he, “that when persons sit down to a
card table they must take their chance of these things,--and happily I
am not in such circumstances as to make five shillings any object. There
are, undoubtedly, many who could not say the same; but, thanks to Lady
Catherine de Bourgh, I am removed far beyond the necessity of regarding
little matters.”

Mr. Wickham’s attention was caught; and after observing Mr. Collins for
a few moments, he asked Elizabeth in a low voice whether her relations
were very intimately acquainted with the family of De Bourgh.

“Lady Catherine de Bourgh,” she replied, “has very lately given him a
living. I hardly know how Mr. Collins was first introduced to her
notice, but he certainly has not known her long.”

“You know of course that Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Lady Anne Darcy
were sisters; consequently that she is aunt to the present Mr. Darcy.”

“No, indeed, I did not. I knew nothing at all of Lady Catherine’s
connections. I never heard of her existence till the day before
yesterday.”

“Her daughter, Miss de Bourgh, will have a very large fortune, and it is
believed that she and her cousin will unite the two estates.”

This information made Elizabeth smile, as she thought of poor Miss
Bingley. Vain indeed must be all her attentions, vain and useless her
affection for his sister and her praise of himself, if he were already
self-destined to another.

“Mr. Collins,” said she, “speaks highly both of Lady Catherine and her
daughter; but, from some particulars that he has related of her
Ladyship, I suspect his gratitude misleads him; and that, in spite of
her being his patroness, she is an arrogant, conceited woman.”

“I believe her to be both in a great degree,” replied Wickham; “I have
not seen her for many years; but I very well remember that I never liked
her, and that her manners were dictatorial and insolent. She has the
reputation of being remarkably sensible and clever; but I rather believe
she derives part of her abilities from her rank and fortune, part from
her authoritative manner, and the rest from the pride of her nephew, who
chooses that everyone connected with him should have an understanding of
the first class.”

Elizabeth allowed that he had given a very rational account of it, and
they continued talking together with mutual satisfaction till supper put
an end to cards, and gave the rest of the ladies their share of Mr.
Wickham’s attentions. There could be no conversation in the noise of
Mrs. Philips’s supper party, but his manners recommended him to
everybody. Whatever he said, was said well; and whatever he did, done
gracefully. Elizabeth went away with her head full of him. She could
think of nothing but of Mr. Wickham, and of what he had told her, all
the way home; but there was not time for her even to mention his name as
they went, for neither Lydia nor Mr. Collins were once silent. Lydia
talked incessantly of lottery tickets, of the fish she had lost and the
fish she had won; and Mr. Collins, in describing the civility of Mr. and
Mrs. Philips, protesting that he did not in the least regard his losses
at whist, enumerating all the dishes at supper, and repeatedly fearing
that he crowded his cousins, had more to say than he could well manage
before the carriage stopped at Longbourn House.




[Illustration:

     “delighted to see their dear friend again”
]




CHAPTER XVII.


[Illustration]

Elizabeth related to Jane, the next day, what had passed between Mr.
Wickham and herself. Jane listened with astonishment and concern: she
knew not how to believe that Mr. Darcy could be so unworthy of Mr.
Bingley’s regard; and yet it was not in her nature to question the
veracity of a young man of such amiable appearance as Wickham. The
possibility of his having really endured such unkindness was enough to
interest all her tender feelings; and nothing therefore remained to be
done but to think well of them both, to defend the conduct of each, and
throw into the account of accident or mistake whatever could not be
otherwise explained.

“They have both,” said she, “been deceived, I dare say, in some way or
other, of which we can form no idea. Interested people have perhaps
misrepresented each to the other. It is, in short, impossible for us to
conjecture the causes or circumstances which may have alienated them,
without actual blame on either side.”

“Very true, indeed; and now, my dear Jane, what have you got to say in
behalf of the interested people who have probably been concerned in the
business? Do clear _them_, too, or we shall be obliged to think ill of
somebody.”

“Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my
opinion. My dearest Lizzy, do but consider in what a disgraceful light
it places Mr. Darcy, to be treating his father’s favourite in such a
manner,--one whom his father had promised to provide for. It is
impossible. No man of common humanity, no man who had any value for his
character, could be capable of it. Can his most intimate friends be so
excessively deceived in him? Oh no.”

“I can much more easily believe Mr. Bingley’s being imposed on than that
Mr. Wickham should invent such a history of himself as he gave me last
night; names, facts, everything mentioned without ceremony. If it be not
so, let Mr. Darcy contradict it. Besides, there was truth in his looks.”

“It is difficult, indeed--it is distressing. One does not know what to
think.”

“I beg your pardon;--one knows exactly what to think.”

But Jane could think with certainty on only one point,--that Mr.
Bingley, if he _had been_ imposed on, would have much to suffer when
the affair became public.

The two young ladies were summoned from the shrubbery, where this
conversation passed, by the arrival of some of the very persons of whom
they had been speaking; Mr. Bingley and his sisters came to give their
personal invitation for the long expected ball at Netherfield, which was
fixed for the following Tuesday. The two ladies were delighted to see
their dear friend again, called it an age since they had met, and
repeatedly asked what she had been doing with herself since their
separation. To the rest of the family they paid little attention;
avoiding Mrs. Bennet as much as possible, saying not much to Elizabeth,
and nothing at all to the others. They were soon gone again, rising from
their seats with an activity which took their brother by surprise, and
hurrying off as if eager to escape from Mrs. Bennet’s civilities.

The prospect of the Netherfield ball was extremely agreeable to every
female of the family. Mrs. Bennet chose to consider it as given in
compliment to her eldest daughter, and was particularly flattered by
receiving the invitation from Mr. Bingley himself, instead of a
ceremonious card. Jane pictured to herself a happy evening in the
society of her two friends, and the attentions of their brother; and
Elizabeth thought with pleasure of dancing a great deal with Mr.
Wickham, and of seeing a confirmation of everything in Mr. Darcy’s look
and behaviour. The happiness anticipated by Catherine and Lydia depended
less on any single event, or any particular person; for though they
each, like Elizabeth, meant to dance half the evening with Mr. Wickham,
he was by no means the only partner who could satisfy them, and a ball
was, at any rate, a ball. And even Mary could assure her family that she
had no disinclination for it.

“While I can have my mornings to myself,” said she, “it is enough. I
think it is no sacrifice to join occasionally in evening engagements.
Society has claims on us all; and I profess myself one of those who
consider intervals of recreation and amusement as desirable for
everybody.”

Elizabeth’s spirits were so high on the occasion, that though she did
not often speak unnecessarily to Mr. Collins, she could not help asking
him whether he intended to accept Mr. Bingley’s invitation, and if he
did, whether he would think it proper to join in the evening’s
amusement; and she was rather surprised to find that he entertained no
scruple whatever on that head, and was very far from dreading a rebuke,
either from the Archbishop or Lady Catherine de Bourgh, by venturing to
dance.

“I am by no means of opinion, I assure you,” said he, “that a ball of
this kind, given by a young man of character, to respectable people, can
have any evil tendency; and I am so far from objecting to dancing
myself, that I shall hope to be honoured with the hands of all my fair
cousins in the course of the evening; and I take this opportunity of
soliciting yours, Miss Elizabeth, for the two first dances especially; a
preference which I trust my cousin Jane will attribute to the right
cause, and not to any disrespect for her.”

Elizabeth felt herself completely taken in. She had fully proposed being
engaged by Wickham for those very dances; and to have Mr. Collins
instead!--her liveliness had been never worse timed. There was no help
for it, however. Mr. Wickham’s happiness and her own was perforce
delayed a little longer, and Mr. Collins’s proposal accepted with as
good a grace as she could. She was not the better pleased with his
gallantry, from the idea it suggested of something more. It now first
struck her, that _she_ was selected from among her sisters as worthy of
being the mistress of Hunsford Parsonage, and of assisting to form a
quadrille table at Rosings, in the absence of more eligible visitors.
The idea soon reached to conviction, as she observed his increasing
civilities towards herself, and heard his frequent attempt at a
compliment on her wit and vivacity; and though more astonished than
gratified herself by this effect of her charms, it was not long before
her mother gave her to understand that the probability of their marriage
was exceedingly agreeable to _her_. Elizabeth, however, did not choose
to take the hint, being well aware that a serious dispute must be the
consequence of any reply. Mr. Collins might never make the offer, and,
till he did, it was useless to quarrel about him.

If there had not been a Netherfield ball to prepare for and talk of, the
younger Miss Bennets would have been in a pitiable state at this time;
for, from the day of the invitation to the day of the ball, there was
such a succession of rain as prevented their walking to Meryton once. No
aunt, no officers, no news could be sought after; the very shoe-roses
for Netherfield were got by proxy. Even Elizabeth might have found some
trial of her patience in weather which totally suspended the improvement
of her acquaintance with Mr. Wickham; and nothing less than a dance on
Tuesday could have made such a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday
endurable to Kitty and Lydia.




[Illustration]




CHAPTER XVIII.


[Illustration]

Till Elizabeth entered the drawing-room at Netherfield, and looked in
vain for Mr. Wickham among the cluster of red coats there assembled, a
doubt of his being present had never occurred to her. The certainty of
meeting him had not been checked by any of those recollections that
might not unreasonably have alarmed her. She had dressed with more than
usual care, and prepared in the highest spirits for the conquest of all
that remained unsubdued of his heart, trusting that it was not more than
might be won in the course of the evening. But in an instant arose the
dreadful suspicion of his being purposely omitted, for Mr. Darcy’s
pleasure, in the Bingleys’ invitation to the officers; and though this
was not exactly the case, the absolute fact of his absence was
pronounced by his friend Mr. Denny, to whom Lydia eagerly applied, and
who told them that Wickham had been obliged to go to town on business
the day before, and was not yet returned; adding, with a significant
smile,--

“I do not imagine his business would have called him away just now, if
he had not wished to avoid a certain gentleman here.”

This part of his intelligence, though unheard by Lydia, was caught by
Elizabeth; and, as it assured her that Darcy was not less answerable for
Wickham’s absence than if her first surmise had been just, every feeling
of displeasure against the former was so sharpened by immediate
disappointment, that she could hardly reply with tolerable civility to
the polite inquiries which he directly afterwards approached to make.
Attention, forbearance, patience with Darcy, was injury to Wickham. She
was resolved against any sort of conversation with him, and turned away
with a degree of ill-humour which she could not wholly surmount even in
speaking to Mr. Bingley, whose blind partiality provoked her.

But Elizabeth was not formed for ill-humour; and though every prospect
of her own was destroyed for the evening, it could not dwell long on her
spirits; and, having told all her griefs to Charlotte Lucas, whom she
had not seen for a week, she was soon able to make a voluntary
transition to the oddities of her cousin, and to point him out to her
particular notice. The two first dances, however, brought a return of
distress: they were dances of mortification. Mr. Collins, awkward and
solemn, apologizing instead of attending, and often moving wrong
without being aware of it, gave her all the shame and misery which a
disagreeable partner for a couple of dances can give. The moment of her
release from him was ecstasy.

She danced next with an officer, and had the refreshment of talking of
Wickham, and of hearing that he was universally liked. When those dances
were over, she returned to Charlotte Lucas, and was in conversation with
her, when she found herself suddenly addressed by Mr. Darcy, who took
her so much by surprise in his application for her hand, that, without
knowing what she did, she accepted him. He walked away again
immediately, and she was left to fret over her own want of presence of
mind: Charlotte tried to console her.

“I dare say you will find him very agreeable.”

“Heaven forbid! _That_ would be the greatest misfortune of all! To find
a man agreeable whom one is determined to hate! Do not wish me such an
evil.”

When the dancing recommenced, however, and Darcy approached to claim her
hand, Charlotte could not help cautioning her, in a whisper, not to be a
simpleton, and allow her fancy for Wickham to make her appear unpleasant
in the eyes of a man often times his consequence. Elizabeth made no
answer, and took her place in the set, amazed at the dignity to which
she was arrived in being allowed to stand opposite to Mr. Darcy, and
reading in her neighbours’ looks their equal amazement in beholding it.
They stood for some time without speaking a word; and she began to
imagine that their silence was to last through the two dances, and, at
first, was resolved not to break it; till suddenly fancying that it
would be the greater punishment to her partner to oblige him to talk,
she made some slight observation on the dance. He replied, and was again
silent. After a pause of some minutes, she addressed him a second time,
with--

“It is _your_ turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy. _I_ talked about the
dance, and _you_ ought to make some kind of remark on the size of the
room, or the number of couples.”

He smiled, and assured her that whatever she wished him to say should be
said.

“Very well; that reply will do for the present. Perhaps, by-and-by, I
may observe that private balls are much pleasanter than public ones; but
_now_ we may be silent.”

“Do you talk by rule, then, while you are dancing?”

“Sometimes. One must speak a little, you know. It would look odd to be
entirely silent for half an hour together; and yet, for the advantage of
_some_, conversation ought to be so arranged as that they may have the
trouble of saying as little as possible.”

“Are you consulting your own feelings in the present case, or do you
imagine that you are gratifying mine?”

“Both,” replied Elizabeth archly; “for I have always seen a great
similarity in the turn of our minds. We are each of an unsocial,
taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say
something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to
posterity with all the _éclat_ of a proverb.”

“This is no very striking resemblance of your own character, I am sure,”
said he. “How near it may be to _mine_, I cannot pretend to say. _You_
think it a faithful portrait, undoubtedly.”

“I must not decide on my own performance.”

He made no answer; and they were again silent till they had gone down
the dance, when he asked her if she and her sisters did not very often
walk to Meryton. She answered in the affirmative; and, unable to resist
the temptation, added, “When you met us there the other day, we had just
been forming a new acquaintance.”

The effect was immediate. A deeper shade of _hauteur_ overspread his
features, but he said not a word; and Elizabeth, though blaming herself
for her own weakness, could not go on. At length Darcy spoke, and in a
constrained manner said,--

“Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may insure his
_making_ friends; whether he may be equally capable of _retaining_ them,
is less certain.”

“He has been so unlucky as to lose your friendship,” replied Elizabeth,
with emphasis, “and in a manner which he is likely to suffer from all
his life.”

Darcy made no answer, and seemed desirous of changing the subject. At
that moment Sir William Lucas appeared close to them, meaning to pass
through the set to the other side of the room; but, on perceiving Mr.
Darcy, he stopped, with a bow of superior courtesy, to compliment him on
his dancing and his partner.

“I have been most highly gratified, indeed, my dear sir; such very
superior dancing is not often seen. It is evident that you belong to the
first circles. Allow me to say, however, that your fair partner does not
disgrace you: and that I must hope to have this pleasure often repeated,
especially when a certain desirable event, my dear Miss Eliza (glancing
at her sister and Bingley), shall take place. What congratulations will
then flow in! I appeal to Mr. Darcy;--but let me not interrupt you, sir.
You will not thank me for detaining you from the bewitching converse of
that young lady, whose bright eyes are also upbraiding me.”

[Illustration:

“Such very superior dancing is not
often seen.”

[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]

The latter part of this address was scarcely heard by Darcy; but Sir
William’s allusion to his friend seemed to strike him forcibly, and his
eyes were directed, with a very serious expression, towards Bingley and
Jane, who were dancing together. Recovering himself, however, shortly,
he turned to his partner, and said,--

“Sir William’s interruption has made me forget what we were talking
of.”

“I do not think we were speaking at all. Sir William could not have
interrupted any two people in the room who had less to say for
themselves. We have tried two or three subjects already without success,
and what we are to talk of next I cannot imagine.”

“What think you of books?” said he, smiling.

“Books--oh no!--I am sure we never read the same, or not with the same
feelings.”

“I am sorry you think so; but if that be the case, there can at least be
no want of subject. We may compare our different opinions.”

“No--I cannot talk of books in a ball-room; my head is always full of
something else.”

“The _present_ always occupies you in such scenes--does it?” said he,
with a look of doubt.

“Yes, always,” she replied, without knowing what she said; for her
thoughts had wandered far from the subject, as soon afterwards appeared
by her suddenly exclaiming, “I remember hearing you once say, Mr. Darcy,
that you hardly ever forgave;--that your resentment, once created, was
unappeasable. You are very cautious, I suppose, as to its _being
created_?”

“I am,” said he, with a firm voice.

“And never allow yourself to be blinded by prejudice?”

“I hope not.”

“It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion,
to be secure of judging properly at first.”

“May I ask to what these questions tend?”

“Merely to the illustration of _your_ character,” said she, endeavouring
to shake off her gravity. “I am trying to make it out.”

“And what is your success?”

She shook her head. “I do not get on at all. I hear such different
accounts of you as puzzle me exceedingly.”

“I can readily believe,” answered he, gravely, “that reports may vary
greatly with respect to me; and I could wish, Miss Bennet, that you were
not to sketch my character at the present moment, as there is reason to
fear that the performance would reflect no credit on either.”

“But if I do not take your likeness now, I may never have another
opportunity.”

“I would by no means suspend any pleasure of yours,” he coldly replied.
She said no more, and they went down the other dance and parted in
silence; on each side dissatisfied, though not to an equal degree; for
in Darcy’s breast there was a tolerably powerful feeling towards her,
which soon procured her pardon, and directed all his anger against
another.

They had not long separated when Miss Bingley came towards her, and,
with an expression of civil disdain, thus accosted her,--

“So, Miss Eliza, I hear you are quite delighted with George Wickham?
Your sister has been talking to me about him, and asking me a thousand
questions; and I find that the young man forgot to tell you, among his
other communications, that he was the son of old Wickham, the late Mr.
Darcy’s steward. Let me recommend you, however, as a friend, not to give
implicit confidence to all his assertions; for, as to Mr. Darcy’s using
him ill, it is perfectly false: for, on the contrary, he has been always
remarkably kind to him, though George Wickham has treated Mr. Darcy in a
most infamous manner. I do not know the particulars, but I know very
well that Mr. Darcy is not in the least to blame; that he cannot bear
to hear George Wickham mentioned; and that though my brother thought he
could not well avoid including him in his invitation to the officers, he
was excessively glad to find that he had taken himself out of the way.
His coming into the country at all is a most insolent thing, indeed, and
I wonder how he could presume to do it. I pity you, Miss Eliza, for this
discovery of your favourite’s guilt; but really, considering his
descent, one could not expect much better.”

“His guilt and his descent appear, by your account, to be the same,”
said Elizabeth, angrily; “for I have heard you accuse him of nothing
worse than of being the son of Mr. Darcy’s steward, and of _that_, I can
assure you, he informed me himself.”

“I beg your pardon,” replied Miss Bingley, turning away with a sneer.
“Excuse my interference; it was kindly meant.”

“Insolent girl!” said Elizabeth to herself. “You are much mistaken if
you expect to influence me by such a paltry attack as this. I see
nothing in it but your own wilful ignorance and the malice of Mr.
Darcy.” She then sought her eldest sister, who had undertaken to make
inquiries on the same subject of Bingley. Jane met her with a smile of
such sweet complacency, a glow of such happy expression, as sufficiently
marked how well she was satisfied with the occurrences of the evening.
Elizabeth instantly read her feelings; and, at that moment, solicitude
for Wickham, resentment against his enemies, and everything else, gave
way before the hope of Jane’s being in the fairest way for happiness.

“I want to know,” said she, with a countenance no less smiling than her
sister’s, “what you have learnt about Mr. Wickham. But perhaps you have
been too pleasantly engaged to think of any third person, in which case
you may be sure of my pardon.”

“No,” replied Jane, “I have not forgotten him; but I have nothing
satisfactory to tell you. Mr. Bingley does not know the whole of his
history, and is quite ignorant of the circumstances which have
principally offended Mr. Darcy; but he will vouch for the good conduct,
the probity and honour, of his friend, and is perfectly convinced that
Mr. Wickham has deserved much less attention from Mr. Darcy than he has
received; and I am sorry to say that by his account, as well as his
sister’s, Mr. Wickham is by no means a respectable young man. I am
afraid he has been very imprudent, and has deserved to lose Mr. Darcy’s
regard.”

“Mr. Bingley does not know Mr. Wickham himself.”

“No; he never saw him till the other morning at Meryton.”

“This account then is what he has received from Mr. Darcy. I am
perfectly satisfied. But what does he say of the living?”

“He does not exactly recollect the circumstances, though he has heard
them from Mr. Darcy more than once, but he believes that it was left to
him _conditionally_ only.”

“I have not a doubt of Mr. Bingley’s sincerity,” said Elizabeth warmly,
“but you must excuse my not being convinced by assurances only. Mr.
Bingley’s defence of his friend was a very able one, I dare say; but
since he is unacquainted with several parts of the story, and has learnt
the rest from that friend himself, I shall venture still to think of
both gentlemen as I did before.”

She then changed the discourse to one more gratifying to each, and on
which there could be no difference of sentiment. Elizabeth listened with
delight to the happy though modest hopes which Jane entertained of
Bingley’s regard, and said all in her power to heighten her confidence
in it. On their being joined by Mr. Bingley himself, Elizabeth withdrew
to Miss Lucas; to whose inquiry after the pleasantness of her last
partner she had scarcely replied, before Mr. Collins came up to them,
and told her with great exultation, that he had just been so fortunate
as to make a most important discovery.

“I have found out,” said he, “by a singular accident, that there is now
in the room a near relation to my patroness. I happened to overhear the
gentleman himself mentioning to the young lady who does the honours of
this house the names of his cousin Miss De Bourgh, and of her mother,
Lady Catherine. How wonderfully these sort of things occur! Who would
have thought of my meeting with--perhaps--a nephew of Lady Catherine de
Bourgh in this assembly! I am most thankful that the discovery is made
in time for me to pay my respects to him, which I am now going to do,
and trust he will excuse my not having done it before. My total
ignorance of the connection must plead my apology.”

“You are not going to introduce yourself to Mr. Darcy?”

“Indeed I am. I shall entreat his pardon for not having done it earlier.
I believe him to be Lady Catherine’s _nephew_. It will be in my power to
assure him that her Ladyship was quite well yesterday se’nnight.”

Elizabeth tried hard to dissuade him from such a scheme; assuring him
that Mr. Darcy would consider his addressing him without introduction as
an impertinent freedom, rather than a compliment to his aunt; that it
was not in the least necessary there should be any notice on either
side, and that if it were, it must belong to Mr. Darcy, the superior in
consequence, to begin the acquaintance. Mr. Collins listened to her with
the determined air of following his own inclination, and when she ceased
speaking, replied thus,--

“My dear Miss Elizabeth, I have the highest opinion in the world of your
excellent judgment in all matters within the scope of your
understanding, but permit me to say that there must be a wide difference
between the established forms of ceremony amongst the laity and those
which regulate the clergy; for, give me leave to observe that I consider
the clerical office as equal in point of dignity with the highest rank
in the kingdom--provided that a proper humility of behaviour is at the
same time maintained. You must, therefore, allow me to follow the
dictates of my conscience on this occasion, which lead me to perform
what I look on as a point of duty. Pardon me for neglecting to profit by
your advice, which on every other subject shall be my constant guide,
though in the case before us I consider myself more fitted by education
and habitual study to decide on what is right than a young lady like
yourself;” and with a low bow he left her to attack Mr. Darcy, whose
reception of his advances she eagerly watched, and whose astonishment at
being so addressed was very evident. Her cousin prefaced his speech with
a solemn bow, and though she could not hear a word of it, she felt as if
hearing it all, and saw in the motion of his lips the words “apology,”
“Hunsford,” and “Lady Catherine de Bourgh.” It vexed her to see him
expose himself to such a man. Mr. Darcy was eyeing him with
unrestrained wonder; and when at last Mr. Collins allowed him to speak,
replied with an air of distant civility. Mr. Collins, however, was not
discouraged from speaking again, and Mr. Darcy’s contempt seemed
abundantly increasing with the length of his second speech; and at the
end of it he only made him a slight bow, and moved another way: Mr.
Collins then returned to Elizabeth.

“I have no reason, I assure you,” said he, “to be dissatisfied with my
reception. Mr. Darcy seemed much pleased with the attention. He answered
me with the utmost civility, and even paid me the compliment of saying,
that he was so well convinced of Lady Catherine’s discernment as to be
certain she could never bestow a favour unworthily. It was really a very
handsome thought. Upon the whole, I am much pleased with him.”

As Elizabeth had no longer any interest of her own to pursue, she turned
her attention almost entirely on her sister and Mr. Bingley; and the
train of agreeable reflections which her observations gave birth to made
her perhaps almost as happy as Jane. She saw her in idea settled in that
very house, in all the felicity which a marriage of true affection could
bestow; and she felt capable, under such circumstances, of endeavouring
even to like Bingley’s two sisters. Her mother’s thoughts she plainly
saw were bent the same way, and she determined not to venture near her,
lest she might hear too much. When they sat down to supper, therefore,
she considered it a most unlucky perverseness which placed them within
one of each other; and deeply was she vexed to find that her mother was
talking to that one person (Lady Lucas) freely, openly, and of nothing
else but of her expectation that Jane would be soon married to Mr.
Bingley. It was an animating subject, and Mrs. Bennet seemed incapable
of fatigue while enumerating the advantages of the match. His being such
a charming young man, and so rich, and living but three miles from them,
were the first points of self-gratulation; and then it was such a
comfort to think how fond the two sisters were of Jane, and to be
certain that they must desire the connection as much as she could do. It
was, moreover, such a promising thing for her younger daughters, as
Jane’s marrying so greatly must throw them in the way of other rich men;
and, lastly, it was so pleasant at her time of life to be able to
consign her single daughters to the care of their sister, that she might
not be obliged to go into company more than she liked. It was necessary
to make this circumstance a matter of pleasure, because on such
occasions it is the etiquette; but no one was less likely than Mrs.
Bennet to find comfort in staying at home at any period of her life. She
concluded with many good wishes that Lady Lucas might soon be equally
fortunate, though evidently and triumphantly believing there was no
chance of it.

In vain did Elizabeth endeavour to check the rapidity of her mother’s
words, or persuade her to describe her felicity in a less audible
whisper; for to her inexpressible vexation she could perceive that the
chief of it was overheard by Mr. Darcy, who sat opposite to them. Her
mother only scolded her for being nonsensical.

“What is Mr. Darcy to me, pray, that I should be afraid of him? I am
sure we owe him no such particular civility as to be obliged to say
nothing _he_ may not like to hear.”

“For heaven’s sake, madam, speak lower. What advantage can it be to you
to offend Mr. Darcy? You will never recommend yourself to his friend by
so doing.”

Nothing that she could say, however, had any influence. Her mother would
talk of her views in the same intelligible tone. Elizabeth blushed and
blushed again with shame and vexation. She could not help frequently
glancing her eye at Mr. Darcy, though every glance convinced her of what
she dreaded; for though he was not always looking at her mother, she was
convinced that his attention was invariably fixed by her. The expression
of his face changed gradually from indignant contempt to a composed and
steady gravity.

At length, however, Mrs. Bennet had no more to say; and Lady Lucas, who
had been long yawning at the repetition of delights which she saw no
likelihood of sharing, was left to the comforts of cold ham and chicken.
Elizabeth now began to revive. But not long was the interval of
tranquillity; for when supper was over, singing was talked of, and she
had the mortification of seeing Mary, after very little entreaty,
preparing to oblige the company. By many significant looks and silent
entreaties did she endeavour to prevent such a proof of
complaisance,--but in vain; Mary would not understand them; such an
opportunity of exhibiting was delightful to her, and she began her song.
Elizabeth’s eyes were fixed on her, with most painful sensations; and
she watched her progress through the several stanzas with an impatience
which was very ill rewarded at their close; for Mary, on receiving
amongst the thanks of the table the hint of a hope that she might be
prevailed on to favour them again, after the pause of half a minute
began another. Mary’s powers were by no means fitted for such a display;
her voice was weak, and her manner affected. Elizabeth was in agonies.
She looked at Jane to see how she bore it; but Jane was very composedly
talking to Bingley. She looked at his two sisters, and saw them making
signs of derision at each other, and at Darcy, who continued, however,
impenetrably grave. She looked at her father to entreat his
interference, lest Mary should be singing all night. He took the hint,
and, when Mary had finished her second song, said aloud,--

“That will do extremely well, child. You have delighted us long enough.
Let the other young ladies have time to exhibit.”

Mary, though pretending not to hear, was somewhat disconcerted; and
Elizabeth, sorry for her, and sorry for her father’s speech, was afraid
her anxiety had done no good. Others of the party were now applied to.

“If I,” said Mr. Collins, “were so fortunate as to be able to sing, I
should have great pleasure, I am sure, in obliging the company with an
air; for I consider music as a very innocent diversion, and perfectly
compatible with the profession of a clergyman. I do not mean, however,
to assert that we can be justified in devoting too much of our time to
music, for there are certainly other things to be attended to. The
rector of a parish has much to do. In the first place, he must make such
an agreement for tithes as may be beneficial to himself and not
offensive to his patron. He must write his own sermons; and the time
that remains will not be too much for his parish duties, and the care
and improvement of his dwelling, which he cannot be excused from making
as comfortable as possible. And I do not think it of light importance
that he should have attentive and conciliatory manners towards
everybody, especially towards those to whom he owes his preferment. I
cannot acquit him of that duty; nor could I think well of the man who
should omit an occasion of testifying his respect towards anybody
connected with the family.” And with a bow to Mr. Darcy, he concluded
his speech, which had been spoken so loud as to be heard by half the
room. Many stared--many smiled; but no one looked more amused than Mr.
Bennet himself, while his wife seriously commended Mr. Collins for
having spoken so sensibly, and observed, in a half-whisper to Lady
Lucas, that he was a remarkably clever, good kind of young man.

To Elizabeth it appeared, that had her family made an agreement to
expose themselves as much as they could during the evening, it would
have been impossible for them to play their parts with more spirit, or
finer success; and happy did she think it for Bingley and her sister
that some of the exhibition had escaped his notice, and that his
feelings were not of a sort to be much distressed by the folly which he
must have witnessed. That his two sisters and Mr. Darcy, however, should
have such an opportunity of ridiculing her relations was bad enough; and
she could not determine whether the silent contempt of the gentleman, or
the insolent smiles of the ladies, were more intolerable.

The rest of the evening brought her little amusement. She was teased by
Mr. Collins, who continued most perseveringly by her side; and though he
could not prevail with her to dance with him again, put it out of her
power to dance with others. In vain did she entreat him to stand up with
somebody else, and offered to introduce him to any young lady in the
room. He assured her that, as to dancing, he was perfectly indifferent
to it; that his chief object was, by delicate attentions, to recommend
himself to her; and that he should therefore make a point of remaining
close to her the whole evening. There was no arguing upon such a
project. She owed her greatest relief to her friend Miss Lucas, who
often joined them, and good-naturedly engaged Mr. Collins’s conversation
to herself.

She was at least free from the offence of Mr. Darcy’s further notice:
though often standing within a very short distance of her, quite
disengaged, he never came near enough to speak. She felt it to be the
probable consequence of her allusions to Mr. Wickham, and rejoiced in
it.

The Longbourn party were the last of all the company to depart; and by a
manœuvre of Mrs. Bennet had to wait for their carriage a quarter of an
hour after everybody else was gone, which gave them time to see how
heartily they were wished away by some of the family. Mrs. Hurst and her
sister scarcely opened their mouths except to complain of fatigue, and
were evidently impatient to have the house to themselves. They repulsed
every attempt of Mrs. Bennet at conversation, and, by so doing, threw a
languor over the whole party, which was very little relieved by the long
speeches of Mr. Collins, who was complimenting Mr. Bingley and his
sisters on the elegance of their entertainment, and the hospitality and
politeness which had marked their behaviour to their guests. Darcy said
nothing at all. Mr. Bennet, in equal silence, was enjoying the scene.
Mr. Bingley and Jane were standing together a little detached from the
rest, and talked only to each other. Elizabeth preserved as steady a
silence as either Mrs. Hurst or Miss Bingley; and even Lydia was too
much fatigued to utter more than the occasional exclamation of “Lord,
how tired I am!” accompanied by a violent yawn.

When at length they arose to take leave, Mrs. Bennet was most pressingly
civil in her hope of seeing the whole family soon at Longbourn; and
addressed herself particularly to Mr. Bingley, to assure him how happy
he would make them, by eating a family dinner with them at any time,
without the ceremony of a formal invitation. Bingley was all grateful
pleasure; and he readily engaged for taking the earliest opportunity of
waiting on her after his return from London, whither he was obliged to
go the next day for a short time.

Mrs. Bennet was perfectly satisfied; and quitted the house under the
delightful persuasion that, allowing for the necessary preparations of
settlements, new carriages, and wedding clothes, she should undoubtedly
see her daughter settled at Netherfield in the course of three or four
months. Of having another daughter married to Mr. Collins she thought
with equal certainty, and with considerable, though not equal, pleasure.
Elizabeth was the least dear to her of all her children; and though the
man and the match were quite good enough for _her_, the worth of each
was eclipsed by Mr. Bingley and Netherfield.




[Illustration:

     “to assure you in the most animated language”
]




CHAPTER XIX.


[Illustration]

The next day opened a new scene at Longbourn. Mr. Collins made his
declaration in form. Having resolved to do it without loss of time, as
his leave of absence extended only to the following Saturday, and having
no feelings of diffidence to make it distressing to himself even at the
moment, he set about it in a very orderly manner, with all the
observances which he supposed a regular part of the business. On finding
Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth, and one of the younger girls together, soon
after breakfast, he addressed the mother in these words,--

“May I hope, madam, for your interest with your fair daughter Elizabeth,
when I solicit for the honour of a private audience with her in the
course of this morning?”

Before Elizabeth had time for anything but a blush of surprise, Mrs.
Bennet instantly answered,--

“Oh dear! Yes, certainly. I am sure Lizzy will be very happy--I am sure
she can have no objection. Come, Kitty, I want you upstairs.” And
gathering her work together, she was hastening away, when Elizabeth
called out,--

“Dear ma’am, do not go. I beg you will not go. Mr. Collins must excuse
me. He can have nothing to say to me that anybody need not hear. I am
going away myself.”

“No, no, nonsense, Lizzy. I desire you will stay where you are.” And
upon Elizabeth’s seeming really, with vexed and embarrassed looks, about
to escape, she added, “Lizzy, I _insist_ upon your staying and hearing
Mr. Collins.”

Elizabeth would not oppose such an injunction; and a moment’s
consideration making her also sensible that it would be wisest to get it
over as soon and as quietly as possible, she sat down again, and tried
to conceal, by incessant employment, the feelings which were divided
between distress and diversion. Mrs. Bennet and Kitty walked off, and as
soon as they were gone, Mr. Collins began,--

“Believe me, my dear Miss Elizabeth, that your modesty, so far from
doing you any disservice, rather adds to your other perfections. You
would have been less amiable in my eyes had there _not_ been this little
unwillingness; but allow me to assure you that I have your respected
mother’s permission for this address. You can hardly doubt the purport
of my discourse, however your natural delicacy may lead you to
dissemble; my attentions have been too marked to be mistaken. Almost as
soon as I entered the house I singled you out as the companion of my
future life. But before I am run away with by my feelings on this
subject, perhaps it will be advisable for me to state my reasons for
marrying--and, moreover, for coming into Hertfordshire with the design
of selecting a wife, as I certainly did.”

The idea of Mr. Collins, with all his solemn composure, being run away
with by his feelings, made Elizabeth so near laughing that she could not
use the short pause he allowed in any attempt to stop him farther, and
he continued,--

“My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a right thing for
every clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to set the example
of matrimony in his parish; secondly, that I am convinced it will add
very greatly to my happiness; and, thirdly, which perhaps I ought to
have mentioned earlier, that it is the particular advice and
recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have the honour of calling
patroness. Twice has she condescended to give me her opinion (unasked
too!) on this subject; and it was but the very Saturday night before I
left Hunsford,--between our pools at quadrille, while Mrs. Jenkinson was
arranging Miss De Bourgh’s footstool,--that she said, ‘Mr. Collins, you
must marry. A clergyman like you must marry. Choose properly, choose a
gentlewoman for _my_ sake, and for your _own_; let her be an active,
useful sort of person, not brought up high, but able to make a small
income go a good way. This is my advice. Find such a woman as soon as
you can, bring her to Hunsford, and I will visit her.’ Allow me, by the
way, to observe, my fair cousin, that I do not reckon the notice and
kindness of Lady Catherine de Bourgh as among the least of the
advantages in my power to offer. You will find her manners beyond
anything I can describe; and your wit and vivacity, I think, must be
acceptable to her, especially when tempered with the silence and respect
which her rank will inevitably excite. Thus much for my general
intention in favour of matrimony; it remains to be told why my views
were directed to Longbourn instead of my own neighbourhood, where I
assure you there are many amiable young women. But the fact is, that
being, as I am, to inherit this estate after the death of your honoured
father (who, however, may live many years longer), I could not satisfy
myself without resolving to choose a wife from among his daughters, that
the loss to them might be as little as possible when the melancholy
event takes place--which, however, as I have already said, may not be
for several years. This has been my motive, my fair cousin, and I
flatter myself it will not sink me in your esteem. And now nothing
remains for me but to assure you in the most animated language of the
violence of my affection. To fortune I am perfectly indifferent, and
shall make no demand of that nature on your father, since I am well
aware that it could not be complied with; and that one thousand pounds
in the 4 per cents., which will not be yours till after your mother’s
decease, is all that you may ever be entitled to. On that head,
therefore, I shall be uniformly silent: and you may assure yourself that
no ungenerous reproach shall ever pass my lips when we are married.”

It was absolutely necessary to interrupt him now.

“You are too hasty, sir,” she cried. “You forget that I have made no
answer. Let me do it without further loss of time. Accept my thanks for
the compliment you are paying me. I am very sensible of the honour of
your proposals, but it is impossible for me to do otherwise than decline
them.”

“I am not now to learn,” replied Mr. Collins, with a formal wave of the
hand, “that it is usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the
man whom they secretly mean to accept, when he first applies for their
favour; and that sometimes the refusal is repeated a second or even a
third time. I am, therefore, by no means discouraged by what you have
just said, and shall hope to lead you to the altar ere long.”

“Upon my word, sir,” cried Elizabeth, “your hope is rather an
extraordinary one after my declaration. I do assure you that I am not
one of those young ladies (if such young ladies there are) who are so
daring as to risk their happiness on the chance of being asked a second
time. I am perfectly serious in my refusal. You could not make _me_
happy, and I am convinced that I am the last woman in the world who
would make _you_ so. Nay, were your friend Lady Catherine to know me, I
am persuaded she would find me in every respect ill qualified for the
situation.”

“Were it certain that Lady Catherine would think so,” said Mr. Collins,
very gravely--“but I cannot imagine that her Ladyship would at all
disapprove of you. And you may be certain that when I have the honour of
seeing her again I shall speak in the highest terms of your modesty,
economy, and other amiable qualifications.”

“Indeed, Mr. Collins, all praise of me will be unnecessary. You must
give me leave to judge for myself, and pay me the compliment of
believing what I say. I wish you very happy and very rich, and by
refusing your hand, do all in my power to prevent your being otherwise.
In making me the offer, you must have satisfied the delicacy of your
feelings with regard to my family, and may take possession of Longbourn
estate whenever it falls, without any self-reproach. This matter may be
considered, therefore, as finally settled.” And rising as she thus
spoke, she would have quitted the room, had not Mr. Collins thus
addressed her,--

“When I do myself the honour of speaking to you next on the subject, I
shall hope to receive a more favourable answer than you have now given
me; though I am far from accusing you of cruelty at present, because I
know it to be the established custom of your sex to reject a man on the
first application, and, perhaps, you have even now said as much to
encourage my suit as would be consistent with the true delicacy of the
female character.”

“Really, Mr. Collins,” cried Elizabeth, with some warmth, “you puzzle me
exceedingly. If what I have hitherto said can appear to you in the form
of encouragement, I know not how to express my refusal in such a way as
may convince you of its being one.”

“You must give me leave to flatter myself, my dear cousin, that your
refusal of my addresses are merely words of course. My reasons for
believing it are briefly these:--It does not appear to me that my hand
is unworthy of your acceptance, or that the establishment I can offer
would be any other than highly desirable. My situation in life, my
connections with the family of De Bourgh, and my relationship to your
own, are circumstances highly in my favour; and you should take it into
further consideration that, in spite of your manifold attractions, it is
by no means certain that another offer of marriage may ever be made you.
Your portion is unhappily so small, that it will in all likelihood undo
the effects of your loveliness and amiable qualifications. As I must,
therefore, conclude that you are not serious in your rejection of me, I
shall choose to attribute it to your wish of increasing my love by
suspense, according to the usual practice of elegant females.”

“I do assure you, sir, that I have no pretensions whatever to that kind
of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man. I would
rather be paid the compliment of being believed sincere. I thank you
again and again for the honour you have done me in your proposals, but
to accept them is absolutely impossible. My feelings in every respect
forbid it. Can I speak plainer? Do not consider me now as an elegant
female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature speaking the
truth from her heart.”

“You are uniformly charming!” cried he, with an air of awkward
gallantry; “and I am persuaded that, when sanctioned by the express
authority of both your excellent parents, my proposals will not fail of
being acceptable.”

To such perseverance in wilful self-deception Elizabeth would make no
reply, and immediately and in silence withdrew; determined, that if he
persisted in considering her repeated refusals as flattering
encouragement, to apply to her father, whose negative might be uttered
in such a manner as must be decisive, and whose behaviour at least could
not be mistaken for the affectation and coquetry of an elegant female.




[Illustration]




CHAPTER XX.


[Illustration]

Mr. Collins was not left long to the silent contemplation of his
successful love; for Mrs. Bennet, having dawdled about in the vestibule
to watch for the end of the conference, no sooner saw Elizabeth open the
door and with quick step pass her towards the staircase, than she
entered the breakfast-room, and congratulated both him and herself in
warm terms on the happy prospect of their nearer connection. Mr. Collins
received and returned these felicitations with equal pleasure, and then
proceeded to relate the particulars of their interview, with the result
of which he trusted he had every reason to be satisfied, since the
refusal which his cousin had steadfastly given him would naturally flow
from her bashful modesty and the genuine delicacy of her character.

This information, however, startled Mrs. Bennet: she would have been
glad to be equally satisfied that her daughter had meant to encourage
him by protesting against his proposals, but she dared not believe it,
and could not help saying so.

“But depend upon it, Mr. Collins,” she added, “that Lizzy shall be
brought to reason. I will speak to her about it myself directly. She is
a very headstrong, foolish girl, and does not know her own interest; but
I will _make_ her know it.”

“Pardon me for interrupting you, madam,” cried Mr. Collins; “but if she
is really headstrong and foolish, I know not whether she would
altogether be a very desirable wife to a man in my situation, who
naturally looks for happiness in the marriage state. If, therefore, she
actually persists in rejecting my suit, perhaps it were better not to
force her into accepting me, because, if liable to such defects of
temper, she could not contribute much to my felicity.”

“Sir, you quite misunderstand me,” said Mrs. Bennet, alarmed. “Lizzy is
only headstrong in such matters as these. In everything else she is as
good-natured a girl as ever lived. I will go directly to Mr. Bennet, and
we shall very soon settle it with her, I am sure.”

She would not give him time to reply, but hurrying instantly to her
husband, called out, as she entered the library,--

“Oh, Mr. Bennet, you are wanted immediately; we are all in an uproar.
You must come and make Lizzy marry Mr. Collins, for she vows she will
not have him; and if you do not make haste he will change his mind and
not have _her_.”

Mr. Bennet raised his eyes from his book as she entered, and fixed them
on her face with a calm unconcern, which was not in the least altered by
her communication.

“I have not the pleasure of understanding you,” said he, when she had
finished her speech. “Of what are you talking?”

“Of Mr. Collins and Lizzy. Lizzy declares she will not have Mr. Collins,
and Mr. Collins begins to say that he will not have Lizzy.”

“And what am I to do on the occasion? It seems a hopeless business.”

“Speak to Lizzy about it yourself. Tell her that you insist upon her
marrying him.”

“Let her be called down. She shall hear my opinion.”

Mrs. Bennet rang the bell, and Miss Elizabeth was summoned to the
library.

“Come here, child,” cried her father as she appeared. “I have sent for
you on an affair of importance. I understand that Mr. Collins has made
you an offer of marriage. Is it true?”

Elizabeth replied that it was.

“Very well--and this offer of marriage you have refused?”

“I have, sir.”

“Very well. We now come to the point. Your mother insists upon your
accepting it. Is it not so, Mrs. Bennet?”

“Yes, or I will never see her again.”

“An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must
be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you
again if you do _not_ marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again
if you _do_.”

Elizabeth could not but smile at such a conclusion of such a beginning;
but Mrs. Bennet, who had persuaded herself that her husband regarded the
affair as she wished, was excessively disappointed.

“What do you mean, Mr. Bennet, by talking in this way? You promised me
to _insist_ upon her marrying him.”

“My dear,” replied her husband, “I have two small favours to request.
First, that you will allow me the free use of my understanding on the
present occasion; and, secondly, of my room. I shall be glad to have the
library to myself as soon as may be.”

Not yet, however, in spite of her disappointment in her husband, did
Mrs. Bennet give up the point. She talked to Elizabeth again and again;
coaxed and threatened her by turns. She endeavoured to secure Jane in
her interest, but Jane, with all possible mildness, declined
interfering; and Elizabeth, sometimes with real earnestness, and
sometimes with playful gaiety, replied to her attacks. Though her manner
varied, however, her determination never did.

Mr. Collins, meanwhile, was meditating in solitude on what had passed.
He thought too well of himself to comprehend on what motive his cousin
could refuse him; and though his pride was hurt, he suffered in no other
way. His regard for her was quite imaginary; and the possibility of her
deserving her mother’s reproach prevented his feeling any regret.

While the family were in this confusion, Charlotte Lucas came to spend
the day with them. She was met in the vestibule by Lydia, who, flying to
her, cried in a half whisper, “I am glad you are come, for there is such
fun here! What do you think has happened this morning? Mr. Collins has
made an offer to Lizzy, and she will not have him.”

[Illustration:

     “they entered the breakfast room”
]

Charlotte had hardly time to answer before they were joined by Kitty,
who came to tell the same news; and no sooner had they entered the
breakfast-room, where Mrs. Bennet was alone, than she likewise began on
the subject, calling on Miss Lucas for her compassion, and entreating
her to persuade her friend Lizzy to comply with the wishes of her
family. “Pray do, my dear Miss Lucas,” she added, in a melancholy tone;
“for nobody is on my side, nobody takes part with me; I am cruelly used,
nobody feels for my poor nerves.”

Charlotte’s reply was spared by the entrance of Jane and Elizabeth.

“Ay, there she comes,” continued Mrs. Bennet, “looking as unconcerned as
may be, and caring no more for us than if we were at York, provided she
can have her own way. But I tell you what, Miss Lizzy, if you take it
into your head to go on refusing every offer of marriage in this way,
you will never get a husband at all--and I am sure I do not know who is
to maintain you when your father is dead. _I_ shall not be able to keep
you--and so I warn you. I have done with you from this very day. I told
you in the library, you know, that I should never speak to you again,
and you will find me as good as my word. I have no pleasure in talking
to undutiful children. Not that I have much pleasure, indeed, in talking
to anybody. People who suffer as I do from nervous complaints can have
no great inclination for talking. Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it
is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied.”

Her daughters listened in silence to this effusion, sensible that any
attempt to reason with or soothe her would only increase the irritation.
She talked on, therefore, without interruption from any of them till
they were joined by Mr. Collins, who entered with an air more stately
than usual, and on perceiving whom, she said to the girls,--

“Now, I do insist upon it, that you, all of you, hold your tongues, and
let Mr. Collins and me have a little conversation together.”

Elizabeth passed quietly out of the room, Jane and Kitty followed, but
Lydia stood her ground, determined to hear all she could; and Charlotte,
detained first by the civility of Mr. Collins, whose inquiries after
herself and all her family were very minute, and then by a little
curiosity, satisfied herself with walking to the window and pretending
not to hear. In a doleful voice Mrs. Bennet thus began the projected
conversation:--

“Oh, Mr. Collins!”

“My dear madam,” replied he, “let us be for ever silent on this point.
Far be it from me,” he presently continued, in a voice that marked his
displeasure, “to resent the behaviour of your daughter. Resignation to
inevitable evils is the duty of us all: the peculiar duty of a young man
who has been so fortunate as I have been, in early preferment; and, I
trust, I am resigned. Perhaps not the less so from feeling a doubt of my
positive happiness had my fair cousin honoured me with her hand; for I
have often observed, that resignation is never so perfect as when the
blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our estimation.
You will not, I hope, consider me as showing any disrespect to your
family, my dear madam, by thus withdrawing my pretensions to your
daughter’s favour, without having paid yourself and Mr. Bennet the
compliment of requesting you to interpose your authority in my behalf.
My conduct may, I fear, be objectionable in having accepted my
dismission from your daughter’s lips instead of your own; but we are all
liable to error. I have certainly meant well through the whole affair.
My object has been to secure an amiable companion for myself, with due
consideration for the advantage of all your family; and if my _manner_
has been at all reprehensible, I here beg leave to apologize.”




[Illustration]




CHAPTER XXI.


[Illustration]

The discussion of Mr. Collins’s offer was now nearly at an end, and
Elizabeth had only to suffer from the uncomfortable feelings necessarily
attending it, and occasionally from some peevish allusion of her mother.
As for the gentleman himself, _his_ feelings were chiefly expressed, not
by embarrassment or dejection, or by trying to avoid her, but by
stiffness of manner and resentful silence. He scarcely ever spoke to
her; and the assiduous attentions which he had been so sensible of
himself were transferred for the rest of the day to Miss Lucas, whose
civility in listening to him was a seasonable relief to them all, and
especially to her friend.

The morrow produced no abatement of Mrs. Bennet’s ill humour or ill
health. Mr. Collins was also in the same state of angry pride. Elizabeth
had hoped that his resentment might shorten his visit, but his plan did
not appear in the least affected by it. He was always to have gone on
Saturday, and to Saturday he still meant to stay.

After breakfast, the girls walked to Meryton, to inquire if Mr. Wickham
were returned, and to lament over his absence from the Netherfield ball.
He joined them on their entering the town, and attended them to their
aunt’s, where his regret and vexation and the concern of everybody were
well talked over. To Elizabeth, however, he voluntarily acknowledged
that the necessity of his absence _had_ been self-imposed.

“I found,” said he, “as the time drew near, that I had better not meet
Mr. Darcy;--that to be in the same room, the same party with him for so
many hours together, might be more than I could bear, and that scenes
might arise unpleasant to more than myself.”

She highly approved his forbearance; and they had leisure for a full
discussion of it, and for all the commendations which they civilly
bestowed on each other, as Wickham and another officer walked back with
them to Longbourn, and during the walk he particularly attended to her.
His accompanying them was a double advantage: she felt all the
compliment it offered to herself; and it was most acceptable as an
occasion of introducing him to her father and mother.

[Illustration: “Walked back with them”

[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]

Soon after their return, a letter was delivered to Miss Bennet; it came
from Netherfield, and was opened immediately. The envelope contained a
sheet of elegant, little, hot-pressed paper, well covered with a lady’s
fair, flowing hand; and Elizabeth saw her sister’s countenance change as
she read it, and saw her dwelling intently on some particular passages.
Jane recollected herself soon; and putting the letter away, tried to
join, with her usual cheerfulness, in the general conversation: but
Elizabeth felt an anxiety on the subject which drew off her attention
even from Wickham; and no sooner had he and his companion taken leave,
than a glance from Jane invited her to follow her upstairs. When they
had gained their own room, Jane, taking out her letter, said, “This is
from Caroline Bingley: what it contains has surprised me a good deal.
The whole party have left Netherfield by this time, and are on their way
to town; and without any intention of coming back again. You shall hear
what she says.”

She then read the first sentence aloud, which comprised the information
of their having just resolved to follow their brother to town directly,
and of their meaning to dine that day in Grosvenor Street, where Mr.
Hurst had a house. The next was in these words:--“‘I do not pretend to
regret anything I shall leave in Hertfordshire except your society, my
dearest friend; but we will hope, at some future period, to enjoy many
returns of that delightful intercourse we have known, and in the
meanwhile may lessen the pain of separation by a very frequent and most
unreserved correspondence. I depend on you for that.’” To these
high-flown expressions Elizabeth listened with all the insensibility of
distrust; and though the suddenness of their removal surprised her, she
saw nothing in it really to lament: it was not to be supposed that their
absence from Netherfield would prevent Mr. Bingley’s being there; and as
to the loss of their society, she was persuaded that Jane must soon
cease to regard it in the enjoyment of his.

“It is unlucky,” said she, after a short pause, “that you should not be
able to see your friends before they leave the country. But may we not
hope that the period of future happiness, to which Miss Bingley looks
forward, may arrive earlier than she is aware, and that the delightful
intercourse you have known as friends will be renewed with yet greater
satisfaction as sisters? Mr. Bingley will not be detained in London by
them.”

“Caroline decidedly says that none of the party will return into
Hertfordshire this winter. I will read it to you.

“‘When my brother left us yesterday, he imagined that the business which
took him to London might be concluded in three or four days; but as we
are certain it cannot be so, and at the same time convinced that when
Charles gets to town he will be in no hurry to leave it again, we have
determined on following him thither, that he may not be obliged to spend
his vacant hours in a comfortless hotel. Many of my acquaintance are
already there for the winter: I wish I could hear that you, my dearest
friend, had any intention of making one in the crowd, but of that I
despair. I sincerely hope your Christmas in Hertfordshire may abound in
the gaieties which that season generally brings, and that your beaux
will be so numerous as to prevent your feeling the loss of the three of
whom we shall deprive you.’

“It is evident by this,” added Jane, “that he comes back no more this
winter.”

“It is only evident that Miss Bingley does not mean he _should_.”

“Why will you think so? It must be his own doing; he is his own master.
But you do not know _all_. I _will_ read you the passage which
particularly hurts me. I will have no reserves from _you_. ‘Mr. Darcy is
impatient to see his sister; and to confess the truth, _we_ are scarcely
less eager to meet her again. I really do not think Georgiana Darcy has
her equal for beauty, elegance, and accomplishments; and the affection
she inspires in Louisa and myself is heightened into something still
more interesting from the hope we dare to entertain of her being
hereafter our sister. I do not know whether I ever before mentioned to
you my feelings on this subject, but I will not leave the country
without confiding them, and I trust you will not esteem them
unreasonable. My brother admires her greatly already; he will have
frequent opportunity now of seeing her on the most intimate footing; her
relations all wish the connection as much as his own; and a sister’s
partiality is not misleading me, I think, when I call Charles most
capable of engaging any woman’s heart. With all these circumstances to
favour an attachment, and nothing to prevent it, am I wrong, my dearest
Jane, in indulging the hope of an event which will secure the happiness
of so many?’ What think you of _this_ sentence, my dear Lizzy?” said
Jane, as she finished it. “Is it not clear enough? Does it not expressly
declare that Caroline neither expects nor wishes me to be her sister;
that she is perfectly convinced of her brother’s indifference; and that
if she suspects the nature of my feelings for him she means (most
kindly!) to put me on my guard. Can there be any other opinion on the
subject?”

“Yes, there can; for mine is totally different. Will you hear it?”

“Most willingly.”

“You shall have it in a few words. Miss Bingley sees that her brother is
in love with you and wants him to marry Miss Darcy. She follows him to
town in the hope of keeping him there, and tries to persuade you that he
does not care about you.”

Jane shook her head.

“Indeed, Jane, you ought to believe me. No one who has ever seen you
together can doubt his affection; Miss Bingley, I am sure, cannot: she
is not such a simpleton. Could she have seen half as much love in Mr.
Darcy for herself, she would have ordered her wedding clothes. But the
case is this:--we are not rich enough or grand enough for them; and she
is the more anxious to get Miss Darcy for her brother, from the notion
that when there has been _one_ inter-marriage, she may have less trouble
in achieving a second; in which there is certainly some ingenuity, and I
dare say it would succeed if Miss de Bourgh were out of the way. But, my
dearest Jane, you cannot seriously imagine that, because Miss Bingley
tells you her brother greatly admires Miss Darcy, he is in the smallest
degree less sensible of _your_ merit than when he took leave of you on
Tuesday; or that it will be in her power to persuade him that, instead
of being in love with you, he is very much in love with her friend.”

“If we thought alike of Miss Bingley,” replied Jane, “your
representation of all this might make me quite easy. But I know the
foundation is unjust. Caroline is incapable of wilfully deceiving
anyone; and all that I can hope in this case is, that she is deceived
herself.”

“That is right. You could not have started a more happy idea, since you
will not take comfort in mine: believe her to be deceived, by all means.
You have now done your duty by her, and must fret no longer.”

“But, my dear sister, can I be happy, even supposing the best, in
accepting a man whose sisters and friends are all wishing him to marry
elsewhere?”

“You must decide for yourself,” said Elizabeth; “and if, upon mature
deliberation, you find that the misery of disobliging his two sisters is
more than equivalent to the happiness of being his wife, I advise you,
by all means, to refuse him.”

“How can you talk so?” said Jane, faintly smiling; “you must know, that,
though I should be exceedingly grieved at their disapprobation, I could
not hesitate.”

“I did not think you would; and that being the case, I cannot consider
your situation with much compassion.”

“But if he returns no more this winter, my choice will never be
required. A thousand things may arise in six months.”

The idea of his returning no more Elizabeth treated with the utmost
contempt. It appeared to her merely the suggestion of Caroline’s
interested wishes; and she could not for a moment suppose that those
wishes, however openly or artfully spoken, could influence a young man
so totally independent of everyone.

She represented to her sister, as forcibly as possible, what she felt on
the subject, and had soon the pleasure of seeing its happy effect.
Jane’s temper was not desponding; and she was gradually led to hope,
though the diffidence of affection sometimes overcame the hope, that
Bingley would return to Netherfield, and answer every wish of her heart.

They agreed that Mrs. Bennet should only hear of the departure of the
family, without being alarmed on the score of the gentleman’s conduct;
but even this partial communication gave her a great deal of concern,
and she bewailed it as exceedingly unlucky that the ladies should happen
to go away just as they were all getting so intimate together. After
lamenting it, however, at some length, she had the consolation of
thinking that Mr. Bingley would be soon down again, and soon dining at
Longbourn; and the conclusion of all was the comfortable declaration,
that, though he had been invited only to a family dinner, she would take
care to have two full courses.




[Illustration]




CHAPTER XXII.


[Illustration]

The Bennets were engaged to dine with the Lucases; and again, during the
chief of the day, was Miss Lucas so kind as to listen to Mr. Collins.
Elizabeth took an opportunity of thanking her. “It keeps him in good
humour,” said she, “and I am more obliged to you than I can express.”

Charlotte assured her friend of her satisfaction in being useful, and
that it amply repaid her for the little sacrifice of her time. This was
very amiable; but Charlotte’s kindness extended farther than Elizabeth
had any conception of:--its object was nothing less than to secure her
from any return of Mr. Collins’s addresses, by engaging them towards
herself. Such was Miss Lucas’s scheme; and appearances were so
favourable, that when they parted at night, she would have felt almost
sure of success if he had not been to leave Hertfordshire so very soon.
But here she did injustice to the fire and independence of his
character; for it led him to escape out of Longbourn House the next
morning with admirable slyness, and hasten to Lucas Lodge to throw
himself at her feet. He was anxious to avoid the notice of his cousins,
from a conviction that, if they saw him depart, they could not fail to
conjecture his design, and he was not willing to have the attempt known
till its success could be known likewise; for, though feeling almost
secure, and with reason, for Charlotte had been tolerably encouraging,
he was comparatively diffident since the adventure of Wednesday. His
reception, however, was of the most flattering kind. Miss Lucas
perceived him from an upper window as he walked towards the house, and
instantly set out to meet him accidentally in the lane. But little had
she dared to hope that so much love and eloquence awaited her there.

In as short a time as Mr. Collins’s long speeches would allow,
everything was settled between them to the satisfaction of both; and as
they entered the house, he earnestly entreated her to name the day that
was to make him the happiest of men; and though such a solicitation must
be waived for the present, the lady felt no inclination to trifle with
his happiness. The stupidity with which he was favoured by nature must
guard his courtship from any charm that could make a woman wish for its
continuance; and Miss Lucas, who accepted him solely from the pure and
disinterested desire of an establishment, cared not how soon that
establishment were gained.

Sir William and Lady Lucas were speedily applied to for their consent;
and it was bestowed with a most joyful alacrity. Mr. Collins’s present
circumstances made it a most eligible match for their daughter, to whom
they could give little fortune; and his prospects of future wealth were
exceedingly fair. Lady Lucas began directly to calculate, with more
interest than the matter had ever

[Illustration:

     “So much love and eloquence”

[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]

excited before, how many years longer Mr. Bennet was likely to live; and
Sir William gave it as his decided opinion, that whenever Mr. Collins
should be in possession of the Longbourn estate, it would be highly
expedient that both he and his wife should make their appearance at St.
James’s. The whole family in short were properly overjoyed on the
occasion. The younger girls formed hopes of _coming out_ a year or two
sooner than they might otherwise have done; and the boys were relieved
from their apprehension of Charlotte’s dying an old maid. Charlotte
herself was tolerably composed. She had gained her point, and had time
to consider of it. Her reflections were in general satisfactory. Mr.
Collins, to be sure, was neither sensible nor agreeable: his society was
irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary. But still he would
be her husband. Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony,
marriage had always been her object: it was the only honourable
provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and, however
uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative
from want. This preservative she had now obtained; and at the age of
twenty-seven, without having ever been handsome, she felt all the good
luck of it. The least agreeable circumstance in the business was the
surprise it must occasion to Elizabeth Bennet, whose friendship she
valued beyond that of any other person. Elizabeth would wonder, and
probably would blame her; and though her resolution was not to be
shaken, her feelings must be hurt by such a disapprobation. She resolved
to give her the information herself; and therefore charged Mr. Collins,
when he returned to Longbourn to dinner, to drop no hint of what had
passed before any of the family. A promise of secrecy was of course very
dutifully given, but it could not be kept without difficulty; for the
curiosity excited by his long absence burst forth in such very direct
questions on his return, as required some ingenuity to evade, and he was
at the same time exercising great self-denial, for he was longing to
publish his prosperous love.

As he was to begin his journey too early on the morrow to see any of
the family, the ceremony of leave-taking was performed when the ladies
moved for the night; and Mrs. Bennet, with great politeness and
cordiality, said how happy they should be to see him at Longbourn again,
whenever his other engagements might allow him to visit them.

“My dear madam,” he replied, “this invitation is particularly
gratifying, because it is what I have been hoping to receive; and you
may be very certain that I shall avail myself of it as soon as
possible.”

They were all astonished; and Mr. Bennet, who could by no means wish for
so speedy a return, immediately said,--

“But is there not danger of Lady Catherine’s disapprobation here, my
good sir? You had better neglect your relations than run the risk of
offending your patroness.”

“My dear sir,” replied Mr. Collins, “I am particularly obliged to you
for this friendly caution, and you may depend upon my not taking so
material a step without her Ladyship’s concurrence.”

“You cannot be too much on your guard. Risk anything rather than her
displeasure; and if you find it likely to be raised by your coming to us
again, which I should think exceedingly probable, stay quietly at home,
and be satisfied that _we_ shall take no offence.”

“Believe me, my dear sir, my gratitude is warmly excited by such
affectionate attention; and, depend upon it, you will speedily receive
from me a letter of thanks for this as well as for every other mark of
your regard during my stay in Hertfordshire. As for my fair cousins,
though my absence may not be long enough to render it necessary, I shall
now take the liberty of wishing them health and happiness, not excepting
my cousin Elizabeth.”

With proper civilities, the ladies then withdrew; all of them equally
surprised to find that he meditated a quick return. Mrs. Bennet wished
to understand by it that he thought of paying his addresses to one of
her younger girls, and Mary might have been prevailed on to accept him.
She rated his abilities much higher than any of the others: there was a
solidity in his reflections which often struck her; and though by no
means so clever as herself, she thought that, if encouraged to read and
improve himself by such an example as hers, he might become a very
agreeable companion. But on the following morning every hope of this
kind was done away. Miss Lucas called soon after breakfast, and in a
private conference with Elizabeth related the event of the day before.

The possibility of Mr. Collins’s fancying himself in love with her
friend had once occurred to Elizabeth within the last day or two: but
that Charlotte could encourage him seemed almost as far from possibility
as that she could encourage him herself; and her astonishment was
consequently so great as to overcome at first the bounds of decorum, and
she could not help crying out,--

“Engaged to Mr. Collins! my dear Charlotte, impossible!”

The steady countenance which Miss Lucas had commanded in telling her
story gave way to a momentary confusion here on receiving so direct a
reproach; though, as it was no more than she expected, she soon regained
her composure, and calmly replied,--

“Why should you be surprised, my dear Eliza? Do you think it incredible
that Mr. Collins should be able to procure any woman’s good opinion,
because he was not so happy as to succeed with you?”

But Elizabeth had now recollected herself; and, making a strong effort
for it, was able to assure her, with tolerable firmness, that the
prospect of their relationship was highly grateful to her, and that she
wished her all imaginable happiness.

“I see what you are feeling,” replied Charlotte; “you must be surprised,
very much surprised, so lately as Mr. Collins was wishing to marry you.
But when you have had time to think it all over, I hope you will be
satisfied with what I have done. I am not romantic, you know. I never
was. I ask only a comfortable home; and, considering Mr. Collins’s
character, connections, and situation in life, I am convinced that my
chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on
entering the marriage state.”

Elizabeth quietly answered “undoubtedly;” and, after an awkward pause,
they returned to the rest of the family. Charlotte did not stay much
longer; and Elizabeth was then left to reflect on what she had heard. It
was a long time before she became at all reconciled to the idea of so
unsuitable a match. The strangeness of Mr. Collins’s making two offers
of marriage within three days was nothing in comparison of his being now
accepted. She had always felt that Charlotte’s opinion of matrimony was
not exactly like her own; but she could not have supposed it possible
that, when called into action, she would have sacrificed every better
feeling to worldly advantage. Charlotte, the wife of Mr. Collins, was a
most humiliating picture! And to the pang of a friend disgracing
herself, and sunk in her esteem, was added the distressing conviction
that it was impossible for that friend to be tolerably happy in the lot
she had chosen.




[Illustration:

     “Protested he must be entirely mistaken.”

[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]




CHAPTER XXIII.


[Illustration]

Elizabeth was sitting with her mother and sisters, reflecting on what
she had heard, and doubting whether she was authorized to mention it,
when Sir William Lucas himself appeared, sent by his daughter to
announce her engagement to the family. With many compliments to them,
and much self-gratulation on the prospect of a connection between the
houses, he unfolded the matter,--to an audience not merely wondering,
but incredulous; for Mrs. Bennet, with more perseverance than
politeness, protested he must be entirely mistaken; and Lydia, always
unguarded and often uncivil, boisterously exclaimed,--

“Good Lord! Sir William, how can you tell such a story? Do not you know
that Mr. Collins wants to marry Lizzy?”

Nothing less than the complaisance of a courtier could have borne
without anger such treatment: but Sir William’s good-breeding carried
him through it all; and though he begged leave to be positive as to the
truth of his information, he listened to all their impertinence with the
most forbearing courtesy.

Elizabeth, feeling it incumbent on her to relieve him from so unpleasant
a situation, now put herself forward to confirm his account, by
mentioning her prior knowledge of it from Charlotte herself; and
endeavoured to put a stop to the exclamations of her mother and sisters,
by the earnestness of her congratulations to Sir William, in which she
was readily joined by Jane, and by making a variety of remarks on the
happiness that might be expected from the match, the excellent character
of Mr. Collins, and the convenient distance of Hunsford from London.

Mrs. Bennet was, in fact, too much overpowered to say a great deal while
Sir William remained; but no sooner had he left them than her feelings
found a rapid vent. In the first place, she persisted in disbelieving
the whole of the matter; secondly, she was very sure that Mr. Collins
had been taken in; thirdly, she trusted that they would never be happy
together; and, fourthly, that the match might be broken off. Two
inferences, however, were plainly deduced from the whole: one, that
Elizabeth was the real cause of all the mischief; and the other, that
she herself had been barbarously used by them all; and on these two
points she principally dwelt during the rest of the day. Nothing could
console and nothing appease her. Nor did that day wear out her
resentment. A week elapsed before she could see Elizabeth without
scolding her: a month passed away before she could speak to Sir William
or Lady Lucas without being rude; and many months were gone before she
could at all forgive their daughter.

Mr. Bennet’s emotions were much more tranquil on the occasion, and such
as he did experience he pronounced to be of a most agreeable sort; for
it gratified him, he said, to discover that Charlotte Lucas, whom he had
been used to think tolerably sensible, was as foolish as his wife, and
more foolish than his daughter!

Jane confessed herself a little surprised at the match: but she said
less of her astonishment than of her earnest desire for their happiness;
nor could Elizabeth persuade her to consider it as improbable. Kitty and
Lydia were far from envying Miss Lucas, for Mr. Collins was only a
clergyman; and it affected them in no other way than as a piece of news
to spread at Meryton.

Lady Lucas could not be insensible of triumph on being able to retort on
Mrs. Bennet the comfort of having a daughter well married; and she
called at Longbourn rather oftener than usual to say how happy she was,
though Mrs. Bennet’s sour looks and ill-natured remarks might have been
enough to drive happiness away.

Between Elizabeth and Charlotte there was a restraint which kept them
mutually silent on the subject; and Elizabeth felt persuaded that no
real confidence could ever subsist between them again. Her
disappointment in Charlotte made her turn with fonder regard to her
sister, of whose rectitude and delicacy she was sure her opinion could
never be shaken, and for whose happiness she grew daily more anxious, as
Bingley had now been gone a week, and nothing was heard of his return.

Jane had sent Caroline an early answer to her letter, and was counting
the days till she might reasonably hope to hear again. The promised
letter of thanks from Mr. Collins arrived on Tuesday, addressed to their
father, and written with all the solemnity of gratitude which a
twelve-month’s abode in the family might have prompted. After
discharging his conscience on that head, he proceeded to inform them,
with many rapturous expressions, of his happiness in having obtained the
affection of their amiable neighbour, Miss Lucas, and then explained
that it was merely with the view of enjoying her society that he had
been so ready to close with their kind wish of seeing him again at
Longbourn, whither he hoped to be able to return on Monday fortnight;
for Lady Catherine, he added, so heartily approved his marriage, that
she wished it to take place as soon as possible, which he trusted would
be an unanswerable argument with his amiable Charlotte to name an early
day for making him the happiest of men.

Mr. Collins’s return into Hertfordshire was no longer a matter of
pleasure to Mrs. Bennet. On the contrary, she was as much disposed to
complain of it as her husband. It was very strange that he should come
to Longbourn instead of to Lucas Lodge; it was also very inconvenient
and exceedingly troublesome. She hated having visitors in the house
while her health was so indifferent, and lovers were of all people the
most disagreeable. Such were the gentle murmurs of Mrs. Bennet, and they
gave way only to the greater distress of Mr. Bingley’s continued
absence.

Neither Jane nor Elizabeth were comfortable on this subject. Day after
day passed away without bringing any other tidings of him than the
report which shortly prevailed in Meryton of his coming no more to
Netherfield the whole winter; a report which highly incensed Mrs.
Bennet, and which she never failed to contradict as a most scandalous
falsehood.

Even Elizabeth began to fear--not that Bingley was indifferent--but that
his sisters would be successful in keeping him away. Unwilling as she
was to admit an idea so destructive to Jane’s happiness, and so
dishonourable to the stability of her lover, she could not prevent its
frequently recurring. The united efforts of his two unfeeling sisters,
and of his overpowering friend, assisted by the attractions of Miss
Darcy and the amusements of London, might be too much, she feared, for
the strength of his attachment.

As for Jane, _her_ anxiety under this suspense was, of course, more
painful than Elizabeth’s: but whatever she felt she was desirous of
concealing; and between herself and Elizabeth, therefore, the subject
was never alluded to. But as no such delicacy restrained her mother, an
hour seldom passed in which she did not talk of Bingley, express her
impatience for his arrival, or even require Jane to confess that if he
did not come back she should think herself very ill-used. It needed all
Jane’s steady mildness to bear these attacks with tolerable
tranquillity.

Mr. Collins returned most punctually on the Monday fortnight, but his
reception at Longbourn was not quite so gracious as it had been on his
first introduction. He was too happy, however, to need much attention;
and, luckily for the others, the business of love-making relieved them
from a great deal of his company. The chief of every day was spent by
him at Lucas Lodge, and he sometimes returned to Longbourn only in time
to make an apology for his absence before the family went to bed.

[Illustration:

     “_Whenever she spoke in a low voice_”
]

Mrs. Bennet was really in a most pitiable state. The very mention of
anything concerning the match threw her into an agony of ill-humour, and
wherever she went she was sure of hearing it talked of. The sight of
Miss Lucas was odious to her. As her successor in that house, she
regarded her with jealous abhorrence. Whenever Charlotte came to see
them, she concluded her to be anticipating the hour of possession; and
whenever she spoke in a low voice to Mr. Collins, was convinced that
they were talking of the Longbourn estate, and resolving to turn herself
and her daughters out of the house as soon as Mr. Bennet was dead. She
complained bitterly of all this to her husband.

“Indeed, Mr. Bennet,” said she, “it is very hard to think that Charlotte
Lucas should ever be mistress of this house, that _I_ should be forced
to make way for _her_, and live to see her take my place in it!”

“My dear, do not give way to such gloomy thoughts. Let us hope for
better things. Let us flatter ourselves that _I_ may be the survivor.”

This was not very consoling to Mrs. Bennet; and, therefore, instead of
making any answer, she went on as before.

“I cannot bear to think that they should have all this estate. If it was
not for the entail, I should not mind it.”

“What should not you mind?”

“I should not mind anything at all.”

“Let us be thankful that you are preserved from a state of such
insensibility.”

“I never can be thankful, Mr. Bennet, for anything about the entail. How
anyone could have the conscience to entail away an estate from one’s own
daughters I cannot understand; and all for the sake of Mr. Collins, too!
Why should _he_ have it more than anybody else?”

“I leave it to yourself to determine,” said Mr. Bennet.




[Illustration]




CHAPTER XXIV.


[Illustration]

Miss Bingley’s letter arrived, and put an end to doubt. The very first
sentence conveyed the assurance of their being all settled in London for
the winter, and concluded with her brother’s regret at not having had
time to pay his respects to his friends in Hertfordshire before he left
the country.

Hope was over, entirely over; and when Jane could attend to the rest of
the letter, she found little, except the professed affection of the
writer, that could give her any comfort. Miss Darcy’s praise occupied
the chief of it. Her many attractions were again dwelt on; and Caroline
boasted joyfully of their increasing intimacy, and ventured to predict
the accomplishment of the wishes which had been unfolded in her former
letter. She wrote also with great pleasure of her brother’s being an
inmate of Mr. Darcy’s house, and mentioned with raptures some plans of
the latter with regard to new furniture.

Elizabeth, to whom Jane very soon communicated the chief of all this,
heard it in silent indignation. Her heart was divided between concern
for her sister and resentment against all others. To Caroline’s
assertion of her brother’s being partial to Miss Darcy, she paid no
credit. That he was really fond of Jane, she doubted no more than she
had ever done; and much as she had always been disposed to like him, she
could not think without anger, hardly without contempt, on that easiness
of temper, that want of proper resolution, which now made him the slave
of his designing friends, and led him to sacrifice his own happiness to
the caprice of their inclinations. Had his own happiness, however, been
the only sacrifice, he might have been allowed to sport with it in
whatever manner he thought best; but her sister’s was involved in it, as
she thought he must be sensible himself. It was a subject, in short, on
which reflection would be long indulged, and must be unavailing. She
could think of nothing else; and yet, whether Bingley’s regard had
really died away, or were suppressed by his friends’ interference;
whether he had been aware of Jane’s attachment, or whether it had
escaped his observation; whichever were the case, though her opinion of
him must be materially affected by the difference, her sister’s
situation remained the same, her peace equally wounded.

A day or two passed before Jane had courage to speak of her feelings to
Elizabeth; but at last, on Mrs. Bennet’s leaving them together, after a
longer irritation than usual about Netherfield and its master, she could
not help saying,--

“O that my dear mother had more command over herself! she can have no
idea of the pain she gives me by her continual reflections on him. But I
will not repine. It cannot last long. He will be forgot, and we shall
all be as we were before.”

Elizabeth looked at her sister with incredulous solicitude, but said
nothing.

“You doubt me,” cried Jane, slightly colouring; “indeed, you have no
reason. He may live in my memory as the most amiable man of my
acquaintance but that is all. I have nothing either to hope or fear, and
nothing to reproach him with. Thank God I have not _that_ pain. A little
time, therefore--I shall certainly try to get the better----”

With a stronger voice she soon added, “I have this comfort immediately,
that it has not been more than an error of fancy on my side, and that it
has done no harm to anyone but myself.”

“My dear Jane,” exclaimed Elizabeth, “you are too good. Your sweetness
and disinterestedness are really angelic; I do not know what to say to
you. I feel as if I had never done you justice, or loved you as you
deserve.”

Miss Bennet eagerly disclaimed all extraordinary merit, and threw back
the praise on her sister’s warm affection.

“Nay,” said Elizabeth, “this is not fair. _You_ wish to think all the
world respectable, and are hurt if I speak ill of anybody. _I_ only want
to think _you_ perfect, and you set yourself against it. Do not be
afraid of my running into any excess, of my encroaching on your
privilege of universal good-will. You need not. There are few people
whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see
of the world the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms
my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the
little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of either merit
or sense. I have met with two instances lately: one I will not mention,
the other is Charlotte’s marriage. It is unaccountable! in every view it
is unaccountable!”

“My dear Lizzy, do not give way to such feelings as these. They will
ruin your happiness. You do not make allowance enough for difference of
situation and temper. Consider Mr. Collins’s respectability, and
Charlotte’s prudent, steady character. Remember that she is one of a
large family; that as to fortune it is a most eligible match; and be
ready to believe, for everybody’s sake, that she may feel something like
regard and esteem for our cousin.”

“To oblige you, I would try to believe almost anything, but no one else
could be benefited by such a belief as this; for were I persuaded that
Charlotte had any regard for him, I should only think worse of her
understanding than I now do of her heart. My dear Jane, Mr. Collins is a
conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man: you know he is, as well as
I do; and you must feel, as well as I do, that the woman who marries him
cannot have a proper way of thinking. You shall not defend her, though
it is Charlotte Lucas. You shall not, for the sake of one individual,
change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavour to persuade
yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of
danger security for happiness.”

“I must think your language too strong in speaking of both,” replied
Jane; “and I hope you will be convinced of it, by seeing them happy
together. But enough of this. You alluded to something else. You
mentioned _two_ instances. I cannot misunderstand you, but I entreat
you, dear Lizzy, not to pain me by thinking _that person_ to blame, and
saying your opinion of him is sunk. We must not be so ready to fancy
ourselves intentionally injured. We must not expect a lively young man
to be always so guarded and circumspect. It is very often nothing but
our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than
it does.”

“And men take care that they should.”

“If it is designedly done, they cannot be justified; but I have no idea
of there being so much design in the world as some persons imagine.”

“I am far from attributing any part of Mr. Bingley’s conduct to design,”
said Elizabeth; “but, without scheming to do wrong, or to make others
unhappy, there may be error and there may be misery. Thoughtlessness,
want of attention to other people’s feelings, and want of resolution,
will do the business.”

“And do you impute it to either of those?”

“Yes; to the last. But if I go on I shall displease you by saying what I
think of persons you esteem. Stop me, whilst you can.”

“You persist, then, in supposing his sisters influence him?”

“Yes, in conjunction with his friend.”

“I cannot believe it. Why should they try to influence him? They can
only wish his happiness; and if he is attached to me no other woman can
secure it.”

“Your first position is false. They may wish many things besides his
happiness: they may wish his increase of wealth and consequence; they
may wish him to marry a girl who has all the importance of money, great
connections, and pride.”

“Beyond a doubt they do wish him to choose Miss Darcy,” replied Jane;
“but this may be from better feelings than you are supposing. They have
known her much longer than they have known me; no wonder if they love
her better. But, whatever may be their own wishes, it is very unlikely
they should have opposed their brother’s. What sister would think
herself at liberty to do it, unless there were something very
objectionable? If they believed him attached to me they would not try to
part us; if he were so, they could not succeed. By supposing such an
affection, you make everybody acting unnaturally and wrong, and me most
unhappy. Do not distress me by the idea. I am not ashamed of having been
mistaken--or, at least, it is slight, it is nothing in comparison of
what I should feel in thinking ill of him or his sisters. Let me take it
in the best light, in the light in which it may be understood.”

Elizabeth could not oppose such a wish; and from this time Mr. Bingley’s
name was scarcely ever mentioned between them.

Mrs. Bennet still continued to wonder and repine at his returning no
more; and though a day seldom passed in which Elizabeth did not account
for it clearly, there seemed little chance of her ever considering it
with less perplexity. Her daughter endeavoured to convince her of what
she did not believe herself, that his attentions to Jane had been merely
the effect of a common and transient liking, which ceased when he saw
her no more; but though the probability of the statement was admitted at
the time, she had the same story to repeat every day. Mrs. Bennet’s best
comfort was, that Mr. Bingley must be down again in the summer.

Mr. Bennet treated the matter differently. “So, Lizzy,” said he, one
day, “your sister is crossed in love, I find. I congratulate her. Next
to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and
then. It is something to think of, and gives her a sort of distinction
among her companions. When is your turn to come? You will hardly bear to
be long outdone by Jane. Now is your time. Here are officers enough at
Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country. Let Wickham
be your man. He is a pleasant fellow, and would jilt you creditably.”

“Thank you, sir, but a less agreeable man would satisfy me. We must not
all expect Jane’s good fortune.”

“True,” said Mr. Bennet; “but it is a comfort to think that, whatever of
that kind may befall you, you have an affectionate mother who will
always make the most of it.”

Mr. Wickham’s society was of material service in dispelling the gloom
which the late perverse occurrences had thrown on many of the Longbourn
family. They saw him often, and to his other recommendations was now
added that of general unreserve. The whole of what Elizabeth had already
heard, his claims on Mr. Darcy, and all that he had suffered from him,
was now openly acknowledged and publicly canvassed; and everybody was
pleased to think how much they had always disliked Mr. Darcy before they
had known anything of the matter.

Miss Bennet was the only creature who could suppose there might be any
extenuating circumstances in the case unknown to the society of
Hertfordshire: her mild and steady candour always pleaded for
allowances, and urged the possibility of mistakes; but by everybody else
Mr. Darcy was c

#include "llama.h"

#include "llama-impl.h"

#include "llama-chat.h"
#include "llama-context.h"
#include "llama-mmap.h"
#include "llama-vocab.h"
#include "llama-model-loader.h"
#include "llama-model-saver.h"
#include "llama-model.h"

#include "ggml.h"
#include "ggml-cpp.h"
#include "ggml-backend.h"
#include "gguf.h"

#include <algorithm>
#include <cassert>
#include <cinttypes>
#include <cstddef>
#include <cstdint>
#include <cstdio>
#include <cstring>
#include <ctime>
#include <stdexcept>
#include <vector>

#if defined(_MSC_VER)
#pragma warning(disable: 4244 4267) // possible loss of data
#endif

//
// interface implementation
//

const char * llama_flash_attn_type_name(enum llama_flash_attn_type flash_attn_type) {
    switch (flash_attn_type) {
        case LLAMA_FLASH_ATTN_TYPE_AUTO:
            return "auto";
        case LLAMA_FLASH_ATTN_TYPE_DISABLED:
            return "disabled";
        case LLAMA_FLASH_ATTN_TYPE_ENABLED:
            return "enabled";
    }
    GGML_ABORT("fatal error");
}

const char * llama_load_mode_name(enum llama_load_mode load_mode) {
    switch (load_mode) {
        case LLAMA_LOAD_MODE_AUTO:
            return "auto";
        case LLAMA_LOAD_MODE_NONE:
            return "none";
        case LLAMA_LOAD_MODE_MMAP:
            return "mmap";
        case LLAMA_LOAD_MODE_MLOCK:
            return "mlock";
        case LLAMA_LOAD_MODE_MMAP_MLOCK:
            return "mmap+mlock";
        case LLAMA_LOAD_MODE_DIRECT_IO:
            return "dio";
    }
    GGML_ABORT("fatal error");
}

enum llama_load_mode llama_load_mode_from_str(const char * str) {
    if (std::strcmp(str, "auto")       == 0) { return LLAMA_LOAD_MODE_AUTO;       }
    if (std::strcmp(str, "none")       == 0) { return LLAMA_LOAD_MODE_NONE;       }
    if (std::strcmp(str, "mmap")       == 0) { return LLAMA_LOAD_MODE_MMAP;       }
    if (std::strcmp(str, "mlock")      == 0) { return LLAMA_LOAD_MODE_MLOCK;      }
    if (std::strcmp(str, "mmap+mlock") == 0) { return LLAMA_LOAD_MODE_MMAP_MLOCK; }
    if (std::strcmp(str, "dio")        == 0) { return LLAMA_LOAD_MODE_DIRECT_IO;  }
    throw std::invalid_argument(std::string("unknown load mode: ") + str);
}

struct llama_sampler_chain_params llama_sampler_chain_default_params() {
    struct llama_sampler_chain_params result = {
        /*.no_perf =*/ true,
    };

    return result;
}

size_t llama_max_devices(void) {
    return 16;
}

size_t llama_max_tensor_buft_overrides() {
    return 4096;
}

bool llama_supports_mmap(void) {
    return llama_mmap::SUPPORTED;
}

bool llama_supports_mlock(void) {
    return llama_mlock::SUPPORTED;
}

bool llama_supports_gpu_offload(void) {
    if (!ggml_backend_reg_count()) {
        ggml_backend_load_all();
    }
    return ggml_backend_dev_by_type(GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_GPU) != nullptr ||
           ggml_backend_dev_by_type(GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_IGPU) != nullptr ||
           llama_supports_rpc();
}

bool llama_supports_rpc(void) {
    if (!ggml_backend_reg_count()) {
        ggml_backend_load_all();
    }
    return ggml_backend_reg_by_name("RPC") != nullptr;
}

const char * llama_version(void) {
    return LLAMA_VERSION;
}

void llama_backend_init(void) {
    ggml_time_init();

    // needed to initialize f16 tables
    {
        struct ggml_init_params params = { 0, NULL, false };
        struct ggml_context * ctx = ggml_init(params);
        ggml_free(ctx);
    }

    if (!ggml_backend_reg_count()) {
        ggml_backend_load_all();
    }
}

void llama_numa_init(enum ggml_numa_strategy numa) {
    if (numa != GGML_NUMA_STRATEGY_DISABLED) {
        auto * dev = ggml_backend_dev_by_type(GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU);
        GGML_ASSERT(dev && "CPU backend is not loaded");
        auto * reg = ggml_backend_dev_backend_reg(dev);
        auto * numa_init_fn = (decltype(ggml_numa_init) *) ggml_backend_reg_get_proc_address(reg, "ggml_backend_cpu_numa_init");
        if (numa_init_fn) {
            numa_init_fn(numa);
        }
    }
}

void llama_backend_free(void) {
    ggml_quantize_free();
}

int64_t llama_time_us(void) {
    return ggml_time_us();
}

// returns true on success
static bool llama_prepare_model_devices(const llama_model_params & params, llama_model * model) {
    // create list of devices to use with this model
    if (params.devices) {
        if (params.split_mode == LLAMA_SPLIT_MODE_TENSOR) {
            size_t n_devs = 0;
            while (params.devices[n_devs]) {
                n_devs++;
            }
            if (n_devs == 0) {
                LLAMA_LOG_ERROR("%s: LLAMA_SPLIT_MODE_TENSOR needs >= 1 devices\n", __func__);
                return false;
            }
            LLAMA_LOG_INFO("%s: creating a Meta device with %zu devices\n", __func__, n_devs);
            for (size_t i = 0; i < n_devs; ++i) {
                LLAMA_LOG_INFO("%s: - device %zu: %s\n", __func__, i, ggml_backend_dev_name(params.devices[i]));
            }
            model->get_split_state_ud.n_devices = n_devs;
            model->get_split_state_ud.model = model;
            model->devices.push_back({
                true, ggml_backend_meta_device(
                params.devices, n_devs, llama_meta_device_get_split_state, &model->get_split_state_ud)
            });
        } else {
            for (ggml_backend_dev_t * dev = params.devices; *dev; ++dev) {
                model->devices.push_back({false, *dev});
            }
        }
    } else {
        // default device selection

        // build list of available devices
        std::vector<llama_device> gpus;
        std::vector<llama_device> igpus;
        std::vector<llama_device> rpc_servers;

        if (params.split_mode == LLAMA_SPLIT_MODE_TENSOR) {
            std::vector<ggml_backend_dev_t> devs;
            devs.reserve(ggml_backend_dev_count());
            for (size_t i = 0; i < ggml_backend_dev_count(); ++i) {
                auto * dev = ggml_backend_dev_get(i);
                if (ggml_backend_dev_buffer_type(dev) == ggml_backend_cpu_buffer_type()) {
                    LLAMA_LOG_INFO("%s: skipping %s (%s) for tensor parallelism\n", __func__, ggml_backend_dev_name(dev), ggml_backend_dev_description(dev));
                    continue;
                }
                devs.push_back(dev);
            }
            if (devs.empty()) {
                LLAMA_LOG_ERROR("%s: LLAMA_SPLIT_MODE_TENSOR needs >= 1 devices\n", __func__);
                return false;
            }

            LLAMA_LOG_INFO("%s: creating a Meta device for tensor parallelism from %zu devices:\n", __func__, devs.size());
            for (size_t i = 0; i < devs.size(); ++i) {
                LLAMA_LOG_INFO("%s: - device %zu: %s (%s)\n", __func__, i, ggml_backend_dev_name(devs[i]), ggml_backend_dev_description(devs[i]));
            }

            GGML_ASSERT(!devs.empty());
            model->get_split_state_ud.n_devices = devs.size();
            model->get_split_state_ud.model     = model;
            gpus.push_back({
                true, ggml_backend_meta_device(
                devs.data(), devs.size(), llama_meta_device_get_split_state, &model->get_split_state_ud)
            });
        } else {
            for (size_t i = 0; i < ggml_backend_dev_count(); ++i) {
                ggml_backend_dev_t dev = ggml_backend_dev_get(i);
                switch (ggml_backend_dev_type(dev)) {
                    case GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU:
                    case GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_ACCEL:
                        // skip CPU backends since they are handled separately
                        break;

                    case GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_GPU: {
                        ggml_backend_reg_t reg = ggml_backend_dev_backend_reg(dev);
                        if (ggml_backend_reg_name(reg) == std::string("RPC")) {
                            rpc_servers.push_back({false, dev});
                        } else {
                            // check if there is already a GPU with the same device id
                            ggml_backend_dev_props props;
                            ggml_backend_dev_get_props(dev, &props);
                            auto it = std::find_if(gpus.begin(), gpus.end(), [&props](const llama_device & d) {
                                ggml_backend_dev_props d_props;
                                ggml_backend_dev_get_props(d.dev, &d_props);
                                if (props.device_id && d_props.device_id) {
                                    return strcmp(props.device_id, d_props.device_id) == 0;
                                }
                                return false;
                            });

                            if (it != gpus.end()) {
                                LLAMA_LOG_INFO("%s: skipping device %s (%s) with id %s - already using device %s (%s) with the same id\n",
                                        __func__,
                                        ggml_backend_dev_name(dev), ggml_backend_dev_description(dev),
                                        props.device_id ? props.device_id : "unknown id",
                                        ggml_backend_dev_name(it->dev), ggml_backend_dev_description(it->dev));
                            } else {
                                gpus.push_back({false, dev});
                            }
                        }
                        break;
                    }

                    case GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_IGPU:
                        // igpus.empty() - workaround for integrated devices seen by multiple backends
                        // ref: https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/pull/23897
                        // ggml_backend_dev_backend_reg - allow devices of the same backend regardless if integrated
                        // ref: https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/pull/23897#issuecomment-5264222997
                        if (igpus.empty() || ggml_backend_dev_backend_reg(dev) == ggml_backend_dev_backend_reg(igpus.back().dev)) {
                            igpus.push_back({false, dev});
                        }
                        break;
                    case GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_META:
                        GGML_ABORT("fatal error");
                }
            }
        }

        // add RPC servers at the front of the list to minimize network transfers
        model->devices.insert(model->devices.begin(), rpc_servers.begin(), rpc_servers.end());

        // add GPUs
        model->devices.insert(model->devices.end(), gpus.begin(), gpus.end());

        // add integrated GPUs only if no discrete GPUs were found
        // (RPC servers do not count, otherwise the local iGPU would be dropped on iGPU+RPC setups)
        if (gpus.empty()) {
            model->devices.insert(model->devices.end(), igpus.begin(), igpus.end());
        }
    }

    // if using single GPU mode, remove all except the main GPU
    if (params.split_mode == LLAMA_SPLIT_MODE_NONE && !model->devices.empty()) {
        if (params.main_gpu < 0) {
            model->devices.clear();
        } else {
            if (params.main_gpu >= (int)model->devices.size()) {
                LLAMA_LOG_ERROR("%s: invalid value for main_gpu: %d (available devices: %zu)\n", __func__, params.main_gpu, model->devices.size());
                return false;
            }
            llama_device main_gpu = model->devices[params.main_gpu];
            model->devices.clear();
            model->devices.push_back(main_gpu);
        }
    }

    for (const auto & dev : model->devices) {
        ggml_backend_dev_props props;
        ggml_backend_dev_get_props(dev.dev, &props);
        LLAMA_LOG_INFO("%s: using device %s (%s) (%s) - %zu MiB free\n", __func__,
                ggml_backend_dev_name(dev.dev), ggml_backend_dev_description(dev.dev),
                props.device_id ? props.device_id : "unknown id",
                props.memory_free/1024/1024);
    }

    return true;
}

// Returns 0 on success, -1 on error, and -2 on cancellation via llama_progress_callback
static std::pair<int, llama_model *> llama_model_load(struct gguf_context * metadata, llama_model_set_tensor_data_t set_tensor_data, void * set_tensor_data_ud,
        const std::string & fname, std::vector<std::string> & splits, FILE * file, llama_model_params & params) {
    try {
        llama_model_loader ml(metadata, set_tensor_data, set_tensor_data_ud, fname, splits, file, params.load_mode,
            params.check_tensors, params.no_alloc, params.load_mtp, params.kv_overrides, params.tensor_buft_overrides);

        ml.print_info();
        std::unique_ptr<llama_model> model_ptr(llama_model_create(ml, params));

        bool ok = llama_prepare_model_devices(params, model_ptr.get());
        if (!ok) {
            return {-1, nullptr};
        }

        auto * model = dynamic_cast<llama_model_base *>(model_ptr.get());
        if (model == nullptr) {
            GGML_ABORT("fatal error: model does not implement llama_model_base");
        }

        // loading time will be recalculated after the first eval, so
        // we take page faults deferred by mmap() into consideration
        model->t_load_us = 0;
        time_meas tm(model->t_load_us);

        model->t_start_us = tm.t_start_us;

        model->hparams.vocab_only = params.vocab_only;
        model->hparams.no_alloc   = params.no_alloc;

        try {
            model->load_hparams(ml);
        } catch(const std::exception & e) {
            throw std::runtime_error("error loading model hyperparameters: " + std::string(e.what()));
        }
        if (model->arch == LLM_ARCH_CLIP) {
            throw std::runtime_error("CLIP cannot be used as main model, use it with --mmproj instead");
        }
        try {
            model->load_vocab(ml);
        } catch(const std::exception & e) {
            throw std::runtime_error("error loading model vocabulary: " + std::string(e.what()));
        }

        model->load_stats(ml);
        model->print_info();

        if (params.vocab_only) {
            LLAMA_LOG_INFO("%s: vocab only - skipping tensors\n", __func__);
            return {0, model_ptr.release()};
        }

        if (!model->load_tensors(ml)) {
            return {-2, nullptr};
        }

        return {0, model_ptr.release()};
    } catch (const std::exception & err) {
        LLAMA_LOG_ERROR("%s: error loading model: %s\n", __func__, err.what());
        return {-1, nullptr};
    }
}

static struct llama_model * llama_model_load_from_file_impl(
        struct gguf_context * metadata,
        llama_model_set_tensor_data_t set_tensor_data,
        void * set_tensor_data_ud,
        const std::string & path_model,
        std::vector<std::string> & splits,
        FILE * file,
        struct llama_model_params params) {
    {
        int n_sources_defined = 0;
        if (metadata != nullptr) {
            n_sources_defined++;
        }
        if (!path_model.empty()) {
            n_sources_defined++;
        }
        if (file != nullptr) {
            n_sources_defined++;
        }
        if (n_sources_defined != 1) {
            LLAMA_LOG_ERROR("%s: exactly one out metadata, path_model, and file must be defined\n", __func__);
            return nullptr;
        }
    }
    ggml_time_init();

    if (!params.vocab_only && ggml_backend_reg_count() == 0) {
        LLAMA_LOG_ERROR("%s: no backends are loaded. hint: use ggml_backend_load() or ggml_backend_load_all() to load a backend before calling this function\n", __func__);
        return nullptr;
    }

    unsigned cur_percentage = 0;
    if (params.progress_callback == NULL) {
        params.progress_callback_user_data = &cur_percentage;
        params.progress_callback = [](float progress, void * ctx) {
            unsigned * cur_percentage_p = (unsigned *) ctx;
            unsigned percentage = (unsigned) (100 * progress);
            while (percentage > *cur_percentage_p) {
                *cur_percentage_p = percentage;
                LLAMA_LOG_CONT(".");
                if (percentage >= 100) {
                    LLAMA_LOG_CONT("\n");
                }
            }
            return true;
        };
    }

    const auto [status, model] = llama_model_load(metadata, set_tensor_data, set_tensor_data_ud, path_model, splits, file, params);
    GGML_ASSERT(status <= 0);
    if (status < 0) {
        if (status == -1) {
            LLAMA_LOG_ERROR("%s: failed to load model\n", __func__);
        } else if (status == -2) {
            LLAMA_LOG_INFO("%s: cancelled model load\n", __func__);
        }

        if (model) {
            llama_model_free(model);
        }
        return nullptr;
    }

    return model;
}

struct llama_model * llama_model_init_from_user(
        struct gguf_context * metadata,
        llama_model_set_tensor_data_t set_tensor_data,
        void * set_tensor_data_ud,
        struct llama_model_params params) {
    GGML_ASSERT(metadata != nullptr);
    std::string path_model;
    std::vector<std::string> splits = {};
    params.load_mode = LLAMA_LOAD_MODE_NONE;
    params.use_extra_bufts = false;
    return llama_model_load_from_file_impl(metadata, set_tensor_data, set_tensor_data_ud, path_model, splits, /*file*/ nullptr, params);
}
// deprecated
struct llama_model * llama_load_model_from_file(
        const char * path_model,
        struct llama_model_params params) {
    return llama_model_load_from_file(path_model, params);
}

struct llama_model * llama_model_load_from_file(
        const char * path_model,
        struct llama_model_params params) {
    std::vector<std::string> splits = {};
    return llama_model_load_from_file_impl(nullptr, nullptr, nullptr, path_model, splits, /*file*/ nullptr, params);
}

struct llama_model * llama_model_load_from_splits(
        const char ** paths,
        size_t n_paths,
        struct llama_model_params params) {
    std::vector<std::string> splits;
    if (n_paths == 0) {
        LLAMA_LOG_ERROR("%s: list of splits is empty\n", __func__);
        return nullptr;
    }
    splits.reserve(n_paths);
    for (size_t i = 0; i < n_paths; ++i) {
        splits.push_back(paths[i]);
    }
    return llama_model_load_from_file_impl(nullptr, nullptr, nullptr, splits.front(), splits, /*file*/ nullptr, params);
}

struct llama_model * llama_model_load_from_file_ptr(FILE * file, struct llama_model_params params) {
    if (!file) {
        LLAMA_LOG_ERROR("%s: file is NULL\n", __func__);
        return nullptr;
    }
    std::string path_model;
    std::vector<std::string> splits = {};
    return llama_model_load_from_file_impl(nullptr, nullptr, nullptr, path_model, splits, file, params);
}

void llama_model_save_to_file(const struct llama_model * model, const char * path_model) {
    llama_model_saver ms(model);
    ms.add_kv_from_model();
    ms.add_tensors_from_model();
    ms.save(path_model);
}

//
// chat templates
//

int32_t llama_chat_apply_template(
                              const char * tmpl,
         const struct llama_chat_message * chat,
                                  size_t   n_msg,
                                    bool   add_ass,
                                    char * buf,
                                 int32_t   length) {
    const std::string curr_tmpl(tmpl == nullptr ? "chatml" : tmpl);

    // format the chat to string
    std::vector<const llama_chat_message *> chat_vec;
    chat_vec.resize(n_msg);
    for (size_t i = 0; i < n_msg; i++) {
        chat_vec[i] = &chat[i];
    }

    std::string formatted_chat;
    llm_chat_template detected_tmpl = llm_chat_detect_template(curr_tmpl);
    if (detected_tmpl == LLM_CHAT_TEMPLATE_UNKNOWN) {
        return -1;
    }
    int32_t res = llm_chat_apply_template(detected_tmpl, chat_vec, formatted_chat, add_ass);
    if (res < 0) {
        return res;
    }
    if (buf && length > 0) {
        strncpy(buf, formatted_chat.c_str(), length);
    }
    return res;
}

//
// model split
//

int32_t llama_split_path(
    char * split_path,
    size_t maxlen,
    const char * path_prefix,
    int32_t split_no,
    int32_t split_count) {

    static const char * const SPLIT_PATH_FORMAT = "%s-%05d-of-%05d.gguf";

    const int written = snprintf(
        split_path,
        maxlen,
        SPLIT_PATH_FORMAT,
        path_prefix,
        split_no + 1,
        split_count
    );

    if (written < 0 || (size_t) written >= maxlen) {
        return 0;
    }

    return (int32_t) written;
}

int32_t llama_split_prefix(
    char * split_prefix,
    size_t maxlen,
    const char * split_path,
    int32_t split_no,
    int32_t split_count) {

    const std::string str_split_path(split_path);

    char postfix[32];
    snprintf(postfix, sizeof(postfix), "-%05d-of-%05d.gguf", split_no + 1, split_count);

    const std::string str_postfix(postfix);
    if (str_split_path.size() <= str_postfix.size()) {
        return 0;
    }

    const size_t size_prefix = str_split_path.size() - str_postfix.size();

    if (str_split_path.compare(size_prefix, std::string::npos, str_postfix) == 0) {
        const size_t copy_len = std::min(size_prefix + 1, maxlen);
        snprintf(split_prefix, copy_len, "%s", split_path);

        return (int32_t) size_prefix;
    }

    return 0;
}

const char * llama_print_system_info(void) {
    static std::string s;
    s.clear(); // Clear the string, since it's static, otherwise it will accumulate data from previous calls.

    for (size_t i = 0; i < ggml_backend_reg_count(); i++) {
        auto * reg = ggml_backend_reg_get(i);
        auto * get_features_fn = (ggml_backend_get_features_t) ggml_backend_reg_get_proc_address(reg, "ggml_backend_get_features");
        if (get_features_fn) {
            ggml_backend_feature * features = get_features_fn(reg);
            s += ggml_backend_reg_name(reg);
            s += " : ";
            for (; features->name; features++) {
                s += features->name;
                s += " = ";
                s += features->value;
                s += " | ";
            }
        }
    }

    return s.c_str();
}